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When you’re the big guy, not just in stature but in skill, the focus never goes off you. Not even for a moment.
That’s what it’s like for Aaron Judge, who to many was having the most disappointing postseason anyone’s ever had, at least among those hitting close to .500.
Life isn’t always fair at the top. But Judge has been there almost a decade now, so we assume he’s getting used to it by now.
According to the oft-told story, Judge needed a big moment to validate him among the greatest of the Yankee greats, to move him into the discussion of the best players of the most famous franchise. Never mind that he’s won two MVPs and has a decent chance to make it three (Yankee fans will tell you it should be four), led the league in every rate stat imaginable and set the American League single-season home run record (and clean MLB homer record, too).
Judge was hitting .444 this postseason season entering Tuesday night, and it wasn’t enough. He was seen as a disappointment. In this very paper, it was noted via a large-type headline, that the Yankees wouldn’t win with Judge as a singles hitter. (That might well be true but it was treatment unique to him.)
There were rankings happening by legit pundits (if there is such a thing) who put Reggie ahead of him on their made-up lists of Yankee greats, or even A-Rod (egads!). Judge, they said, needed that moment. The narrative was never-ending.
Well, Judge has his moment now.
His gargantuan Game 3 home run, which flipped the Division Series script in an instant, breathed life into a seemingly moribund Yankees team that, let’s face it, was getting its butts kicked until that point.
The most important thing about the homer was that it gave the Yankees a chance when it looked like they had none, sending them to 9-6 victory, their third win in elimination games this October.
As for the most remarkable thing, well, the list is long.
The drive clanked more than two-thirds of the way up the left-field foul pole where almost no one goes. And that it stayed fair, with the wind blowing toward left, surprised some, maybe even Judge.
“I guess a couple ghosts out there in Monument Parks helped kind of keep it fair,” Judge surmised later to Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports.
The shot came on a 99.7-mph fastball by Louis (Louie to most) Varland, the Blue Jays’ best reliever who was inserted specifically to deal with Judge when the Jays desperately sought to stem a comeback by a lineup stocked with stars. Of course, one star shines brightest, and no one knows that better than the Jays, who intentionally walk Judge more than anyone.
It came on a pitch more than a foot inside. Judge had never before homered on a pitch that far inside – or outside – according to Sarah Langs of MLB. The pitch looked like a waste pitch to some.
“I get yelled at for swinging at the out of the zone, but now I’m getting praised for it,” Judge noted, ruefully.
“I don’t care what the numbers say or where something’s at. I’m just up there trying to put a good swing on a good pitch,” he also said.
“It looked good to me.”
The dinger came on an 0-and-2 pitch after Judge fouled off a slider, then Varland beat him on a 100-mph heater.
Judge was ready for the next one. Same speed, different result.
“After he blew my doors off on the pitch before, I said just get ready, see a good pitch, and drive it,” Judge said.
That he did. He drove it straight to the upper deck, and it would have gone there had the pole not interceded.
“He made a really good pitch look really bad,” Varland said.
“Best swing I’ve ever seen,” Paul Goldschmidt said.
“Ridiculous swing,” Jays manager John Schneider said.
Ryan McMahon said he believed only one man could have made that swing, and kept that ball fair. Aaron Boone, who’s been around a lot longer, thought of two who could possibly have done it, Edgar Martinez and Manny Ramirez.
That’s still pretty elite company.
But as far how many could have sent it to that very spot, high up near the heavens, that might be a class of one.
It was the stuff of legends, and the very kind of thing that changes the narrative of a series and a reputation. Judge is now 7-for-11 this series with an 1.805 OPS.
The series, which hung in the balance with the Blue Jays leading, 6-1, in Game 3, almost feels like a tossup now with Yankees phenom Cam Schlittler lined up to face an opener in Game 4, who happens to be Varland, who’ll have his chance at revenge in a rematch.
As for Judge’s rep, knowing New York, the negativity of the narrative will inevitably re-emerge if Judge is less than perfect in future postseason games. That’s the nature of the game if you happen to be the best of the best.
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