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2 hours ago
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"Aaron Judge doesn't come through when it matters."
That's a phrase that some New York Yankees fans will stand behind passionately. And on the World Baseball Classic stage, the captain made them feel quite validated.
It was a brutal, uncomfortable, awful Tuesday night in Miami for Judge.
He came to bat four times for Team USA. He struck out in three of them and was held hitless.
For the tournament, Judge batted just .222. He did hit two home runs and work a lot of counts (and was robbed of a semifinal homer by Julio Rodriguez), but the refrain won't stop after this.
Judge was called out on strikes to end the bottom of the first inning.
He struck out swinging with one out in the fourth.
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With a man on first and two outs in the sixth, Judge grounded out to third base, rolling over a pitch from reliever Jose Butto.
And then in the eighth, hitting directly after Bryce Harper tied the game with a heroic two-run home run, Judge was caught looking at strike three.
Sure, he didn't strand a bunch of runners in scoring position.
And yeah, there's plenty of evidence in Judge's career of him delivering in key moments, too.
But this one will be a tough one to deal with for a long time. Just one big swing from Judge in such a close contest could've changed everything.
Looking twice, though, and whiffing a third time -- it left him 0-fer under the bright Tuesday night lights in Miami.
He'll want to forget it, but that'll be hard. The pain of this one might linger.
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