Every game that Judge plays in the postseason becomes part of the legacy of maybe the best hitter of his generation. <\/p>\n
The Yankees superstar may win his third AL MVP in five years after a regular season that featured 53 home runs and the slash-line triple crown \u2014 his .331 average, .457 on-base percentage and .688 slugging percentage all the best in the majors \u2014 but he has not yet had the same kind of presence or same kind of moments in October.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"Aaron](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/10-05-25-new-york-112903887_4980f9.jpg\")
Aaron Judge #99 of the New York Yankees reacts after he strikes out swinging during the fourth inning of Game 2. Charles Wenzelberg\/New York Post<\/p>\n
Statistically, Judge is hitting well this postseason: Against the Red Sox and Blue Jays, he has gone 8-for-18 (.444) with two walks.<\/p>\n
But his only extra-base hit has been a double, and he has totaled two runs batted in (which might require an asterisk, those two arising from Boston\u2019s Jarren Duran dropping a fly ball off Judge\u2019s bat and an RBI single in the seventh Sunday to cut the deficit to 13-3). <\/p>\n
He scored his first two runs of the playoffs Sunday, when he rounded the bases on a Cody Bellinger home run that closed the gap to 12-2 and scored on a Giancarlo Stanton single that made it 13-7. <\/p>\n
Judge\u2019s production simply has not led to enough Yankees production.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cJust trying to do my job,\u201d Judge said as his club was pushed to the brink. \u201cGet on base, drive guys in when they\u2019re out there. Not trying to do too much, help this team.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s been great for us all year long is just kind of pass the baton, kind of what we did there late in the game. \u2026 Got to keep that going.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
In Game 2, Judge walked in the first inning \u2014 the only base runner the Yankees would manage against Trey Yesavage. <\/p>\n
Judge came up again in the fourth, worked a full count and then chased a high fastball for his fourth strikeout of October. By the time he received his next at-bat \u2014 which became an infield single in the sixth \u2014 the game was all but over.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In a postseason in which Judge\u2019s arm, recovering from a flexor strain, had burned him once when he allowed an extra base against the Red Sox, his glove failed him Sunday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"Aaron](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/10-05-25-new-york-112898726_829db9.jpg\")
Aaron Judge of the Yankees reacts at the end of the first inning.
Charles Wenzelberg\/New York Post<\/p>\n
In the second inning, Daulton Varsho lined a shot over Ben Rice\u2019s head. Judge tried to cut the ball off before it reached the wall along the right field line \u2014 knowing both that Varsho is fast and that the Jays would try to test Judge\u2019s arm that is not full strength \u2014 and he and the ball reached the wall at about the same time.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cTook a tricky hop off of it,\u201d said Judge, who watched the ball squeeze in between his legs and roll to the outfield wall, enabling Varsho to take third.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
As it turned out, which base Varsho occupied did not matter: Ernie Clement smacked the first pitch he saw from Max Fried for a two-run homer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Judge is not playing poorly. But with the Yankees one loss from elimination, they need more from their best player.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been playing with our backs against the wall all year, so it\u2019s nothing new,\u201d Judge said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO \u2014 There are 26 players on each side, hundreds of pitches thrown in each game and incalculable…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":280830,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[3090,5229,1266,61637,405,403,2228,5226,5225,5228,5227,62,1290,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-280829","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-aaron-judge","9":"tag-america","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-mlb-playoffs","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-city","14":"tag-new-york-yankees","15":"tag-newyork","16":"tag-newyorkcity","17":"tag-ny","18":"tag-nyc","19":"tag-sports","20":"tag-toronto-blue-jays","21":"tag-united-states","22":"tag-united-states-of-america","23":"tag-unitedstates","24":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","25":"tag-us","26":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115325003877441114","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280829\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/280830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}