Yankees' playoff push needs more than Aaron Judge
New York Yankees’ Aaron Judge at batting practice at Yankee Stadium on Oct. 12, 2022. Credit: Newsday/J. Conrad Williams Jr.
It’s difficult to know for certain how many games the Yankees would have won without Aaron Judge during the regular season.
Significantly less than 99 is probably a safe guess. Fortunately for them, he played in 157 of the 162, so they never had to find out. Good thing, too, because Judge by himself was responsible for 24.4% of the team’s home runs, 17.1% of the RBIs and 16.5% of the runs scored in building his case for the American League MVP.
But now that the regular season is over, the Yankees are going to need the Judgettes to get in on the act. The October tournament means playoff-caliber pitching combined with a more strategic attack, i.e., being extra careful with Judge in high-leverage situations.
Which is why the Yankees’ 4-1 victory over the Guardians in Tuesday’s Game 1 of the Division Series was such an encouraging sign for the AL East champs. For the past month or so, Judge was the Greatest Show in Pinstripes, as the baseball world tracked his pursuit of Roger Maris on a daily basis. But with the postseason underway, the Yankees are not just about live cut-ins on national TV to see what Judge does with this next swing.
And Judge’s supporting cast aced their first test Tuesday at the Stadium. On a night when the likely MVP went 0-for-3 with three strikeouts (two looking) and a walk, the Judgettes picked up the slack in rallying from an early 1-0 deficit to bail out Gerrit Cole. Harrison Bader and Anthony Rizzo both drilled home runs, and after Josh Donaldson thought he went deep and got thrown out instead, Jose Trevino provided a sacrifice fly later that same inning to make the gaffe somewhat digestible afterward.
The Yankees haven’t been entirely about Judge this season. It’s only felt like it, from the spectacular collapse of his contract negotiations on Opening Day to him swatting No. 62 in Game 161 last week. And when we weren’t debating his veracity as the “clean” single-season homer king, the conversation shifted to what his next contract would like ($300 million?) and who would be paying Judge that king’s ransom (Giants?).
Winning No. 28, however, is not going to be all about No. 99. And the Yankees excelled Tuesday under that mindset, packaging a well-pitched, (mostly) tightly-defensed game with just enough power and timely hitting. Rizzo already has a World Series ring from his ’16 season with the Cubs, so he’s used to performing in the October spotlight. His two-run blast Tuesday in the sixth inning provided some desperately-needed breathing room for the Yankees’ patchwork bullpen. And Rizzo’s slick glove at first base also made sure a close game didn’t tilt in the wrong direction.
“I think we just talked about the team that we've been all year, about picking each other up,” Rizzo said afterward. “We had the five or six days to talk about that a lot, about how unexpected things are going to happen.”
The “unexpected thing” Rizzo referred to was Steven Kwan’s first-punch homer off Cole in the third inning that put the Guardians up, 1-0. That sent Cole reeling a bit, as he loaded the bases before striking out Andres Gimenez to escape any further damage. But it was Bader who immediately pumped the Yankees back up -- and ignited the Stadium’s sellout crowd -- with his 406-foot laser into the leftfield seats in the bottom half of that same inning.
Judge has owned the Bronx for the last six months. Nearly every trip to the plate stirs “M-V-P” chants. He’s joined legends like Ruth, Gehrig, Mantle and DiMaggio in many of the franchise’s offensive categories. But no one in pinstripes rocked the Stadium any louder than Bader, who showed up nine weeks ago with his right foot in an orthopedic walking boot and didn’t play his first game until Sept. 20.
“I try to show as little emotion as possible just to remain composed,” Bader said. “You like to kind of bottle up emotion to propel yourself forward ... It was really hard when everybody was cheering, admittedly. It was a great moment. I enjoyed it. And again, as soon as it was over, it's right back to locking in. That was my only focus as soon as I kind of let the roller coaster play its course.”
Just as Bader spent much of the past two months healing up with an eye toward the playoffs, Rizzo had to overcome back issues that turned into debilitating post-epidural headaches, putting his October productivity in doubt. Those concerns appear to be behind them now, and based on their Game 1 impact, the Yankees are hoping the rest of the lineup is eager to step out of Judge’s larger-than-life shadow for this title chase.
David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.
