Aaron Judge pitches in his first World Series

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Aaron Judge is sinking deeper into a brutal postseason crisis, and with him the New York Yankees' championship chances are fading.

The superstar slugger went 1-for-9 with six strikeouts in his first two World Series Games at Dodger Stadium in which New York's offense suffered two losses to Los Angeles.

Judge was 0-for-4 with three strikeouts in Game 2 on Saturday night. He had a hard time making any contact with Yoshinobu Yamamoto and reliever Blake Treinen, who cheered him on with Juan Soto at second base in the first run of the ninth inning the Dodgers' 4-2 victory.

Judge struck out and missed the ball six times in his four at-bats in Game 2. The entire Dodgers team only managed this 12 times.

“It definitely eats at you,” Judge said. “You want to contribute and help the team, but that’s why you have to keep working and keep going. I can't just sit here and feel sorry for myself. Nobody feels sorry for me, so you just have to show up and do the work.”

Judge will likely win his second American League MVP award after the season ends, but he's not an October hero for anyone right now.

He is 6-for-40 (.150) with two home runs and a whopping 19 strikeouts in these playoffs and has scored all six of his RBIs during a three-game stretch in the AL Championship Series. He is 0 for 8 with runners in scoring position and has scored just once in his last 22 at-bats in that situation from past postseasons.

That's nothing new for one of the game's top hitters from April through September: Judge's career postseason average has dropped to .199 as the World Series moves to Yankee Stadium.

Judge's postseason struggles are a painful topic for Yankees fans, as they cannot understand why he doesn't perform the same way in the playoffs.

Judge has repeatedly said his problems stem from over-aggressive pitch selection and he's trying to remedy the situation.

“I think it's about letting things happen rather than letting the game come to you,” Judge said. “I think that’s what it really comes down to. You see Gleyber (Torres) out there on base, Juan getting on base, doing things, you want to try to make something happen. But if you can't get a spot in the zone, you'll just have to walk instead. Plain and simple: I have to start hitting.”

With 85 career postseason strikeouts, Judge now has the highest strikeout rate (34.3%) in MLB postseason history among players with at least 200 plate appearances.

Nothing there World Series marquee matchup was more convincing than the match between Judge and Shohei Ohtanithe two most dangerous hitters in baseball.

But while Giancarlo Stanton and Freddie Freeman hit some memorable hits in the first two games, the two biggest names had exactly one big hit between them — and then Ohtani injured his left arm while slipping in the seventh inning of Game 2, putting his status with the Bronx in question.

Ohtani doubled off the wall to score the winning run in the eighth inning of Game 1, but the two-way superstar is just 1 for 8 with a walk and two strikeouts in the first two games, with repeated outs early in the count brought into play.

Judge went 1 for 5 in Game 1, with Jack Flaherty striking him out in his first three at-bats. His only hit was a solid two-out single to center in the seventh inning, but he came out two-out in the bottom of the ninth inning and failed to come through in a situation that was ripe for postseason heroics.

Worse, the Dodgers had accompanied Soto on foot to get to Judge, who was unable to force them to pay.

Of course, Judge isn't the only New York hitter coming up short in the final stretch: The Yankees are 2-for-14 and are the runners in scoring position in the World Series.

“He’s our leader, he’s our captain,” New York native Anthony Rizzo said. “The narrative is what is made of it, but he is a wall. He knows how to deal with all of those things, so I'm proud of who he is as a person, as a leader, and those times shape him even more now because he comes in every day and he's still the same person he's always been .”

The 6-foot-3 judge's powerful swing has been erratic and imprecise lately, although it has seemed to become more efficient in recent weeks. He still swings and misses at an alarming rate, including a bad swing on a slider from Yamamoto below the zone to beat him in the first inning of Game 2. He was often out in front of breaking pitches and behind in fastballs.

He flied out to right to end the third inning, and Yamamoto hit him again to end the fifth inning, with Judge hitting a vicious low splitter that slammed into him.

“(I’m) just expanding the zone,” Judge said. “That's exactly what matters. You have to get a spot in the zone and push it, and if you don’t, don’t try to make anything happen.”

This is Judge's first postseason since signing a nine-year, $360 million contract after setting an AL record with 62 home runs in 2022 and beating Ohtani for the AL MVP award. New York missed the playoffs last fall.

Judge led the majors with 58 home runs, 144 RBIs and an OPS of 1.159 this season. He batted .322 and scored 122 runs despite enduring a career-long 16-game home run drought in August and September.

“It’s all about one shot,” Soto said. “I feel like when you’re a hitter like him, he’s one of the greatest. He just needs one shot to catch the ball and get involved.”

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