The first sign the Yankees have the Aaron Judge they need
TORONTO — Brian Cashman added muscle to an already strong bullpen and acquired a significant rotation upgrade in Sonny Gray in late July.
While pitching will determine the Yankees’ chances of playing a postseason series for the first time since 2012, there is an alarming need for more from a lineup that until Sunday was struggling to score runs.
That means the Yankees need Aaron Judge to be more like he was in the three games he played this past weekend in Cleveland, where he went 3-for-10 with three walks, a homer and three RBIs, than the previous 21 tilts, during which he hit .176 with a .664 OPS, four homers and nine RBIS.
To put it all on Judge across the final 52 games of the season isn’t fair, but analyze the Yankees lineup and who is missing from it, and Judge becomes a very big player in the effort to pass the first-place Red Sox (three-game lead) in the AL East because he is the most capable hitter to change a game with one hack.
According to a talent evaluator who was at Progressive Field to see the Indians and Yankees split four games, Judge looked better than in recent games, but the AL leader in OPS (1.051) and home runs (35), who is hitting .299 with 78 RBIs, still needs to clean up things.
“Obviously, the power is there and any mistake he gets he will hit it,” the scout said after watching Judge send a bullet out of the park to right-center in Sunday’s 8-1 win. “On the other hand, he will chase a breaking ball.”
Judge isn’t the only Yankee capable of launching homers, but Matt Holliday has been powerless since July 14 and is on the DL. Greg Bird, who was the Opening Day No. 3 hitter, hasn’t played since May 1, and nobody knows when he will return from a right foot problem that required surgery July 18. Aaron Hicks, who had 11 homers as of June 9 and went on the DL with a right oblique problem June 26, is playing rehab games in the minors and possibly could return this week.
Brett Gardner’s 19 homers are second to Judge’s 35. Didi Gregorius and Gary Sanchez are next at 17.
By now, the Yankees have learned to live with Judge’s strikeout-to-hit rate, which on July 3 was 99 to 93. When Judge and the Yankees open a three-game series against the Blue Jays on Tuesday night at Rogers Centre, he will have 144 Ks and 113 hits.
According to a scout who has seen Judge recently, he has been offering at pitches off the plate inside. And Judge admitted to straying from his basic approach, which produced the line-drive homer Sunday.
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“The last couple of weeks, I got off my approach, and when you get off your approach here in the major leagues, people will expose you. They are getting paid to do a job,” said Judge, who is hitting .190 (16-for-84) with five homers, 12 RBIs and has an OPS of .712 in 24 games (23 starts) since July 8. The only extra-base hits in that stretch are homers. “If you are not locked in 100 percent with your approach, you will get caught in between. You have to be on top of your game and focused either on the pitch, location or the zone you are looking for. If you get caught in between two zones, they are going to find the zone and attack the zone. It’s just about being on your game.”
With 52 games remaining, the Yankees don’t need Judge to hit .326 with 18 homers, 40 RBIs and post a 1.122 OPS as he did in the initial 52 games. What they do need is much better than what the AL Rookie of the Year lock and MVP candidate has done in the past two-dozen games.
One strikeout doesn’t kill a hot streak and three hits in three games don’t guarantee a slump is over, but the Yankees had to view Judge’s Sunday homer as their best hitter’s first step toward much-needed better days.