Keepers vs. Yankees: Aaron Judge gives Yankee Stadium something to cheer about with home run in ALCS Game 2 win

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Keepers vs. Yankees: Aaron Judge gives Yankee Stadium something to cheer about with home run in ALCS Game 2 win

NEW YORK — With Aaron Judge in the building, there’s always a chance for fireworks.

Yet little is said about the New York Yankees’ performance over six-plus innings of a 6-2 victory Tuesday could be described as explosive. The hosts, trailing 4-2 against the Cleveland Guardians in the seventh inning ALCS Game 2played well enough to win but poorly enough to worry the 47,054 souls gathered on a lively night in the Bronx.

Ace pitcher Gerrit Cole was more boring than a bad documentary, walking four batters in 4 1/3 tedious innings. The Yankees, who ranked as the league’s worst on-base team in the regular season, stumbled on two outs on the base paths. It was, at best, a B+ performance.

Sure, the boxes were checked, the goals met — nitpicking any October win almost seems reductive — but few would have felt thrilled with the way the Yankees showed in the first two games of this ALCS. The ultimate goal – for any team and for this team in particular – is a World Series title. But after 16 rounds, that destination didn’t seem much closer. The story: These Yankees were a rickety golden wagon trudging along, clawing their way to the World Series.

Then, as he so often does, Aaron Judge rewrote history.

In one fell swoop, Judge changed the mood, changed the energy and put his teammates and the masses at ease. For the 14th time in his career in the playoffs, the slugger Goliathan disappeared with a baseball. His two-point shot hung in the air for extra time, the crowd hoping, pressing, sending the ball over the wall.

Cleveland center fielder Lane Thomas launched an unsuccessful pursuit. The white blur disappeared from view, giving the Yankees a much more comfortable 6-2 lead. The court, in the same breath, exploded and expired.

“I was excited that that came out,” Judge said during his postgame chat. “You never know on these windy, cold nights what that ball will do when you hit the center here, but the ghosts were retreating toward Monument Park, that’s for sure.”

Before Judge’s hit, the Yankees were in the lead but not in control.

That’s despite three early runs against Cleveland starter Tanner Bibee, who was pulled after four outs. In the second, Guardians manager Stephen Vogt intentionally walked Juan Soto to face Judge, marking only the third time the batter preceding Judge had been given a free trip to first. The judge followed with a sac fly.

And yet, there was a certain… neutral feeling permeating the cold autumn air. Maybe it was just Cole having a bad night.

“I just have to do better. I have to do better,” admitted the frustrated pitcher after the match.

Cleveland worked long at bats early against Cole, even though the Yankees starter finished his first three innings scoreless. He ran into big trouble in the fourth, but Cleveland failed to capitalize.

On three runs, the Guardians loaded the bases behind a pair of singles and a four-pitch walk. That brought catcher Bo Naylor to the dish with one out. Cole looked rickety; the crowd was getting more and more nervous.

And there you have it, Vogt took his chance. The first-year skipper recalled Naylor, opting to use his best hitting option, right-hander David Fry, in the top of the inning. It was, given the situation and Naylor’s recent offensive struggles, a good decision. There are only so many opportunities against a pitcher like Cole. When you knock, you have to break down the door.

But Fry – who delivered the crucial home run in Cleveland’s Game 4 ALDS victory — didn’t deliver this time. Instead, he threw the first pitch, a high and tight 97 mph fastball to the corner, for a deflated second out. The next batter, Brayan Rocchio, struck out on a boundary call to conclude a nine-pitch battle. Cole and the Yankees escaped unscathed.

That aggressive move came back to haunt Cleveland an inning later, when backup catcher Austin Hedges, one of the worst statistical hitters of his generation, found himself in a huge position with the Guardians threatening. By the fifth, Cleveland had knocked Cole out of the game and scored two runs. The bases were loaded with two outs. Hedges, the emotional pillar of this Guardians team, hit with momentum.

From there, the game progressed carelessly. The Guardians threw a ball into the outfield. The Yankees – specifically Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Anthony Rizzo – had two outs. Cleveland had little success against New York’s impressive bullpen. The night crept into a forgettable footnote in an otherwise memorable October until Judge startled everyone awake.

Before Tuesday, the judge had received criticism for a somewhat poor performance in these playoffs. The Yankees’ winning streak has kept that buzz largely subdued — New York manager Aaron Boone hasn’t been asked about Judge in his last three pregame press conferences — but with a player so important, the story is always hidden. Only additional moments like the one Judge mentioned in Game 2 will satisfy all expectations.

Such is life in the Bronx. Having Judge and his team of established difference makers gives the Yankees considerable margin for error – one that the Guardians do not have. Cleveland can’t force its way through large portions of a game and expect to win, as the team’s efforts in the first two games have shown. Twice in Game 2 the Yankees left the door open, but twice the Keepers jumped right into the doorway.

That said, if the Yankees play this sloppily against the National League challenger, they will surely get crushed. Still, Boone said after the game that he was satisfied with his club’s performance, considering what was at stake.

“It’s the playoffs,” he said. “It’s all about winning victories.”

Boone is right; When the weather gets colder, this world transforms from a process-driven business to a results-driven business. It’s equally encouraging and concerning that the Yankees offense has been significantly underperforming so far in October. As the great baseball scribe Sam Miller once said, “Every hitter is either hot or due.” »

Judge and the Yankees, in one way or another, are both.

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