Aaron Judge cant escape his playoff fun-house mirror

Aaron Judge walks with franchise immortals Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, Joe DiMaggio, Lou Gehrig and Yogi Berra when it comes to the regular season.He is only man wearing the pinstripe suit with a chance to break into the Pantheon of Yankees. He is a Forever Yankee. But when it comes to the postseason, the greatest natural offensive force in the game since Mantle’s heyday more than six decades ago walks with the likes of Martin Maldonado, Clay Bellinger and Reggie Sanders. The numbers seem more an optical illusion than a reflection of reality.

But after Monday’s 1-for-3 that included an eighth-inning infield single in his team’s 4-2 LDS Game 2 defeat to the Royals that squared the series ahead of a pair in Kansas City, Judge has one of the four highest strikeout rates in postseason history among batters with at least 200 plate appearances at over 33-percent. Judge is 1-for-7 in this series.He struck out with runners on first and second and none out in the first inning of Sunday’s Game 1.

He struck out with runners on first and second and none out in the first inning of Game 2.He has struck out four times in nine plate appearances. The Yankees’ fate is not tied exclusively to Judge but he is certainly aware that Yankees get their stripes collecting rings.

He also is aware of his responsibility. “Well, it eats at me every time we don’t finish the job,” Judge said before the series commenced.“I take a lot of responsibility for that, being on the team. “If we don’t win it all, I feel like it’s my fault.” The first sentence of Judge’s Hagiography will reference his American League home run record of 62 in 2022 and his 58-home run season of 2024.

It will include untold acts of future regular season dominance that lay in waiting for this unique 32-year-old who seems to get better by the season. But the same way Ted Williams’ 5-for-25 (five singles) in his only World Series appearance in 1946 in Boston’s seven-game defeat to St.Lou...