Judge And The Yankees Had Conviction

Image Credit: Bill Menzel/Latino Sports

BRONX, NY — Aaron Judge never experienced that signature postseason moment and despite hitting .444 with 11-hits against the Red Sox and Blue Jays, the Yankees captain was looking for that one pitch.

And the moment came at Yankee Stadium Tuesday evening in the fourth inning, a fastball that was launched off the left-field foul pole. A signature moment because it was a game-tying three-run homer, the first time in a Yankees postseason elimination game.

The Yankees never looked back, the Blue Jays made errors and their bullpen was touched. The Yankees used their conviction at the plate and survived another day after their 9-6 win in Game 3 of the American League Division Series.

Still, though, is another game Wednesday night in the Bronx where the Yankees will attempt to extend this series and force a fifth and deciding game Friday evening in Toronto. But this win was all about the Yankees, a season on the brink, and like two other elimination games in this postseason, they fought as they did numerous times from mid-August to their final stretch and lost the division via a tie-breaker to the Blue Jays.

But they were all smiles after the Judge home run and the go-ahead solo shot an inning later that Jazz Chisholm Jr. deposited in the right field seats.

But they were talking about Judge, a pitch that was inside and clocked at 99-MPH, first of a kind for him in the regular season and postseason.

“We need another one tomorrow,” manager Aaron Boone said. “We’ll enjoy this for about 10 minutes and get ready for tomorrow. Just a lot of good quality of at-bats to get back into it and the bullpen piecing it together so well and not overtaking it as well.”

This after Carlos Rodón was not at his best. Six runs, 2-⅓ innings and another home run from Vladimir Guerrero Jr., hitting his third of the series. But five relievers followed and kept the Blue Jays scoreless for 6-⅔ innings.

“Really good job by all the pen guys and doing it effectively,” Boone said. For sure a bullpen that also played a role and continues to pitch with conviction including the once struggling Devin Williams who threw multiple innings.

It was one of the three biggest comebacks in postseason history and the Yankees have that momentum, an instinct they believed would happen after dropping the first two games and being outscored 23-8.

Three doubles, two home runs and 6-for-12 with runners in scoring position, a contrast that was seen at their “House Of Horrors” up at the Rogers Centre up north. Yes, there was conviction and Judge again was the catalyst, though this time, a moment in his Yankee career that was inevitable. An extremely inside pitch clock off a Louis Varland fastball off the left-field foul pole.

His run-scoring double in the third did not have the magnitude but got the Yankees to inch closer. And the Blue Jays now have the predicament of resorting to go with a bullpen game in Game 4. The Yankees will send rookie Cam Schlittler to the mound, his second start in the postseason after an 11-strikeout Game 3 AL Wild Card clinching win over the Red Sox in the Bronx last Thursday.

Said Judge, “It’s a game. I don’t care what the numbers say or where something was at. I’m just up there trying to put a good swing on a good pitch. It looked good to me.”

Of course the Yankees win when they hit the home run ball as they easily led MLB with the most this year and do it well in the Bronx. But this was a team that can also use other facets of their game and would not relent after trailing 6-1 after the Blue Jays scored four more runs in the third.

Said Ernie Clement about the loss after going 4-for-4, “If you let your foot off the gas for even a second, a good team will pounce on you and make stuff happen. We know they’re not going to give up. They’re not going to lay down. So we get to show up and be ready to play tomorrow.”

“The game changed,” said Chisholm about the Judge home run. “The whole series changed right there.”

And with another raucous sellout crowd expected Wednesday evening the Yankees plan to continue this momentum. A signature home run from Judge in the postseason has a way of changing a series, even as the Yankees attempt to overcome what many teams have failed to accomplish after trailing 0-2 in a best-of-five series.

The Blue Jays had not lost a game this season when leading by at least four runs.

“It was an amazing swing,” Boone said about the Judge home run. “That’s shades of Edgar Martínez right there, taking that high-and-tight one and keeping it fair down the line. Manny Ramírez used to do that really well, too. But just a great swing on a pretty nasty pitch obviously.”

A signature moment for Judge. A swing that will be remembered regardless if the Yankees force a deciding Game 5 or not.

But they do have momentum back in the Bronx.

Rich Mancuso is a senior writer and columnist at LatinoSports.com – X: @Ring786, Facebook.com/Rich Mancuso

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