Aaron Judge breaks through amid postseason struggles

Aaron Judge finally got the monkey off his back in the 2024 MLB playoffs, hammering a two-run home run to centerfield in the top of the seventh inning to extend the Yankees lead to 6-2 over the Cleveland Guardians in Game 2 of the ALCS. It's Judge's first playoff home run in ten games, the last one coming in Game 5 of the 2022 ALDS against, ironically, Cleveland.

Despite Tuesday night's home run, which brought his playoff total to 14, Judge has historically struggled when the calendar flips to October. Not including numbers from Tuesday's Game 2, Judge is hitting .204 with 13 home runs, 26 RBI and 72 strikeouts in the playoffs. Judge's batting average in the postseason is significantly down compared to his career batting average in the regular season, .288. While a dip in batting average is expected, a drop like that is too big to ignore.

In fact, since the beginning of the 2019 postseason, Judge's numbers drop even more. He's hitting .176 with six home runs and 11 RBI with 42 strikeouts, again, not counting stats from Tuesday. Other teams are taking notice, too. During Game 2, the Yankees had runners on second and third base with one out. They intentionally walked Juan Soto, who homered in Game 1, choosing to face Judge with the bases loaded instead.

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The decision succeeded in the short term. Judge hit a sacrifice fly to drive in a run, but the Yankees did no additional damage in the inning. After Cleveland whittled the Yankees' lead down to two runs, Judge finally launched one out-of-the-park, putting the game out of reach for Cleveland. The Yankees won Game 2 6-3 to take a 2-0 series lead.

This postseason, Judge is just 3-for-18 with three RBI and the home run he hit Tuesday night in six games. The Yankees have been able to win games in spite of Judge -- Tuesday night's victory was the first of the playoffs to which Judge seriously contributed.

Playing the Kansas City Royals and Cleveland Guardians, who struggled to put runs on the board, has helped. If the Yankees advance to the World Series, though, they're going to need more performances like Judge had Tuesday night.

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