Dave Lennon: Will Yankees' Aaron Judge give club needed push for World Series run? It remains to be seen.
Yankees' Aaron Judge runs off the field after the fourth inning against the Colorado Rockies at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
Aaron Judge emerged from the dugout at 4:40 p.m. Tuesday, trotting between two rows of waiting photographers en route to batting practice. With only a few hundred fans in the building by then, the welcome-back reception was enthusiastic but lacking in decibels.
For more than three months, the $360-million question surrounding the Yankees involved Judge’s return date. Now that it’s been answered, we’re onto the next-biggest one, which is whether or not Aaron Boone & Co. have a legitimate shot to the win the World Series.
Judge plays a major role in that, obviously. And what he does over the two-plus weeks left in the regular season is going to render the verdict, because the Yankees haven’t convinced anyone they’re championship material if Judge isn’t doing his three-time MVP stuff. Even that’s a stretch, when you consider the Yankees have made exactly one trip to the World Series despite having the slugger Boone referred to again Tuesday as the “best hitter in the world” for the past decade.
When that Judge will show up is anyone’s guess, but it wasn’t during the Yankees’ 5-3 victory over the Rockies. In his first game since May 31, Judge went 0-for-3 with a pair of strikeouts, whiffing on a 93-mph fastball from Colorado starter Gabriel Hughes (6.19 ERA) and later looking at 94 on the inside edge from lefty reliever Mark Manfredi. His only contact was a 350-foot flyout to right-centerfield.
“I feel great,” Judge said afterward. “I just haven’t been in a live game or seen live pitching in three months, so it’s kind of like the start of the year. I got work to do. I got to improve.”
And it’s got to happen quickly. Sure the American League has been historically weak overall, but thanks to MLB’s expanded-playoff system, the Yankees currently are lined up to face an October gauntlet of their East division nightmare fuel: the perpetually-irritating rival Red Sox in the wild-card round followed by the No. 1 seed Rays for the Division Series. It’s hardly fair that the Yankees, who presumably will hang for the AL’s second-best record, should be rewarded with a “Bracket of Death” while the White Sox and two barely .500 teams get to duke it out for a ticket to the ALCS.
And that’s the easy part. The NL rep will likely be more formidable, with the back-to-back champion Dodgers, Brewers, Phillies, Cubs and Atlanta all sharpened by the higher competition level of the senior circuit this season. Plus, the Yankees are 29-30 against teams .500 or better, 17-21 in one-run games and 4-10 in extra innings, not favorable indicators when things get tight.
Cleary, Judge changes the equation dramatically. Or at least a fully-functioning captain, and no one can say with any degree of confidence -- Judge included -- that he’ll perform up to his MVP standards in short order. On Tuesday, he seemed especially miffed that Aaron Boone removed him after six innings, as the manager made good on his pledge to protect Judge during the early stage of his return.
“I respect Boone, so whatever he says, I’m going to do,” Judge said. “But I’m not happy about it.”
If Judge needs these remaining games as a glorified Grapefruit League tune-up, where is that going to leave the Yankees as far as a last-ditch attempt at hunting down the Rays or holding off the Red Sox? But playoff positioning is less of a priority at this stage than getting Judge in optimal shape for October.
Keeping Judge upright, however, is directly linked to the preserving the Yankees’ hopes of snapping their 16-year title drought. With Judge on the shelf for 99 days, the Yankees were six games over .500 (45-39) and their .536 winning percentage since June 1 was tied with Atlanta for the eighth-best in the majors during that span (the Marlins even had more win during that stretch).
“We hung in there,” Boone said Tuesday afternoon.
Since Judge went down, the Yankees had MLB’s second-worst batting average (.227) -- a few ticks above the adrift Mariners (.225) -- their 4.06 runs per game ranked 26th overall and .681 OPS sat at 27th. Judge could reverse that trend single-handedly with one of his typical weeks, but based on him hustling through the rehab process -- and all the time he’s missed -- signs point to that not happening for a little while.
In addition, Jazz Chisholm Jr. was removed from Tuesday’s game in the ninth inning for what Boone described as a “jammed thumb.” The manager was unsure of the severity, and the Yankees planned to hold off on testing until Wednesday.
The Yankees can’t afford any more significant injuries in the stretch run, particularly with Judge still a work in progress. Minus Judge, the Yankees leaned on their pitching staff to be the compass through that run-starved wilderness, but that eventually takes a toll as well.
Cam Schlittler made his workload an afterthought Tuesday by allowing just one run and three hits over seven innings, striking out 10 without a walk to polish his resume for the AL Cy Young award. That took the pressure off the offense, like he has all season, and it wasn’t until Heliot Ramos -- Judge’s replacement -- smacked a three-run homer in the eighth that the Yankees finally got some breathing room.
“Things can only get better,” Schlittler said of Judge’s return. “I think we’re in a really good spot and I expect him to lift us up.”
On Tuesday night, however, the Yankees again had to do the heavy lifting without Judge. They’d prefer that to change soon.
David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.
