1. It’s a good thing Aaron Boone didn’t go back to Luke Weaver in the 10th inning of Game 1 of the World Series, considering he wasn’t needed in Game 2. The decision to not use Weaver after the righty went five up and five down on just 19 pitches is the single biggest reason the World Series isn’t going back to New York tied at 1.
2. The second biggest reason is Aaron Judge. Judge was atrocious once again in Game 2, as he continues to hit like a 6-foot-7 version of Anthony Volpe. After going 1-for-5 with three strikeouts in Game 1, Judge followed it up with a nice 0-for-4 with three more strikeouts. Back-to-back hat tricks from the AL MVP in the World Series with the championship on the line — the same championship he relentlessly refers to needing to win.
3. Judge certainly has a funny way of showing how important winning is to him. His strikeout rate and chase rates are through the roof in October compared to March through September. If Giancarlo Stanton is the second coming of Mr. October then Judge is the second coming of Mr. May. When Joe Davis exclaimed, “Gibby, meet Freddie!” following Freddie Freeman’s walk-off grand slam, the image of Judge standing next to Dave Winfield on the Dodger Stadium field before Game 2 made me think, “Winnie, meet Judgey!”
4. Before Game 2, I wrote about how big of a problem Judge has been and he went out and added to his problematic resume. After breaking the AL home run record with 62 in 2022, he went 1-for-16 with a single in the ALCS. After producing one of the greatest offensive seasons in the history of baseball this season, he’s 1-for-9 with six strikeouts in the World Series (after going 5-for-31 with 13 strikeouts in the ALDS and ALCS).
This is a legacy series for Judge. He can’t be considered among the all-time Yankees greats without a championship. It would be different if he were playing with the putrid players Don Mattingly was surrounded with during his career, but Judge has been surrounded by elite talent, superstars and one of the Top 3 payrolls in the league in his career. It would be different if he were having an all-time postseason and the rest of the lineup was doing nothing, but he’s the one doing nothing. He is the one holding the Yankees back.
5. You would think this can’t possibly continue, but I thought that during the ALDS and it continued in the ALCS. After the Yankees won the pennant, I thought it wouldn’t continue in the World Series but it has. Judge isn’t just missing pitches or hitting into bad luck. He’s taking fastballs down the middle and swinging at curveballs in the dirt and splitters on the verge of hitting him. He’s a mess. It’s hard to believe a switch can just be turned on and he can be the real version of himself in Game 3 after having not been that version of himself in a month now.
6. If you remove the idiotic decisions from Boone in Game 1, the Yankees were an out away from winning that game. Despite the offense producing one hit over the first eight innings of Game 2, they were a base hit away from tying the game in the ninth and an extra-base hit away from taking the lead. That’s how close these games have been and Judge has been the difference. The Dodgers are doing everything they can to not let Juan Soto and Giancarlo Stanton beat them since no one else is capable of it, and Soto and Stanton are nearly beating them. If Judge were his regular-season self right now, the Yankees may be heading home up 2-0 in the series. Instead their backs are against the wall and in desperate need of a win in Game 3.
7. Judge and the offense as a whole aren’t entirely to blame for the Game 2 loss. Carlos Rodon wasn’t any good, of course, because Rodon isn’t very good. Another regular-season hero, Rodon was praised for pitching to 3.96 ERA this year while making roughly $800,000 per start. No one shuts down a team with nothing to play midseason while racking up double-digit strikeouts like Rodon, the way no one will smash five home runs in five games against teams playing out the string like Judge. After Rodon’s Game 2 stinker, he now has a 5.60 ERA in four starts this October and a 6.64 ERA for his postseason career. The Royals, Guardians and Dodgers have an .820 OPS against him in the postseason. He may have only walked one in 17 2/3 innings, but that doesn’t matter when you’re giving up home runs at the rate Rodon has in the playoffs. If the Yankees are going to come back and win the series, Rodon will get another start. I wouldn’t expect a different kind of performance.
8. Going into the series I wrote the only advantage the Dodgers had over the Yankees was at 5 through 9 in the lineup and that has held true. While the Dodgers are getting production from career league-average- and below-league-average hitters, the Yankees continue to not. A player like Tommy Edman is the definition of league average for his career with a 100 OPS+, and yet he won NLCS MVP against the Mets, and in the World Series, he’s 4-for-8 with two doubles and a home run and some great infield defense. Meanwhile, the Yankees’ career league-average- and below-league-average hitters all suck whether it’s Volpe, Alex Verdugo or Austin Wells. There’s no belief any of them will ever come through in a big moment, and that was never more true than when Volpe struck out in the ninth inning in Game 2. Every time you think Volpe has figured it out and is about to emerge as a star he reminds you why he has an 83 OPS+ in 1,290 career plate appearances.
9. The first inning of Game 3 is the most important inning of Clarke Schmidt’s life. Yankee Stadium is going to be loud. It’s going to be raucous. It’s going to be full of believers who think this series isn’t over (including yours truly). He has to put up a zero. He can’t let Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman and Teoscar Hernandes get to him. Not in the first inning. If they get to him later, so be it. He has to give the bats a chance to get on the board first. He has to give the crowd a reason to stay loud and stay involved. He can’t go out and have a Rodon-like inning and allow a crooked number. Don’t allow any number.
10. I don’t want to hear about what the Yankees did in 1996 when trailing 2-0 or how the 2001 Yankees returned home down 2-0 before winning three straight in the Bronx. Unless youthful and prime and peak Derek Jeter, Bernie Williams, Paul O’Neill, Jorge Posada, Mariano Rivera and Andy Pettitte are going to be playing and pitching for the Yankees over the next few nights, it’s meaningless. This Yankees group has never done anything. They have never won anything. This is their first time in the World Series and they have yet to win a game in it. Until they do it, there should be no comparisons to the dynastic teams and players that went to the World Series in six of eight years and won four of them. Let’s start with one win and that win has to come in Game 3. Otherwise, I hope Boone still has the 2004 ALCS highlights video lying around that he used to motivate his team in the 2022 ALCS when they were down 3-0.
Last modified: Oct 28, 2024
