Tag: aaron judge

Pirates’ Eric Stout prepared for boos after Aaron Judge walk

How do you tick off 46,175 New Yorkers in the middle of an eight-run Yankees eighth inning? You walk Aaron Judge.

Judge’s fourth at-bat Wednesday night came and went anticlimactically in the seventh inning, when he grounded out on the first pitch to him from the Pirates’ Miguel Yajure. The main reason most of the fans at Yankee Stadium had stuck around was to watch Judge attempt to match Roger Maris’ American League record of 61 home runs.

After that groundout, the assumption was that the chase would continue for another night. Then, however, the Yankees came up in the eighth and started hitting. And all of a sudden, Judge — the eighth batter due up when the inning began — got to the plate for a fifth time.

Cue the standing, the buzz, that anticipation. Who cared about the score, which ended up 14-2? The Pirates were falling victim to an avalanche, with six Yankees runs already having scored in the inning, a man on second and one out. It looked to be Judge’s moment.

Eric Stout, though, didn’t let that happen. The lefty reliever said afterwards he wasn’t thinking about 61, Maris or any of that. But he sure did pitch as if he were, walking Judge on four pitches that weren’t especially close to the zone.

Aaron Judge got one last shot at hitting No. 61 on Wednesday, but got a walk instead.
Charles Wenzelberg / New York Post
Eric Stout heard the boos rain down from the Yankee Stadium crowd after his eighth-inning walk of Aaron Judge.
John Angelillo/UPI/Shutterstock

“The changeup’s been a good pitch for me this season,” Stout said. “I think that was the game plan going into the at-bat. Regardless of nobody on, bases loaded, doesn’t really matter. I got [Anthony] Rizzo behind him as a lefty. With a base open, I’m very good versus lefties this year. That was more of the approach.

“I’m not gonna give in [on] 2-0, 3-0, throw him something, regardless of who it is, especially with a lefty on deck. So that was the approach.”

The crowd responded accordingly, booing as few crowds have ever booed in the latter stages of a blowout by the home team.

“Yeah, I kind of figured that’s what the crowd reaction was gonna be,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “I’ve been to Yankee Stadium a lot of times. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anybody stay when the score’s like that, but you know, there was everybody in the ballpark.”

Even though the crowd left disappointed not to have witnessed history, fans did see Judge double twice, reach base three times and score twice. Following his 60th home run on Tuesday, that added up to this assessment from Shelton when asked about how his 55-94 ballclub handled Judge:

“I mean,” Shelton said, “he hit the one home run. … You have to be able, not only with him, but with the entire lineup, you have to be able to execute pitches.

“We didn’t.”

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Aaron Judge making chase for Roger Maris’ HR mark look easy

The most important hit at Fenway Park, relative to the game Tuesday night, came later, off the bat of Gleyber Torres. It cleared the bases and gave the Yankees a 7-4 lead in the 10th-inning, and they held on for a 7-6 win that helped nudge the Red Sox a little bit deeper into their deep winter’s sleep.

It was a fine footnote. An afterthought.

That, as much as anything, tells you about the rarefied place that Aaron Judge occupies now. It’s supposed to be anathema, a mortal sin, to hint that any one player is bigger than The Game. But that’s what Judge is now. That’s what Judge has been all across this magnificent season. He is bigger than any game he plays.

Judge clobbered two more home runs, No. 56 and No. 57, inching him closer to Roger Maris. Only four men in the history of the American League — an operation that only dates to 1901 — have hit more home runs in one season than Judge: Hank Greenberg, Jimmie Foxx, Babe Ruth (twice) and Maris. And Judge still has 20 games left to inflate that number and send it into outer space.

But that’s not all. As has been the case most of the year, Judge’s homers were essential, they were oxygen for the Yankees. The first one, a cannon blast hit the other way to the heartbreakingly deep Fenway power alley in right, tied the score at 3-3 in the sixth inning. The second one, splattered over the Green Monster in left, tied the score at 4-4 in the eighth.

Judge’s last at bat came in the 10th inning. There were two outs and a man on third with the score tied, and Red Sox manager Alex Cora raised four fingers before Judge even walked out of the on-deck circle. You wonder if that won’t be a more common occurrence these last few weeks of the season, managers deciding that discretion is the better part of valor.

Aaron Judge hits homer No. 57 during the Yankees' 7-6, 10-inning win over the Red Sox. It was his second of the game.
Aaron Judge hits homer No. 57 during the Yankees’ 7-6, 10-inning win over the Red Sox. It was his second of the game.
N.Y. Post: Charles Wenzelberg

You hope not, though.

Because every Judge at-bat the rest of the way is going to be an event. They are going to be must-see TV. If you are a fan of the Yankees — or merely a fan of baseball — it is impossible not to want to see every pitch. Because every time he swings the bat, something splendid and spectacular could be looming.

It’s almost a surprise when he doesn’t go deep.

“However many home runs he ends up hitting, I don’t think it’s that important to him,” Judge’s manager, Aaron Boone, said before the game. “He knows where we are. It’s about going out and winning the ballgame. I think when you have that genuinely simple mindset and approach to it, it makes playing the game a lot easier.”

That’s the most amazing part of Judge’s season, when you think about it. We all know, as a matter of law, that hitting a baseball that well, that far, that often, is maybe the hardest thing to do in sports. Yet when Judge swings, and when he connects, and when he sends his majestic blasts to the far reaches of ball yards all across the game, it really does look …

Well. Easy.

Ridiculously easy. Impossibly easy.

“When we’re winning and in first place, that’s always fun, it’s been a fun year,” Judge said. “The numbers will take care of themselves.”

Aaron Judge celebrates with Giancarlo Stanton after belting his 57th homer in the Yankees’ wins.
N.Y. Post: Charles Wenzelberg

It should no longer be a subject for debate if Judge should win the MVP; the only question is if he gets all 30 first-place votes, earns the maximum 420 voting points. Shohei Ohtani, the only name feebly thrown out as competition, did that last year, and as otherworldly as that season was his team still went 77-85.

The Yankees are now 86-56. They are back to 30 games over .500, back to a comfortable lead atop the AL East with days melting off the calendar. There is little mystery why they surged early and have survived lately: because they have Judge as the anchor of their lineup. And nobody else does.

“I’m out of adjectives.” Boone said.

Late in his dream 1961 ride, Roger Maris took the day off in the 159th game of the season, causing a seismic shock. He was sitting on 60 home runs. How could he forfeit four at-bats? The way he’s going, Judge can look forward to a day off or around that time, and nobody will much complain.

Unless by then, Barry Bonds’ 73 is still in sight. It probably won’t be. But would you bet against it?

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Yankees’ Aaron Judge doubles down on real home run record

Aaron Judge’s march toward 61 continued on Wednesday when he hit his 55th homer of the season in the first game of a doubleheader against the Twins.

Though many believe Judge will be considered the new home run champ if he passes Roger Maris’ mark of 61 due to Barry Bonds PED ties, Judge himself indicated he didn’t agree, saying that Bonds’ 73 homers is still the legitimate milestone.

“The record’s the record,” Judge said after the Yankees swept the twin bill against Minnesota. “That’s what I go by. I watched him as a kid flip the ball into the bay with ease. That hasn’t changed.”

Judge first expressed the sentiment in an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, saying, “No one can take that from him.” But Judge said he’s not going after Bonds’ number or Maris’, for that matter.

“I’m not really chasing or looking at anything,” Judge said of his move up the home run leaderboard. “It’s just happening.”

Aaron Judge belts his 55th homer of the season in the Yankees’ Game 1 win in their doubleheader sweep.
N.Y. Post: Charles Wenzelberg

And he doesn’t plan on gunning for 73, either.

“Not really,” Judge said. “That was a pretty unreal year. That’s a hard number to catch.”

Roger Maris Jr., is preparing for Judge to pass his late father’s milestone that was set in 1961 and said it was “disappointing” that Judge didn’t consider Maris’ record as the real one.

“I think a lot of people still look at Dad’s as the real record,” Maris said by phone. “So that was surprising to me.”

And he was somewhat surprised for another reason, since Judge will be a free agent after the season and while he’s going to get a tremendous contract even if he doesn’t hit another homer, he’d likely do even better if he was considered the holder of the true home run record.

“He’s got a lot on the line if that’s what he believes,” Maris said. “So he better start hitting more of them. Maybe he is going after Bonds, with the way he’s killing it lately.”

Wednesday’s homer in game one gave Judge home runs in four straight games. The recent hot streak is also making plans difficult for Maris, who would like to be at the game if Judge is set to get 62.

“This has caught everyone off guard,” Maris said. “He’s definitely killing it. I think we all expected him to get it at this point, but I don’t think anyone saw him going off like this. Anything can happen, but at this point, he looks like he’ll get to the mid-60s. And then, who knows?”

His homer on Wednesday gave Judge the franchise record for a right-handed hitter, previously held by another PED-tainted player, Alex Rodriguez.

And he’s showing no signs of the attention getting to him, which was not the case when Maris was going after Babe Ruth’s record of 60 in 1961.

“It shows how strong and consistent he is,” Maris said. “But the circumstances are way different. Dad was chasing Ruth and had [Mickey] Mantle with him. No one wanted him to get it: The writers, the commissioner, the fans. It seems like everyone is pulling for Judge.”

Including Maris — to a point.

“We like Dad having the record, but records are made to be broken and you have to like greatness and getting to see it,” he said. “You’d be crazy not to applaud what he’s doing.”

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Only Yankees can flip script on how teams will treat Aaron Judge

The Yankees have seen the future and it is the opposing manager giving them the finger. Four of them. Any time that Aaron Judge has a plate appearance in a meaningful spot.

The next manager who allows Judge to beat his team short of it being a tie or one-run lead with the bases loaded in the final inning should be fired on the spot. Because the rest of the Yankees lineup is hit deficient.

Imagine a high school play with Meryl Streep showing up as the lead and students filling the rest of the cast. That is the Yankees batting order these days. Judge and the Pips — and apologies to the Pips.

That the Yankees swept a doubleheader Wednesday came down to this word — Twins. They just find a way to lose to the Yankees or the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders or whoever exactly that was who took two games on Wednesday to give Minnesota 108 losses in its last 147 games against the Yankees.

Three times from the seventh inning on over the two games, Twins manager Rocco Baldelli put up four fingers to walk Judge. And the Yanks failed to score all three times. Judge now has 14 intentional walks on the season, tied with Pete Alonso for the most in the majors. When asked if he expects this treatment to continue, Aaron Boone said, “Absolutely.”

Aaron Judge, who will be walked more often going forward, homered in Game 1 for the Yankees.
Robert Sabo

That reflects injury and ineptitude that has left the Yankees’ attack trapped between helpless and hopeless — with a touch of hapless thrown in. Judge is having one of the great offensive seasons ever surrounded for about a month now by less protection than an umbrella in a monsoon.

Gleyber Torres, who hit third behind Judge in both games of the doubleheader, mainly had good at-bats, which included a two-run homer in the opener. But that is not enough to scare teams into pitching to Judge. Isaiah Kiner-Falefa also had good at-bats through 21 innings. He had the tying single in the 12th inning of what would be a 5-4 Yankee win in the opener. He hit a grand slam as the big blow of a 7-1 nightcap triumph blown open on Aaron Hicks’ thee-run double with two outs in the eighth.

This is the state of the Yankees these days: Oswaldo Cabrera was 0-for-20 to begin the day and hit leadoff in the opener. He ended an 0-for-25 malaise with a walk-off single in the opener, so with a .188 average, no homers and four RBIs he hit cleanup in the nightcap.

The cleanup hitter in the opener was Ronald Guzman, called up earlier in the day. He struck out his first four times then hit into a first-to-home-to-first double play with the bases loaded and no outs in the 11th (that included Judge on via intentional walk).

DJ LeMahieu (toe) and Giancarlo Stanton (foot) were not available to pinch hit, Boone said. The manager added that LeMahieu is a candidate to join an injured list that already has Andrew Benintendi, Matt Carpenter and Anthony Rizzo. Josh Donaldson was gone on paternity leave. So Judge was amid a lineup that needed name tags.

The Yankees nevertheless have won four straight (three over Minnesota). They are 9-6 in their last 15 games. In the first eight wins in that period, Judge drove in a run in each game. He homered in seven straight wins, including hitting his 55th of the season in Wednesday’s opener before drawing three walks in the nightcap. Without him, the Yankees might be, say, 2-13 or 3-12 in this stretch and hugging infamy. Instead, they still lead the Rays by five games in the AL East.

Yankees shortstop Isiah Kiner-Falefa (12) hits a grand slam home run during the fourth inning.
Robert Sabo

Their run prevention has remained outstanding. The Yankees used the best of their bullpen to survive Game 1 and their regeneration of Clay Holmes and Jonathan Loaisiga has been instrumental. Gerrit Cole then aced the nightcap by throwing his second-most pitches ever (118) and striking out his second most as a Yankee (14) to hold Minnesota to one run over 6 ²/₃ innings.

It will have to continue this way until the Yankees get healthy and/or more than Judge hits consistently. Because opponents are going to be very intentional in how they treat Judge and the Yankees the rest of the way. Can anyone else left in this shredded Yankees lineup make that a regrettable decision?

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Yankees far from a sure thing to win AL East title

The Yankees were rained out Tuesday, losing a likely win against their favorite opponent, the Twins, and that was about the best of the news coming out of Yankeeland.

The way things are going, for the first time the division looks to be in serious jeopardy. The Blue Jays are finally waking up, the Rays are always better than you and I think, and the Yankees, well, they are mostly licking wounds now.

Anthony Rizzo had to go on the injured list for headaches. This is one of the toughest guys in the game, so you know he is hurting.

Rizzo, who beat cancer in his youth and plays through all sorts of pain, joins many of the rest of the starting lineup in sick bay. If you are scoring at home, for the starting position players alone, there are four with foot injuries, which must be a record, plus one each with a hand and a head.

In Aaron Boone’s question-and-answer session Tuesday, nearly all the queries were about various aches and pains. Halfway through, even Boone looked a little depressed. Or less upbeat than usual, anyway.

“I think there are some hopeful signs for a number of the guys,” Boone said, hopefully.

For now though, they are a mess. The lineup consists of certain AL MVP Aaron Judge plus a couple of outstanding defensive players, struggling veterans and the injury replacements. Speaking of which, journeyman first baseman Ronald Guzman appeared in the clubhouse, up from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, which was the first clear sign Rizzo will miss further time.

Aaron Boone’s Yankees are banged up. (Top to bottom): Anthony Rizzo, DJ LeMahieu and Giancarlo Stanton are battling different health issues.
AP (2); Getty Images; N.Y. Post: Michelle Farsi

At some point you’d think Judge might get tired of carrying the club, but he seems to march on. The Yankees are 7-6 in their last 13, and Judge has an RBI in all seven wins, and a homer in six. Until Marwin Gonzalez broke a 0-for-29 slide and homered Monday, no one other than Judge had scored this month. So Judge is scoring most of their runs, and knocking them in, too. The question next to be answered: Can one man win a pennant single-handedly?

It remains a mystery why opposing managers keep pitching to Judge. The only one who was really catching on to what’s going on is Angels manager Phil Nevin. You’d think with all the extra analytics folks teams employ nowadays, an intentional walk would be obvious for Judge at this point. As one of Boone’s previous Yankees coaches until this year, Nevin may have a little extra inside info.

That Judge has only been intentionally walked 11 times in 577 plate appearances is an indictment of the league’s managers. Everyone says they are smart, but how smart is pitching to a guy with 54 home runs and leads the league in about that many categories? Of course, now that he is surrounded by replacement-level hitters, it’s hard to imagine they will.

DJ LeMahieu and Giancarlo Stanton were obviously trying to play through pain, as we know what they were doing wasn’t them. Andrew Benintendi had surgery Tuesday to fix the hamate bone in his right wrist. Matt Carpenter, a godsend of the first half, has a broken foot. Both are hoping to be back if the Yankees advance in the playoffs. Unfortunately, that prospect is dimming now.

Andrew Benintendi had surgery to fix the hamate bone in his right wrist
Getty Images

In the middle of all this pain talk, Boone had to answer a question about Josh Donaldson not hustling and being thrown out turning a sure double into an out (thank you Sweeny Murti for asking the non-injury-related question that needed to be asked). Boone said he didn’t approve and talked to Donaldson but added that he generally isn’t worried about Donaldson because he knows he’s a gamer.

Donaldson appeared to be chuckling after his predicament at second, and that wasn’t a great look either. However, the situation they are in is no joke now.

The Yankees, once overpowering their opponents, are averaging less than three runs a game over their last 29 games. During a time when their pitching has been quite good, especially their starting pitching, they are 20-31 in their last 51.

They have a chance to feel a bit better with the doubleheader scheduled for Wednesday against the Twins, as they beat Minnesota in their sleep. They are 112-39 against the Twins since 2002.

But, if opposing managers start walking Judge, you wonder where the runs are going to come from. Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Jose Trevino are mostly defensive specialists (Trevino should win the Gold Glove, and he’s actually hit much better than expected), Donaldson and Aaron Hicks are hitting well below career norms, Gleyber Torres is in a hellacious slump and Oswaldo Cabrera, for all his defensive versatility and press clippings, is hitting .190.

The injuries have decimated the Yankees to the point where the division is in real jeopardy after they looked historically good early. Fangraphs still gives the Yankees an 85 percent chance to win the AL East. Nobody from that site must have sat in on Tuesday’s interview session. Or seen any of their recent games.

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Yankees’ full-blown collapse suddenly on the table

At this point, you don’t even need to hear the words or listen to the explanations — and what are they going to say, anyway? How are the Yankees going to describe what has happened to this season that was such a dream-cast just 15 minutes ago? How do you explain the inexplicable?

No. All you need to do is look at the eyes. Look at the faces. Look at the Yankees in the dugout these days, looking tortured, looking troubled, looking utterly bewitched and bewildered by what’s happening to them. They lost again Saturday night to Tampa Bay, 2-1. Their lead in the AL East is down to four games. It’s three in the loss column.

It is no longer an abstract notion that the Yankees could collapse.

They are collapsing. Their eyes tell you that much. Their body language tells you that much. And if any of the Yankees were given truth serum, maybe what they’d do is channel an old Red Sox shortstop named Rick (Rooster) Burleson who, after the fourth game of the Boston Massacre 44 years ago, shook his head and gave one of the most honest quotes in the history of quotes.

“Every day,” Burleson said, “you sit in front of your locker and ask God, ‘What the hell is going on?’ ”

What the hell is going on?

Hell, that’s what’s going on. Baseball hell. The Yankees are in such a collective hitting funk it actually felt like a positive consolation prize when Aaron Judge slammed a home run — No. 52 — in the ninth inning Saturday, snapping a 21-inning scoring drought for the Yankees.

Aaron Judge and Aaron Boone
AP; Getty Images

The Yankees are living under such a dark cloud that it didn’t matter a bit that the Rays tried their best to hand them a freebie, making a couple of awful errors early, running themselves out of what should’ve been a seventh inning rife with insurance runs. Didn’t matter. Doesn’t matter. The Yankees are in such a bad place they aren’t even accepting gifts.

None of this makes sense. Not a bit of it. The Yankees are still the better team on paper in just about every game they play. But they are also showing a skin that’s paper-thin. A five-game winning streak from Aug. 21-26 that seemed to have halted all the negative mojo feels like it happened months ago.

And every day, they sit in the dugout, sit in front of their lockers, and bear a look that distinctly asks: “What the hell is going on?”

Or, as manager Aaron Boone said: “If we don’t dig ourselves out, you’ll have a great story.”

Yankees starter Clarke Schmidt allowed just two runs, but still suffered the loss.
USA TODAY Sports

Great, of course, is in the eye of the beholder. The Yankees don’t want any part of that story. Yankees fans want no part of that story. Yet every day is a fresh chapter. Every day is a case study in a team trapped in its own head. Every game is a thesis in just how easy it is to lose baseball games once you hit the slippery slope.

“There has to be some level of relaxing a little bit,” Boone said. “Walking that fine line in a failing game. We’ve got to be tough-minded right now.”

Boone speaks of winning small victories now, of winning at-bats, of working counts, of stacking quality at-bats. It is sound strategy, sure, one that sounds perfectly reasonable in the quiet of a postgame manager’s office. And one that can sometimes be difficult to translate in a game

Right now, it feels as if the Yankees are trying to translate the Dead Sea Scrolls.

“We’re not where we want to be,” Giancarlo Stanton said, “but we still have a fine opportunity.”

Said Boone: “It’s right there. We have the same conversation every day. We’ve got to find a way, we’ve got to score. We’ve got thing right here to grab and take and we’re still in control of that.”

Through much of August, that’s what sustained the Yankees: As bad as they were playing, they’d built such a cushion that they should be able to right themselves and not have to spend one moment sweating. But they are sure sweating now.

They sure look perplexed in the dugout, and in the postgame clubhouse, trying to explain away one loss after another, trying to make sense of how 15 ½ games became four. No need to ask if the Yankees can collapse. They are collapsing. There are still 29 games to go, still plenty of time to right the ship.

And still plenty of time to sink it.

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Aaron Judge history spoiled by Shohei Ohtani as Yankees fall to Angels

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Aaron Judge made history on Monday night, becoming just the third Yankee to reach the 50-homer milestone multiple times in his career. 

But it was his main challenger for AL MVP — Shohei Ohtani — who had the biggest blast of the night, as Ohtani’s two-run homer in the fifth put the Angels ahead for good in their 4-3 win at Angel Stadium. 

Josh Donaldson’s pinch-hit single with two outs in the ninth gave the Yankees some life before Oswaldo Cabrera flied out to deep center to end it. 

It sent the Yankees to their third straight loss after a five-game winning streak that now seems a distant memory. 

Frankie Montas gave up three homers — tied for a career high — and for a fourth consecutive game, the Yankees couldn’t score more than three runs. 

It left the Yankees seven games ahead of the second-place Rays in the AL East, which is as small as their lead has been in the division since June 5. 

Shohei Ohtani hits a two-run homer in the fifth inning.
Getty Images

Montas entered with a 1.20 ERA in five starts in Anaheim, his best mark at any ballpark, but that previous success didn’t carry over into Monday night. 

Against an Angels team that just swept Toronto after losing nine of its previous 10 games, Montas gave up a leadoff homer to Luis Rengifo in the bottom of the second, as the Yankees fell behind, 1-0. 

After left-hander Jose Suarez retired the first seven batters of the game, Isiah Kiner-Falefa walked and Cabrera singled down the right-field line to put runners on the corners for the Yankees. 

Frankie Montas pitches on Monday during the Yankees’ loss to the Angels.
AP

DJ LeMahieu, one of many slumping Yankees, then laid down a safety squeeze bunt to score Kiner-Falefa. It was another indication of how bad the Yankee offense has been, that they bunted with their leadoff hitter. 

Judge was walked intentionally before Andrew Benintendi grounded out to end the inning. 

The Yankees went ahead with Rizzo’s two-out solo shot to right in the fourth. 

It was Rizzo’s first homer since Aug. 17 and just his second since Aug. 2. 

Shohei Ohtani, left, celebrates after his home run.
USA TODAY Sports

Former Yankee Mike Ford answered with his first homer of the season with one out in the bottom of the inning. 

Kiner-Falefa opened the fourth with a double to left-center, but Cabrera struck out and LeMahieu grounded to third, keeping Kiner-Falefa at second. Judge was walked intentionally for a second time and Benintendi flied to right. 

Ohtani’s blast to right-center gave the Angels their first lead of the night, 4-2. It was Ohtani’s 29th homer of the season. 

Judge got the Yankees back to within a run, but Suarez — who gave up just two runs in six innings — and the Angels’ bullpen did enough to keep the struggling Yankee offense down. 

Aaron Judge hit his 50th home run Monday night.
AP

Gleyber Torres went hitless again and made a careless mistake in the bottom of the seventh, when he failed to touch second base on what should have been an inning-ending double play. 

And Montas, the team’s consolation prize when they couldn’t land top target Luis Castillo, now has a 7.01 ERA in five starts as a Yankee.

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Yankees look to continue new-found momentum on West Coast trip

Three wins can’t fully erase a rough monthlong slide, but perhaps they can send the Yankees on their way out of it.

For the first time in a while, the Yankees were feeling good about themselves Tuesday night after they finished off a two-game sweep of the Mets. That series victory followed a win Sunday over the Blue Jays, and gave the Yankees a three-game winning streak for the first time since July 28-30.

The Yankees’ mojo had largely gone missing during a 9-20 stretch coming out of the All-Star break (at which point they were still playing at a 113-win pace), especially during the more recent 2-9 skid in which their offense went ice cold. But they looked like a team that was starting to rediscover it over their last three games.

Giancarlo Stanton is expected to return to the Yankees’ lineup against the A’s.
N.Y. Post/Charles Wenzelberg

Now, they will have a chance to reinforce that winning feeling — and to get Giancarlo Stanton back from the injured list to help — when they open a four-game series against the last-place Athletics on Thursday in Oakland, Calif., before visiting the struggling Angels next week.

“I think it’s tough to have a little bit of swagger when you keep losing games and dropping series and not playing your brand of baseball,” Aaron Judge said late Tuesday night before the Yankees flew west. “But I think the swagger’s always been there. I think it just took a little reminder of who we are and what type of baseball we play and going back to doing the basics. We got it back.”

Of course, it helps that Judge has returned to MVP form. After he went through a small rut while the rest of the lineup was also struggling, Judge crushed a home run in each of the two wins over the Mets.

“The dude is pretty much the best hitter right now,” Frankie Montas said after turning in his best start as a Yankee on Tuesday night.

In addition to Judge’s resurgence and signs that Montas is settling in, the Yankees have recently displayed other reasons to believe that they might just be emerging from their funk.

They played two mostly crisp games against the Mets, with their strong defense flashing once again — especially on a pair of double plays between Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Gleyber Torres on Tuesday night. There was a dropped pop-up between Oswaldo Cabrera and Marwin Gonzalez in right field on Monday and Torres (unsuccessfully) racing Jeff McNeil to second base while allowing Pete Alonso to score from third on Tuesday, but manager Aaron Boone attributed both to the amped-up crowd noise.

Timely hits from Andrew Benintendi also played a key role in all three wins. After a cold start in pinstripes, he is batting .310 with nine extra-base hits and a .892 OPS over his last 16 games.

“He’s been big-time,” Judge said. “I told him, ‘Hey, keep leading us. Keep being a guy that can come up in big spots.’ ”

Then there is Cabrera, whose arrival has also given the Yankees a boost. The versatile rookie seemingly has made his presence felt in at least one way every game.

There are still a few areas that offer cause for concern, though, leading with the bullpen. While some unlikely arms helped close out three straight 4-2 wins, the relief corps remains unsettled, with a mix of inconsistency and injuries popping up of late.

And in the lineup, not everyone is out of their slumps just yet. Josh Donaldson is still batting 6-for-44 (.136) with 17 strikeouts and a .445 OPS over his last 12 games, though his walk-off grand slam on Aug. 17 against the Rays certainly helped.

But the Yankees still came out of a tough nine-game homestand looking much better than when they started it.

“I think the most important thing is we learned from it,” Judge said. “We learned about what not to do. That if we don’t do the little things, we don’t make the little plays and prepare the right way, teams are going to come after us. I think it comes back to learn from those mistakes, learn from those series and time to move on to the next one.”

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Aaron Judge continues to be everything for Yankees

The MVP long ago decided, Aaron Judge is taking pennant-race matters into his own very large hands. He took over the Subway Series, hitting early stage-setting home runs in both games, driving in half the runs Tuesday in Game 2, lifting the Yankees out of their inexplicable funk and restoring faith in a team that’s suddenly looking like a powerhouse again.

Judge’s latest work of art landed 453 feet from home plate, a 115 mph drive deep into the lower deck in left field at Yankee Stadium that was home run No. 48. Now let’s see how far he can carry this Yankees ballclub that started to show a few too many cracks over the past month plus.

Singlehandedly, he turned a depression into a celebration almost as fast as he turned around replacement starter Taijuan Walker’s 3-and-2, fourth-inning offering. Judge is back on pace to beat Roger Maris, the Yankees’ lead seems pretty secure and all is right in The Bronx, at least for the moment.

Walker and recent Yankees acquisition Frankie Montas were locked in a scoreless duel when Judge pulled this one into oblivion, the key blow in a needed sweep for the Yankees, who spent the better part of a month searching for answers. This second straight 4-2 victory over the Mets before another sellout crowd at Yankee Stadium sealed the sweep and had to feel especially good after the disastrous last several weeks caused doubt to creep into the Yankees lexicon for the first time in a year that began magically.

Aaron Judge belts a solo home run in the fourth inning of the Yankees’ 4-2 win over the Mets.
AP

Yankees manager Aaron Boone seemed to stop the losing with that forceful slap of the interview table late Saturday. Then Judge began the winning, as he has done all year, and the Yankees are three in a row to the good.

If he has to, and at times it seems like he may, he will do it by himself.

The Yankees continue to show cracks, so he may have no choice.

In the Mets’ first run-scoring inning, Yankees backup catcher Kyle Higashioka helped the visitors by allowing rookie Brett Baty to reach base via catcher’s interference. In the Mets’ second run, Gleyber Torres became fixated on the trail runner, trying to beat Jeff McNeil back to the second-base bag as Pete Alonso scampered home. Alonso at first tried to hustling back to third after tripping rounding the bag, but once he saw Torres lost sight of the situation, he ran home.

Aaron Judge celebrates with Andrew Benintendi after the Yankees’ win.
Corey Sipkin

The Yankees were due assists on both Mets runs. Keith Hernandez had to be calling out the atrocious fundies.

It was a wild one.

Then the Mets gave one back. The Yankees scored their third run when Alonso failed to catch a high pop-up in short right field, as he turned every which way but the right way. Alonso had quite an eventful game. Earlier he broke his huge bat over his knee following a strikeout. He did not do the same to his glove, though we imagine he has that capability.

Alonso is probably the Mets’ MVP so it’s advisable for him not to try to have any more fights with his lumber. Judge, meantime, is the MVP of the Yankees, the league, everything. And, by the way, he scorched a line single to drive home Jose Trevino with the insurance run, the final dagger in a two-day, one-man display.

It’s uncertain if anyone’s had a year like this.

Aaron Judge rips an RBI single in the seventh inning of the Yankees’ victory.
Robert Sabo

Maybe Mickey Mantle in 1956 when he won the Triple Crown.

Or Carl Yastrzemski, who went on an impossible streak in the Impossible Dream season of 1967.

Or Barry Bonds a bunch of times. Although, we don’t really count those. Not in this space.

Judge, now on pace for 62 home runs, took over this series, and long ago he took over this season.

There are still those few holdouts who suggest the great Shohei Ohtani for MVP. Ohtani is the most amazing player. The most miraculous player.

But he is not the MVP. The MVP is the guy who’s shown his own sort of versatility.

The guy who plays center field because they need it even though he is 6-foot-7 and 280 pounds. And he does it as gracefully as nearly anyone. He glided back to the wall to make a one-handed catch on a Brandon Nimmo drive with one on and one out in the eighth.

The guy who leads the league in every slugging category but will bat leadoff if called upon. And do it happily.

The guy who will fix anything that’s broken in the clubhouse. The guy who will stand up and tell a teammate when he did wrong, as he did when Josh Donaldson stepped out of line early. You’ll notice no one else has stepped out of line.

The guy who will talk and explain what’s going on when everything’s going wrong. And that was happening for a month, or more.

But now things are back to normal. And Judge is in the center of it, doing whatever he can to make things right.

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