Judge’s HR fuels Yanks: ‘Ghosts were pulling’ to CF

NEW YORK — Aaron Judge, the best hitter on the planet, finally looked the part in Game 2 of the American League Championship Series. Five postseason games of struggles gave way to one giant swing Tuesday night, when Judge’s two-run home run capped a 6-3 win that gave the New York Yankees a 2-0 series lead against the Cleveland Guardians.

While the Yankees scored three early runs to capitalize on sloppy play from the typically tidy Guardians, Judge’s home run — a 414-foot blast to center field off Cleveland reliever Hunter Gaddis in the seventh inning — energized the crowd of 47,054 at Yankee Stadium and served as a reminder that the future AL MVP is more than capable of providing memorable October moments.

“You never know on these windy, chilly nights what that ball is going to do when you hit the center here,” Judge said, “but the ghosts were pulling out there to Monument Park, that’s for sure.”

The Yankees had won four of their first five playoff games with little production from their captain. While Judge did walk five times, he had managed only two hits in 15 at-bats this postseason before Tuesday. In one night, he tripled his previous RBI output, and a three-hit night from Gleyber Torres and five hits from the bottom three in the lineup made up for a substandard outing from Gerrit Cole.

In a game that featured a pair of errors from Cleveland, two awful baserunning mistakes in the same inning from New York and a combined 2-for-17 effort with runners in scoring position, the Yankees cobbled together enough offense and made pitches at opportune times.

They scored in the first after shortstop Brayan Rocchio dropped a sky-high popup from Judge that allowed Torres to score and added a pair of runs in the second off Guardians starter Tanner Bibee, who lasted only 1⅓ innings and allowed five hits. Cleveland fireman Cade Smith inherited a bases-loaded jam in the second after manager Stephen Vogt intentionally walked Juan Soto to load the bases and face Judge, whose sacrifice fly extended New York’s lead to 3-0.

Cole, the Yankees’ ace who clinched a division-series win against Kansas City in his last start, struggled with his control, allowing 10 baserunners over 4⅓ innings. He left with the bases loaded in the fifth inning, and reliever Clay Holmes allowed one run to score via a force out before striking out Austin Hedges to end the threat.

“We had traffic all night tonight,” Vogt said. “We do what we do. We get on base and make things happen. We just didn’t get a big hit with runners in scoring position tonight. We’re one swing of the bat away from taking the lead in that game. We’re one swing of the bat from being right back in it. That is who we are. We don’t quit. We just need to keep being us.”

As the series heads to Cleveland for at least two and potentially three games, who the Guardians have been isn’t enough. New York tacked on another run in the sixth, when Anthony Rizzo — in his second game back after he broke two fingers Sept. 28 — doubled in shortstop Anthony Volpe. Both finished the game with a pair of hits ahead of No. 9 hitter Alex Verdugo, who drove in a run with double.

“Our bottom of the order could be the top of our order,” Rizzo said. “Our top of the order is so potent and so good. We know our role down at the bottom. We just want to get it to the next guy, get it to the next guy, and that’s been our mentality.”

Torres’ third hit of the night helped get it to Judge in the seventh, when he ambushed a high, 95 mph fastball from Gaddis. Only once this season has Gaddis allowed a home run on a top-of-the-zone fastball, but then no hitter in the game is capable of doing damage like Judge, who finished the season hitting .322/.458/.701 with 58 home runs and 144 RBIs.

“I’ve been booed here plenty of times. There’s been a lot of legends that played here that have been booed. It’s just part of it. You can’t focus on that. You’ve got to go out there. They want to see you win. They want to see you do well. You’ve just got to focus on what you can control. What I can control is what I do in the box and what I do on the field.”

Aaron Judge

“The preparation he does, who he is as a person, who he is as a teammate, it’s so easy to root for him,” Rizzo said. “In these games, it really doesn’t matter who it is, how excited we are for everyone, but when Aaron does stuff, it’s extra special just because he’s such a special human being.”

Judge’s postseason issues had been minimized because his teammates had played so well in the previous five games. He never wavered from his approach, which sounds simple and cliched — take things one at-bat at a time — but has led to historic results. Though his career postseason numbers pale to those in the regular season, Judge continued to tune out any naysayers.

“I’ve been booed here plenty of times,” he said. “There’s been a lot of legends that played here that have been booed. It’s just part of it. You can’t focus on that. You’ve got to go out there. They want to see you win. They want to see you do well. You’ve just got to focus on what you can control. What I can control is what I do in the box and what I do on the field.”

What he did on the field Tuesday was far more in line with what Judge expects of himself. And when closer Luke Weaver finished the game after allowing a ninth-inning home run to Jose Ramirez, it reinforced that these Yankees might be cut from a different cloth than those of recent vintage.

“This is a really good baseball team we’re playing,” Vogt said. “We’ve known that all year. We know we have our work cut out for us, but that’s who we are. We thrive under this, and we’re going to be ready to go.”