The New York Yankees are playing their best baseball at an ideal time. They’ve won 18 of their last 25 games, the best record in Major League Baseball during that span.
Their captain, Aaron Judge, returned to right field in the first game of their last series against the Toronto Blue Jays after an extended absence of over a month since last playing the position. Judge is nursing a flexor strain in his right elbow, an injury the Yankees’ training staff will undoubtedly keep an eye on in September.
The Yankees will lean on the side of caution with Judge’s arm as the regular season winds down and the postseason nears. They are in the midst of a battle for first place in the American League East and will attempt to catch the Blue Jays, who enter Monday with a two-game advantage. New York needs Judge to play at his best in the playoffs, but that has not been an easy task for him in recent years.
Aaron Judge is the Yankees’ ‘X-Factor’
If the postseason began today, the Yankees would host the Boston Red Sox at Yankee Stadium for a best-of-three Wild Card series. A series like that would mean a boatload of pressure for Judge and his club to perform well against their longtime rivals.
But New York is 2-8 against the Red Sox this season, and Judge’s performance at the plate during his postseason career is somewhat confusing for a player of his caliber. The Yankees and Red Sox will meet at Fenway Park this weekend for a three-game series, potentially a preview of what’s to come in October.
“This time, there will be no Juan Soto, and Giancarlo Stanton canât do it all by himself. The Yankees need Aaron Judge to put up Aaron Judge numbers in the postseason,” The Athletic’s Brendan Kuty wrote about the AL MVP candidate. “They need him to author major moments and to be the catalyst that he largely hasnât been throughout his postseason career.”
Judge has hit a few memorable home runs in the postseason in his career, including a two-run shot off Liam Hendriks in the first inning of the 2018 Wild Card Game, and a game-tying two-run homer off Emmanuel Clase in the eighth inning during game three of the 2024 ALCS, a contest the Yankees would lose 7-5 in extras.
The Captain’s Numbers in the Postseason
In 58 career postseason games, Judge has a .205 batting average and a .836 OPS – that OPS may be well above average for most hitters, but not for the 33-year-old, who owns a career OPS of 1.021 in the regular season.
“Last postseason wasnât any better as he hit .184 with three homers and a .752 OPS over 14 games,” wrote Kuty. “In his first trip to the World Series, he went 4-for-18 (.222) with one home run.”
Stanton led the Yankees’ offense in last year’s playoffs. He smashed seven home runs and had 15 hits in 14 games, winning his first League Championship Series MVP award while guiding New York back to the World Series for the first time since 2009.
The 35-year-old veteran brought his success from last year’s postseason into this year’s regular season, as he has been scorching hot at the plate. However, the Yankees will need Judge and the rest of the lineup to pick up the slack to make a deep playoff push.
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