Yankees and Aaron Judge run out of time in the World Series against the Dodgers

LOS ANGELES – As juan soto singled to right field to open the ninth inning, the visiting dugout in Dodger Stadium He burst into a spasm of ecstatic hand gestures and joy.

Of course, the New York Yankees had been limited to only two hits de Soto for the Los Angeles Dodgers on Saturday night, but they were trailing by three runs in Game 2 of this World Series and suddenly, their most dangerous man, Giancarlo Stanton, appeared in the on-deck circle as the run of the draw.

And then Aaron Judge stepped into the batter’s box.

Almost any day this season, that would be a cause for joy for the Yankees. But after Judge waited nearly a decade to reach the World Series, he is in serious danger of exiting much faster, thanks in large part to his own failures.

Facing Dodgers closer Blake Treinen, Judge misfired on the first pitch, a nasty sweeper that slipped out of the strike zone. I looked at the second pitch: a slider that landed in the outside corner. And then, one pitch later, he darted once again outside and below the strike zone.

It was Judge’s sixth strikeout in nine at-bats in this World Series, his 19^th in 40 at-bats this postseason, and it all looked worse when the Yankees got the tying and winning runs on base but couldn’t push them home in a 4-2 loss.

They packed up their visiting clubhouse at Dodger Stadium for the long flight home, hoping to get a salve from Yankee Stadium, where Game 3 will begin Monday night. However, it is a sign of life: a good plate appearance, a well-hit ball, hell, how about a home run? – of his captain and presumed MVP of the American League would go much further.

And Judge, the 6-7 force who hit 58 home runs and posted a 1.159 OPS this year, knows it better than anyone.

“I definitely have to step up. I have to do my job,” Judge said Saturday night as the Yankees prepared to depart Los Angeles. “The guys around me are doing their job, getting on base.

“And I’m failing them, I’m not supporting them.”

Two games are not a sample, but October cannot wait for those technicalities. Judge is now 1 for 9 in this World Series, but it’s the six strikeouts that are much more disconcerting.

They suggest a bewildered slugger, out of control mechanically and at least a little mentally. To a man, the Yankees tell him that Judge is not pressing.

However, Judge himself dusts off the old adage that you should take what you’re given, and if that’s a few rides, so be it. Whether that defines pushing depends on your perspective.

“He has time to help us win some games,” Stanton says.

But how, especially when Judge goes after just about anything?

The 6-6-inch Stanton puts his hands together, almost in a heart, to demonstrate.

“You have to make your area that big,” he says. When that happens, you feel like your plate is that big and you have to compress it.

“It’s going to help us win some games here.”

In fact, Judge somehow remains optimistic, even when he realizes that his failures are hurting the team. He says they are getting closer to a solution.

That sounds great in April, when Judge went through a rough month before essentially going on a five-month stretch to lead the Yankees to the American League East championship.

How to save your mechanics, your mind, when your team is two losses away from elimination?

“It’s all about one at-bat,” says Soto, who homered and has three hits in two games. “I know it’s tough, but when you’re a hitter like him – and he’s one of the greatest – it’s only going to take one at-bat. An at-bat for him to be focused and ready.

“Every time you hit that ball or every time you make that pitch, that’s going to get you going. For some kids it takes a little time. But when you have a guy like that that’s that good, it’s just going to take one at-bat to get him going.”

And when Judge is neutralized, it serves to reduce the size of the Yankees as a whole.

A club that led the major leagues in home runs and the American League in runs scored was limited to four hits in Game 2 – and only Soto’s towering third-inning home run over eight innings.

After Soto touched the plate, tying the game 1-1, Judge was the next batter and sent a harmless fly ball to right field, where Mookie Betts scooped it up, sparking a string of 11 consecutive batters retired by the Los Angeles starter. Los Angeles Dodgers. Yoshinobu Yamamoto.

Yamamoto pitched into the seventh inning, the second excellent start of this series after Jack Flaherty They only allowed Stanton’s two-run homer in Game 1. The Dodgers are pitching them carefully and executing exquisitely, and that’s impacting the Yankees’ best hitter.

“Sometimes you want to make things happen instead of letting the game come to you,” Judge says. “You see Gleyber on base, Juan get on base and you want things to happen. But if you don’t get a pitch in the zone, you just have to walk it and set it up for Big G.

“Plain and simple, I have to start throwing strikes.”

He knew it in April, when he hit .207 with a .754 OPS and regained all his numbers by the end of the season.

“It’s all the same,” Judge says. “You just run out of games when he’s here.”

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