Aaron Judge can’t escape his playoff fun-house mirror

Aaron Judge walks with franchise immortals Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, Joe DiMaggio, Lou Gehrig and Yogi Berra when it comes to the regular season. He is the only man wearing the pinstripe suit with a chance to break into this Pantheon of Yankees. 

He is a Forever Yankee. 

But when it comes to the postseason, the greatest natural offensive force in the game since The Mick’s heyday more than six decades ago walks with the likes of Martin Maldonado and Cody Bellinger. 

The numbers seem more an optical illusion than a reflection of reality. But after Monday’s 1-for-3 that included an eighth-inning infield single, a walk and a strikeout in his team’s 4-2 ALDS Game 2 defeat to the Royals that squared the series ahead of a pair in Kansas City, Judge has the second highest strikeout rate in postseason history among batters with at least 200 plate appearances at 33.4 percent, second to Maldonado’s 34.2 and just ahead of Bellinger’s 32.6. 

Judge is 1-for-7 in this series with four strikeouts in nine times at the plate. Cole Ragans struck him out with runners on first and second and none out in the first inning of this one after Michael Wacha struck him out with two on in the first in Game 1. The Yankees did not score in either opening inning. 

“If I’m not hitting 1.000, I’m not feeling good,” Judge said. “I’ve just got to keep getting on for the guys behind me and if they get on I have to drive them in. 

“You play nine innings and it’s a long ballgame, so you’d kind of like to get it there in the first and give your team the lead but haven’t been able to come through so we’ll do it the next time.” 

The Yankees’ fate is not tied exclusively to Judge. The club is 3-for-19 with runners in scoring position while leaving 19 men on. But he is certainly aware that Yankees get their stripes collecting rings. He also is aware of his responsibility. 

“Well, it eats at me every time we don’t finish the job,” Judge said before the series commenced. “I take a lot of responsibility for that, being on the team. 

“If we don’t win it all, I feel like it’s my fault.” 

The first sentence of Judge’s Hagiography will reference his American League home run record of 62 in 2022 and his 58-homer season of 2024. It will include untold acts of future regular season dominance that lay in waiting for this unique 32-year-old who seems to get better by the season. 

But the same way Ted Williams’ 5-for-25 (five singles) in his only World Series appearance in 1946 in Boston’s seven-game defeat to St. Louis was always referenced prominently in his story, Judge will suffer a similar fate if he cannot twist history his way. 

There is time, of course. But the burden mounts as No. 99 faces far superior pitching in the postseason than in the regular season. It is not quite the same game. Goals are harder to come by in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Hits and home runs are harder to come by in baseball’s tournament. It is not quite the same game, though Judge protests, and probably too much. 

“It’s just about going out there and trying to do your job. Guys are on base, try to drive them in. If not, move them over,” the center fielder said. “Try to do the things we’ve been doing all year. 

“It’s really not about putting any pressure on anybody. It’s the same game we’ve been playing all year.” 

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If there are postseason moments for Judge, they are few and far between. The ring display remains barren and one of the reasons, at least in 2022 when the Yankees were swept by the Astros in the ALCS was Judge going 1-for-22 in the series. 

Entering Game 2, Judge was slashing .206/.307/.451 with a .758 OPS and 13 home runs and 25 RBI in 45 games over seven post-season series. In 18 games this decade, it has been a fun-house mirror, the preeminent hitter in the game slashing .135/.207/.338 with a .545 OPS, five homers and eight RBI while striking out 28 times in 82 plate appearances before this one. 

The Forever Yankee has not been able to produce a Forever Swing of the Bat in the postseason. He has not duplicated Mantle’s ninth-inning, game-winning home run off the Cardinals’ Barney Schultz in Game 3 of the 1964 Series that broke a tie with the Babe for the most home runs in what was then known as the Fall Classic. 

With all due re2pect, Judge has not duplicated Derek Jeter’s leadoff home run at Shea in Game 4 of the 2000 Subway Series nor his Mr. November home run against Byung-Hyun Kim with two out and nobody on in the 10th inning of Game 4 in 2001. 

The sample size is not insignificant though Judge can change the narrative at any at-bat. But time is of the essence and time won’t wait forever. The Yankees need their best player to be a difference-maker. 

It is not too much to ask. 

Crossing the threshold into franchise immortality demands a ring. Judge knows it. So does everyone else.