Stephen Vogt made the right choice. Still it was stunning. Still it was, at the least, a little insulting to Aaron Judge.
The Guardians manager had decided to treat ALCS Game 2 as close to an elimination affair as possible and steer with aggressiveness in that direction.
So as the second inning unfolded and the Yankees opened with three straight hits to take a 2-0 lead in trying to take a commanding two-nothing lead in this best-of-seven, Vogt already was warming his best set-up man, Cade Smith.
And when Gleyber Torres popped out to make it one down with second and third, Vogt decided he had to do everything possible to keep the Yankees from scoring even that third run. After all, in the first seven games this year against the Yankees, including the ALCS opener, Cleveland had managed just 15 runs without the help of an extra-inning ghost runner.
Multiple Yankees described what came next as “pick your poison.” But in October 2024, Juan Soto had been way more lethal than Judge, a way tougher out, definitely more likely to deliver a run from third. So Vogt walked Soto to face the hitting monster who was pitched around and intentionally walked more than anyone this season.
“You want to try to get two outs with one pitch,” Vogt said. “You want to try to find a way to get out of that inning.”
The previous day in the NLCS, the Dodgers loaded the bases intentionally in front of Mark Vientos, who said he was insulted by it and responded with a grand slam that keyed a Game 2 Mets victory. Judge insisted he did not feel disrespected.
He did lift a sacrifice fly to make it 3-0. It should not be ignored that it came on a 1-2 pitch from a terrific righty in Smith because Judge is still hitless in his last 21 postseason at-bats when the count reached two strikes.
But the Yankees needed more from Judge. He is their bellwether. As he goes, so often goes the offense and the team. The Yankees have been winning this postseason, but not overly impressively. They are a homer-hitting team and through five postseason games and six innings of ALCS Game 2, they had just five homers and only the first — a two-runner by Torres in the Division Series opener — had not been a solo shot. It is why the Yankees could not open up a game.
And then Judge came up with one on and one out in the seventh with a 4-2 lead. Another tough righty, Hunter Gaddis, threw a 1-1 fastball and Judge hit the hardest ball of this game, 111.3 mph on a towering shot to right-center. It landed in the netting 414 feet away. The Yankees finally had breathing room in this postseason against an overmatched AL Central foe. It helped render Jose Ramirez’s solo homer in the ninth meaningless in a 6-3 triumph.
But it is more than that.
“It just feels right [when Judge stars],” Clay Holmes said. “He’s such a big part of the organization. It’s one of those things where, no matter what’s happened, last at-bat, last 50 at-bats, you know who he’s going to be eventually, and you have a lot of confidence in it. There’s never a time we are doubting him.”
Yes, but October slumps are different from what Judge experienced in April, when there was a long season ahead to erase a slide. Judge did so with 58 homers and what likely will be a second AL MVP. At this time of year, though, your season can end quickly and legacies could go one way or the other just as fast.
Judge was 3-for-15 in this postseason, homerless with one RBI. He had a .204 batting average through 49 postseason games. For the fifth time this postseason on Tuesday, Torres and Soto opened a first inning with hits, passing the baton to Judge to break a game open right away. He failed the first four and here he hit an infield pop-up that shortstop Brayan Rocchio dropped to allow Torres to score.
Still it left Judge 1-for-his-last-22 with runners in scoring position in the playoffs. That certainly provided more information for Vogt to walk Soto and go after Judge in the second inning. And it brought greater resonance to Judge breaking the game open later. Judge insisted that he doesn’t “make any moment too big” even at this time of year. But for the Yankees to get from five postseason wins to 11 and The Canyon of Heroes, they so badly need that Judge homer to be a launching point for him to carry them.
“It was a big swing to kind of give us that cushion,” Aaron Boone said. “I think the bench was pretty pumped when that happened.”
Of course, they were pumped. Judge is the captain, the most fearsome player in the sport and a catalyst. As he goes, so often the Yankees follow. He finally went over the fence in ALCS Game 2. It was worth two runs and breathing room, but will it be worth so much more because it was the start of a Judge tear?
