Yankees.com: Judge’s 1st homer this postseason gives Yanks commanding 2-0 ALCS lead

From Bryan Hoch:

As the Yankees advanced into October, one hand-wringing concern was that if Aaron Judge remained unable to shake his playoff struggles, an offense that centered so heavily upon one of the finest regular seasons put forth by a right-handed hitter would be unable to make up the difference.

Through his club’s first five postseason games, Judge still hadn’t contributed much at the plate, but his supporting cast proved that it indeed could carry the load. Now, if the captain is on board, their path to the World Series looks even more clear.

Judge connected for a two-run homer in the seventh inning, breaking open the Yankees’ 6-3 victory over the Guardians in Game 2 of the American League Championship Series at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday night. The win gives the Yankees a commanding 2-0 series lead as they aim to advance to their first Fall Classic since 2009.

I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’d much rather be the team up 2-0 in the series, but is a 2-0 lead in a Best of 7 series truly a “commanding” lead? 3-0, definitely, but 2-0? I don’t think so, personally.

In any event, another great win, even as the Yankees made so many terrible plays, and Gerrit Cole, a game after Carlos Rodon yammered on about how Gerrit Cole taught him how to NOT be a headcase, was a total headcase himself! Cole had excellent stuff still (not as excellent as his last start against Kansas City, but still excellent stuff), but just could NOT locate it. It was so frustrating. He’s so good that he was able to work out of trouble through the first four innings, but letting baserunners on in every inning was finally too much for him, and Aaron Boone was forced to go to the bullpen in the fifth inning. Here’s the weird thing, though. Boone gave Cole SO MANY opportunities to remain in the game, and you would think that one of the main reasons is that Boone didn’t want to overtask his bullpen, asking them to get too many outs. But when he finally brought Clay Holmes in with the bases loaded, one out and a run in, Holmes worked out of the rest of the inning allowing just a single run on a groundball (hit JUST too softly for a double play) and a strikeout on ten pitches and Boone…PULLED HIM FROM THE GAME!! If you were worried about leaning on your bullpen too much, why would you pull Holmes after two outs on ten pitches?!

The Yankees increased their lead to 4-2 on a RBI double by Rizzo after Jazz Chisholm was picked off of second base…and then Rizzo was ALSO picked off of second to end the inning! Boone gave the most idiotic defense of Chisholm, basically arguing that had Chisholm stole third, we would have been happy. But dude, the options weren’t “Steal third or get picked off of second.” That made no sense. Boone also defended Rizzo, and, I’ll be honest, that one WAS a lot trickier, as I’ve seen plenty of guys get hung up on a ball that rolled away from the catcher, but not TOO far. So fair enough, but really, it was still bad. Even Sterling was saying that the Yankees run the bases like they’re drunks.

Judge, though, finally hit a home run this postseason, following an excellent piece of hitting by Gleyber Torres, who had three hits tonight and has been excellent this postseason. Big relief seeing Judge hitting a home run. He gets the featured image.

The bullpen was great, although Luke Weaver showed he was human by allowing a home run to Jose Ramirez in the ninth with a four-run lead. Luckily, Weaver then set the next two guys down easily, so it didn’t seem to rattle him. And, of course, you know how closers are when it is not a save situation. It’s like they take their foot off of the gas, so I can understand the homer there.

2-0 is not a commanding lead, but it’s still a very nice lead to have. Hopefully the Yankees can win two more games in this series before the Guardians win four.