Yankees may need to go spiritual to save Aaron Judge this World Series

We’re not quite at the point where it would be helpful for one of the city’s priests to take it upon themself in an effort to fix Aaron Judge.Not yet.But then again, it probably wouldn’t hurt.You know the story, right? In 1952, Gil Hodges went 0-for-21 in the World Series against the Yankees.The next season he suffered from one of the worst hangover slumps ever.

Father Herbert Raymond, a 44-year old parish priest at St.Francis Xavier Church on Sixth Avenue in Park Slope, who kept picking up the newspapers in the unseasonably warm spring of 1953 and kept seeing a string of gutless Hodges games, decided to help.One especially steamy Sunday, in lieu of a sermon, Father Raymond told his congregation: “Go home, keep the Commandments.

And say a prayer for Gil Hodges.”Soon thereafter, Hodges returned to his usual Hall of Fame form.Every little bit helps.Judge is now nearing that place where he could use the help.He could use a boost.

He came into Saturday night’s Game 2 of the World Series with a slash line of .167/.304/.361.He’d struck out 16 times in 36 at-bats.

And things didn’t get better Saturday: 0-for-4, three more strikeouts, and a notably empty ninth-inning at-bat while they were trying to come back before settling for a 4-2 loss.And look: players slump at all times of the year.

And really good players have had their difficulties in October.Gil Hodges proved that.

So did Barry Bonds.So did Alex Rodriguez.

It happens.It’s baseball.

Baseball is maddening for a lot of reasons and as much as anything, it’s impossible to explain why great players turn ice cold when they do.The Judge we see now bears no resemblance to the Judge we saw all year, unless you’re talking about the Judge who woke up on May 2, after 33 games, with a slash line — .197/.331/.393 — that looks awful resemblant of the one he carries now.You may have heard: Judge recovered.Now, it goes without saying, that he needs to make a similar bounce-back in what’s left of t...