‘I think he’s just in his head’: Why Aaron Judge has disappeared at exactly the wrong time for the Yankees
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Jesse Rogers, ESPN Staff Writer
NEW YORK — Another World Series game, another rough night at the plate for Aaron Judge. After he went 0-for-3 with another strikeout in the New York Yankees‘ Game 3 loss Monday night, New York finds itself in a familiar spot: waiting for its star slugger to break out.
“He’s one swing away,” Yankees hitting coach James Rowson told ESPN on Monday. “I know it’s a big story, but from my standpoint, this guy is one of the best hitters to ever play the game. On any given night the whole narrative gets rewritten.”
But with the Los Angeles Dodgers one win away from a World Series sweep, New York’s superstar slugger is running out of opportunities to flip the script. And those around the sport watching from the scouts’ seats, the executive offices or even just in front of their television sets at home see a specific problem that needs to be solved: Judge is chasing too many pitches outside the zone, and L.A. is taking advantage of it.
“The Dodgers are feeding him spin, spin, spin that he is chasing,” an American League scout told ESPN. “Then the fastball looks harder than it actually is, so he is out of timing. He needs to stop worrying about the big moment and just go with those sliders and take them into right field and the right-center-field gap.”
Handling anything thrown with break or spin has been Judge’s Achilles’ heel all postseason. According to ESPN Stats & Info, he’s hitting just .071 on breaking pitches in October, compared to .258 during the regular season. Meanwhile, his strikeout rate on those pitches is a whopping 58.5% compared to 39.8% from March through September.
Every time he flails at another breaking pitch for a strikeout, it allows the Dodgers to keep attacking with the same plan instead of having to challenge him with heat.
Judge is still doing damage off fastballs — when he sees them. He’s hitting .364 with a 1.429 OPS against pitches thrown 95 mph or faster in the playoffs, but so far this month, Judge has seen 6% fewer fastballs than he did during the regular season, and the frustration of not getting pitches he can drive is becoming obvious to observers.
“I think he might be pressing a little bit,” 2007 National League MVP Ryan Howard said on the field before Game 3. “Right now, I think he’s just in his head. He knows what pitch they’re trying to get him out on, and when you’re swinging and missing it, you’re kind of forcing it. Just have to relax a little.”
Despite the struggles, Judge’s manager has his back. Boone has made it clear that he is not considering moving Judge up or down in the lineup: “That’s our guy, and there’s pressure in the Series, whatever spot you’re hitting.”
One NL executive agreed with Boone’s mindset: “If this was the regular season, I could see moving him up to leadoff to get him going, but I don’t think Boone should do that. At this time of year, you have to believe in and stick with your best players. He’s the best of the best.”
So with the season on the line, can Judge rediscover his MVP form? Patience might be the key.
“He needs to get them back in the zone or take some walks,” the NL executive said. “How many does he have in the postseason?”
Judge has walked eight times this postseason but only twice in the past seven games after he walked an MLB-leading 133 times during the regular season. But the thing that could most help ignite Judge is about more than drawing free passes to first base — it’s about making pitchers come to him.
“Just wait for that pitch as long as it’s in the zone,” Howard said of the advice he’d give to Judge.
With the Yankees needing to pull off the seemingly impossible — winning four straight games to complete a World Series comeback — maybe Judge will finally get the one pitch that gets him going.
“He’s big enough, strong enough, to hit the ball out of any part of the ballpark.” an NL scout said. “He’s got to use the whole field. When he starts to use the whole field and up the middle, you’re going to see the Aaron Judge you saw all year long.”
The Yankees just have to hope they’ll still be playing long enough to see it happen.
BOSTON — Red Sox manager Alex Cora will miss Monday’s series opener against the New York Mets at Fenway Park so he can attend his daughter’s college graduation.
Cora’s daughter, Camila, will be graduating from nearby Boston College.
“It’s going to be a very special day — one that I’m not going to miss,” Cora said before Sunday’s game vs. the Atlanta Braves. “I 100% will miss the game for that. I will do that any given day. It’s going to be a very special day for us.”
Cora reflected on how the time has seemed to go quickly and spoke about how fast his daughter seemed to grow up.
“It went fast, it went really fast,” Cora said of her time in college. “For a girl from divorced parents, her mom did an amazing job, staying the course while I was playing and coaching and doing my ESPN thing. … She’s actually a reflection of her. I appreciate everything she’s done for her and for us.”
Asked if he’ll be able to hold back his emotions at the ceremony, Cora smiled and said “We’ll see,” before bringing up memories of when his daughter was at the 2018 World Series victory celebration and a postseason series wrap-up win over Tampa Bay in ’21 at Fenway.
“It’s going to be an amazing day. It happened fast,” he said. “You put everything into perspective, you go back to the videos of ’18, she was a little girl.
“Then you go back to ’21 when she hopped onto the field when we beat Tampa, she was still a little girl. Now, she’s not a little girl,” he said. “She’s a woman. She had fun with it. She’s a great student and the future’s bright for her.”
MILWAUKEE — Brewers pitcher Tobias Myers is going back to the minors as he continues to struggle to match the success he enjoyed as a rookie last year.
The Brewers optioned Myers to Triple-A Nashville on Sunday while selecting right-handed pitcher Easton McGee from Triple-A and transferring left-handed pitcher Connor Thomas to the 60-day injured list.
Myers is 1-1 with a 4.95 ERA in six appearances, including five starts. He allowed four runs over 3 2/3 innings in a 7-0 loss to the Minnesota Twins on Saturday.
The right-hander had gone 9-6 with a 3.00 ERA last season and was selected the Brewers’ most valuable pitcher by the Milwaukee chapter of the Baseball Writers Association of America. He closed that season by pitching five scoreless innings in the decisive Game 3 of the NL Wild Card Series against the New York Mets, a game the Brewers lost 4-2 by allowing four runs in the ninth.
“I love the kid, man,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said after Saturday’s game. “You saw it in Game 3, that’s in there. So we’ve got to get back to that.”
The Brewers had optioned Myers to Nashville a week ago, but he didn’t actually pitch there before rejoining the big-league club after left-hander José Quintana went on the injured list with a left shoulder issue. Now he’s heading back to Nashville.
Myers entered Saturday having walked 10 batters over 16 1/3 innings. He didn’t walk anyone Saturday, but gave up a career-high 11 hits.
“My goal was to fill the zone up and kind of get away from the walks I’ve been dealing with,” Myers said after the game. “I think I just filled it up a little too much.”
McGee went 1-0 with a 3.44 ERA and 20 strikeouts over 18 1/3 innings in 13 relief appearances with Nashville.
McGee appeared in one game for Tampa Bay in 2022 and one game for Seattle in 2023.In the only two games he has pitched in the big leagues, McGee has allowed just one unearned run over 9 2/3 innings while striking out three and allowing five hits and one walk.
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