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Another World Series game, another rough night at the plate for Aaron Judge. He went 0-for-3 and recorded another strikeout in Monday night’s Game 3 defeat, leaving New York in a familiar position as they wait for their star slugger to make an impact.
“He is one swing away,” Yankees hitting coach James Rowson told ESPN on Monday. “I know it is a big story, but I think this guy is one of the best hitters to have ever played the game. On any given night, the whole story changes.
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 who watch the sport from the executive offices, the scouts’ seats, or even just in front of their television sets at home see a particular issue that needs to be resolved: L.A. is exploiting Judge by chasing too many pitches outside the zone.
An American League scout told ESPN, “The Dodgers are feeding him spin, spin, spin that he is chasing.” He is then out of timing because the fastball appears harder than it is. He should just use those sliders and take them into right field and the right-center-field gap instead of worrying about the big moment.
Throughout the postseason, Judge’s weakness has been handling anything thrown with spin or break. He is only hitting.071 on breaking pitches in October, compared to.258 during the regular season, per ESPN Research. In the meantime, he has a staggering strikeout rate of 58.5% on those pitches, up from 39.8% from March to September.
Instead of needing to hit him with heat, the Dodgers can continue to attack using the same strategy each time he thrashes at another breaking pitch for a strikeout.
Judge is still doing damage off fastballs when he sees them. He’s hitting. Judge has hit 364 with a 1.429 OPS against pitches thrown 95 mph or more in the playoffs, but he has seen 6% fewer fastballs this month than he did in the regular season, and it is becoming clear to onlookers how frustrated he is not getting pitches he can drive.
“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.”
Judge has the support of his manager despite the difficulties. Judge is not being moved up or down in the lineup, according to Boone, who stated, “That is our guy, and there is pressure in the series, whatever spot you are hitting.”
“I could see moving him up to leadoff to get him going if this were the regular season, but I do not think Boone should do that,” said an NL executive who shared Boone’s perspective. You need to have faith in and remain loyal to your best players during this time of year. He is the greatest of the greatest.
So with the season on the line, can Judge rediscover his MVP form? Perhaps the secret is patience.
“He needs to get them back in the zone or take some walks,” the NL executive said. How many postseason games does he have?
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. More than attracting free passes to first base, however, the thing that could most effectively ignite Judge is forcing pitchers to approach him.
Howard stated that he would advise Judge to “wait for that pitch as long as it is in the zone.”
Perhaps Judge will finally get the one pitch that gets him going, especially since the Yankees need to accomplish the seemingly impossible feat of winning four straight games to complete a World Series comeback.
An NL scout stated, “He is big enough, strong enough, to hit the ball out of any part of the ballpark.” “He must utilise the entire field. You will see the Aaron Judge you saw throughout the year when he begins to use the entire field and up the middle.
All the Yankees can do is hope they will be around long enough to witness it.