New York–there were never any questions aaron judgeHis fitness is particularly appropriate for October, but such is life for the biggest man in the biggest city whose biggest failures came at the biggest times. The burden of greatness is heavy. The burden of greatness in New York is planetary. And for those who rant about the judges’ postseason rants — on hot take shows and sports-talk radio and at bars and family dinners and everywhere else, really, anyone talks about it. Yankees – It was never about whether they were fair or not. After all, his performance had been undeniably poor.
The judge never paid any attention to it because he did not force himself to do so. He cares about winning. He cares about success. He cares more about all that than those who criticize him, mock him, ridicule him, rely on his past performances as if they were predicting an unknown future. The Judge always brushed aside those conflicts, not just because he needed to, but because that’s how he lives, intentionally boring and boringly purposeful. He believed that the moment would present itself and he would meet her. And why wouldn’t he think so? Every other endeavor in his baseball life had treated him the same way.
Regardless of how the American League Division Series plays out between the Yankees and toronto blue jays Break, what Judge did Tuesday night was the kind of thing that should put to rest questions about his October eligibility. It won’t happen, because it could never happen, but the bemused, astonished, childlike giggles of everyone in the Yankees clubhouse that told the story of Tuesday night’s season-saving 9-6 win against the Blue Jays blew Judge away.
Poor louis verlandThe right-handed reliever entered the game in the fourth inning to preserve the Blue Jays’ 6–3 lead, which could have clinched their spot in the AL Championship Series. He fooled Judge on a 90 mph curveball and then blasted a 100 mph fastball past him and then threw another fastball up and inside at 100. Like, really inside. Like, 5.9 inches off the inside corner of the plate, in the triple digits, with tremendous carries, an absolute nightmare of a pitch for any hitter at any time in the history of the game to hit, let alone punish.
About 400 feet later, when the ball hit the left field foul pole – the one place in Judge’s world where it is actually reasonable for anything to go wrong – no one on the field could believe it. The absurdity of it all — manipulating his 6-foot-7, 282-pound body to completely change his standard bat path, turn 100, and keep it fair — was not lost on Worland, the Yankees who watched replays of the swing in the dugout, or the 47,399 witnesses at Yankee Stadium.
“He made a really good pitch look really bad,” Worland said.
All season long, the judges have been doing just that. His 11 playoff hits lead in MLB. For all the ugliness of attacking with the bases loaded in Game 1 of this ALDS, his at-bats have been competitive throughout October. What he did with Worland was a climax, exactly what the Yankees needed to see another day.
“You can feel it in your bones,” Yankees reliever Tim Hill Said. “It was crazy. It was amazing. I mean, just the pitch he hit. All of that. I’m sure my guy on the other side is questioning everything.”
Yes, pitching to Aaron Judge is the kind of thing that causes existential crises. Before Tuesday, he had never thrown a pitch 100 mph or faster for a home run. He hit 53 home runs this season – and none on pitches outside the rule book strike zone. Before Tuesday, the Blue Jays were 39-0 in games this season in which they have led by at least five runs.
It is impossible to overstate how out of character this was for the judge. He takes pride in good swing decisions because he knows how important they are. On pitches in the strike zone this season, Judge batted .400, 40 points more than the next best hitter. He slumped to .867, 115 points more shohei ohtaniIn his 214 plate appearances this year, which ended on pitches outside rule book territory, Judge batted .109 and drove in one run. The whole year. He did not have a single extra-base hit on such pitches.
One of the greatest home runs of the two-time MVP’s career, favored for a third win this year, was something he has never done. And if there’s a willingness to step out of your comfort zone and in the process do something that very few people in the history of baseball will be physically capable of doing, it doesn’t show that Judge is not only capable of success in October, but destined for it, well, nothing will. And that’s okay with him. He knows that emotion is the fuel that fuels predictions of inevitable disappointment, not consistency or logic.
“I get yelled at for attacking him off the field, but now I’m praised for it,” Judge said. “It’s a game. You’ve got to go out there and play. I don’t care what the numbers say or where something was. I’m just trying to throw a good swing out there on a good pitch, and that’s what I feel good about.”
Inside the Yankees clubhouse, they have been eager for Judge to schedule such a game, to further validate their unwavering faith in him. The past is undeniable. Judge’s postseason OPS is more than 250 points lower than the regular season. The Yankees have not won a championship during their 10 years in the big leagues. It’s real, and it’s regrettable, and it’s part of his legacy. This is not even the ink with which the future is written, which is why Yankees manager Aaron Boone, with whom Judge is extremely close, said: “I don’t worry about Aaron and his state, even considering the outside noise.”
From Boone’s perch atop the dugout, he had a perfect view of the left field foul pole. As the ball moved throughout the night, the judges stood near home plate. He didn’t pull Carlton Fisk, trying to wave him off impartially. He was just waiting for it to land.
And when that happened, having helped raise his batting average to .500 this postseason and his OPS to 1.304 — for the record, nearly 300 points better than his career regular season OPS — Judge unwrapped a mini-bat flip and began his jog around the bases. When he returned to the dugout, teammates lined up and greeted him with a full high-five line.
Boone said, “He’s the real deal, and as beloved a player as I’ve ever been among his teammates.” “They all admire him, respect him, respect him, want his approval, and it’s just a credit to who Aaron is and how he does things.”
After the final throw, Judge took another step toward the end of the dugout. There was a television camera waiting. The judge saw him, gestured and turned away. After this he returned and stared at the audience once more. This was not an accident. The judge does nothing. It was a message, a reminder, a siren to all who did not believe.
The Yankees were still alive. And as long as that’s the case, he plans to carry them. Even in October.
