LOS ANGELES — Aaron Judge was named American League Player of the Month in May and June and August.
Which wonderfully helped him to what is certainly going to be a second AL MVP award this year. But under a different owner named Steinbrenner in a different era, Judge would have been dangerously close to having a Mr. derisively thrown in front of one of those months by George Steinbrenner, longing for another Mr. October.
The Boss felt that once he paid gigantic dollars for a superstar, the exchange rate needed to be gigantic and end in championships. Which brought resonance that both Dave Winfield and Alex Rodriguez were at Dodger Stadium on Friday night for World Series Game 1. Because they were exactly that prototype of the larger-than-life, high-priced superstar.
And when Winfield went 1-for-22 the last time the Yankees and Dodgers met in the World Series in 1981, it eventually led to Steinbrenner dubbing him Mr. May. And Rodriguez had a postseason outset with the Yankees in which he began well then dead-ended midway through a Red Sox series and went into a multi-October spiral.
That downward slide ended in 2009, when Rodriguez was the best hitter on the Yankees’ last champion. He said he told himself what he would tell Judge now. “You have to divorce yourself from stats,” Rodriguez told The Post in the hours before Game 2. “That’s just a losing proposition. And one of the most overrated things in sports is October stats. Forget 4-for-10 with four singles. If Judge does that, the Yankees are going home. Better to be 2-for-14 and one is a three-run double and one is a two-run homer that changes games. You need moments, not stats. And once I realized that, it made it so much easier.”
Rodriguez was on the field for the Fox pregame show to interview Giancarlo Stanton, who is Exhibit A for moments over stats. He was 4-for-18 in the ALCS (.222) but won MVP of the series because all four hits were meaningful homers. Then he hit another Friday night, a two-run shot.
Judge has just one meaningful blow this postseason — his game-tying two-run homer off Cleveland closer Emmanuel Clase in ALCS Game 3. But that is the moment — singular. He is hitless in eight at-bats with runners in scoring position this postseason and 1-for-22 dating to Game 1 of the 2019 ALCS.
In his first-ever World Series game, Judge went 1-for-5. He struck out in his first three at-bats. But his final at-bat was perhaps most revealing. Because remember all the times we wondered how many times the opposition would intentionally walk Judge to avoid damage? Well, it is not just that pitchers are attacking him — often challenging him in the zone this October — but in the ninth inning, with Gleyber Torres on second and two outs of a 2-2 game, second-place hitter Juan Soto was intentionally walked for the second time this postseason in front of Judge.
Judge popped out to keep the Yankees from winning in regulation. An inning later, a hobbled Freeman was being compared to a limping Kirk Gibson in 1988 — and, yeah, both hit walk-off- homers to right in Dodger Stadium to dramatically decide a Game 1. But there also was a comparison to Judge.
Because in the 10th inning, the Yankees walked hot No. 2 hitter Mookie Betts to get to the struggling Freeman, who had seven singles over the first two rounds as he nursed a sprained right ankle after being a goat last year in a 1-for-10 Division Series upset against the Diamondbacks.
This time, Freeman hit the first pitch after the intentional walk for a grand slam and a 6-3 Dodgers victory. He had one of those moments.
“If Aaron just starts thinking, ‘Can I have one moment per game, one to help us win?’ I think the pressure decreases 50 percent and I think Aaron Judge takes off,” A-Rod said. “Because then a strikeout doesn’t affect you. Who gives a [bleep]? Don’t worry about the stats. Because what happens if you have one moment is you suddenly have three moments.”
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This really has to be Judge’s approach now because there is just not enough time to spruce his overall postseason stats. Game 1 was his 54th playoff game, which equals one-third of a regular-season schedule. Fifty-one Yankees have at least 100 postseason plate appearances and Judge’s .203 average was seventh worst. Interestingly, the fifth-worst belongs to Roger Maris (.187), another two-time AL MVP whose Yankees homer record (61) Judge surpassed in 2022 with 62.
The belief for Judge has to be that the moments come for a great player in time. Winfield left the Yankees and had the World Series-clinching hit for the Blue Jays in the 1992 World Series. A-Rod stayed and eventually rose to the moment the last time the Yanks won a title.
But Judge has to have this happen soon, because the opportunities to have a moment or three in the 2024 season are running out.
