From Bryan Hoch:
The Yankees had the chance they wanted. After five innings of mostly empty at-bats, Aaron Judge came up with the bases loaded and none out, a prime opening to rewrite his postseason story.
Instead, Judge swung through a Kevin Gausman splitter for a crucial strikeout. New York settled for one run, a squandered opportunity that defined its 10-1 loss to the Blue Jays in Saturday’s Game 1 of the American League Division Series.
“I wouldn’t say I was overanxious; if you saw the whole at-bat, I definitely took some tough pitches,” Judge said. “But in the end, I didn’t get the job done. That’s what it comes down to, just not doing your job.”
Rogers Centre remains a house of horrors for the Yankees, who have lost seven of their eight games north of the border this season. Swinging early and often, the Yanks were limited to two baserunners through five frames before finally pressing Gausman with two hits and a walk.
Judge saw eight pitches, fouling off two, before chasing a diving offering low and away.
“Obviously, you’d like to come through there and break the game open,” said Cody Bellinger, who followed with a four-pitch walk that forced in New York’s only run. “It didn’t happen; Gausman came and made some good pitches.”
Judge has six hits in 15 at-bats (.400) this postseason but is still hunting for a signature October moment. Since 2019, Judge is batting .202 (34-for-168) with nine homers and 20 RBIs in the playoffs.
As noted, it feels kind of weird to be so down on the guy who’s hitting .400 in the playoffs, but when you come into a postseason with the reputation of not coming through in clutch situations, and then you strike out with the bases loaded and no outs in the sixth inning, down two runs…well, that’s not good. Nor was Giancarlo Stanton being DOMINATED by Louis Varland with the bases loaded and two outs (or Ben Rice getting sonned throughout the game).
Probably the worst part of the loss was that Boone also burned most of the bullpen in this one, meaning that Max Fried is going to have to pitch into, like, at least the seventh inning in this one for the Yankees to have a chance (as then I assume Tim Hill and/or Fernando Cruz might be available, and then Williams and Bednar will be available late).
Today’s game obviously will tell you the tale of the series. Kevin Gausman has historically dominated the Yankees. Trey Yesavage has never faced them before, and has pitched, like, five games TOTAL, Shane Bieber is coming off a MAJOR injury, and I imagine Game 4 will just be a bullpen game by Toronto. The Yankees SHOULD be able to score some runs off of those guys, but at the same time, Max Fried, Carlos Rodon, AND Cam Schlittler have all had total BOMBS of games against Toronto this season, so it might not matter.
Time, as they say, will tell.
Featured image is Judge’s K.
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Stanton, Bellinger, and Rice all have to do their part. Judge has been getting on base relatively consistently in front of them.
Of course, he still needs to keep his regular season approach and be more selective. The thing about consistency is that it requires consistency.
Silver lining, I guess, is that the worst pitchers were used in a game where the offense did nothing, and the cromulent part of the bullpen (ie Bednar) will be better rested in the unlikely event that this offense scores any runs.
Agreed on the silver lining aspect of it, but the issue there is that you obviously need more than two relievers. Doval has shown enough that I’d be okay with using him in the seventh in Game 3, but he would likely be unavailable today after throwing two innings yesterday.
Weaver would be available, but not even Boone is dumb enough to use him so soon (unless it’s a blowout).
Cruz and Hill should both be available.
Perhaps Warren will make his relief debut today?
I imagine what is most likely is that Fried will just be stuck with, even if he gives up four runs over six innings. The idea is that that is better than using the shitty relievers.
What a picture!
That’s a great, great picture. How it captures just how bad that was – not the whole at bat, which was actually pretty great, until… that last pitch. Look where the ball is. If he could have kept his discipline ONE more pitch… !!!
It was shockingly awful.
It was a ball out of Gausman’s and only drifted further outside.
“not even Boone is dumb enough to use him so soon”
Brian really likes to live on the edge.
Gotta get Weaver going.
Anybody know where you can find the distance of every HR hit by Ohtani in his MLB career?
If he was pulling Gil early, which I didn’t support, he had to go to Warren to start the next. What was Boone saving Warren for?
Fried needs to go deep. Rodon needs to not self destruct. Will the Jays chase Cam’s high out of the strike zone pitches that Boston did?
And we have to hit.
CC Sabathia, 10 years sober today. 👍🏻
https://x.com/CC_Sabathia/status/1974909100715594181