Judge hits first postseason home run with help of ‘ghosts’
NEW YORK—Aaron Judge sent the ball soaring toward Monument Park and Gleyber Torres tagged up at first base.
“That was disrespect out of Gleyber, man,” Judge said with a smile. “He’s seen me hit 58 of those things this year.”
Judge’s first home run of the postseason broke the tension, a two-run, seventh-inning drive that helped boost the New York Yankees over the Cleveland Guardians, 6-3, on Tuesday night for a 2-0 American League Championship Series lead.
“I’m a little disappointed in Gleyber for not knowing Judge’s pop there,” Anthony Rizzo said. “We were ribbing him a lot about that. It’s a big swing for Judgey.”
Judge, who entered with just one RBI in the playoffs, hit a sacrifice fly in a two-run second that put the Yankees ahead 3-0 – after Cleveland intentionally walked Juan Soto to load the bases.
“You want to try to get a double-play ball,” Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said. “You want to try to get two outs with one pitch.”
Judge, who led the major leagues with 58 homers and 144 RBIs, was understanding.
“I would probably walk him, too,” he said.
With New York leading 4-2 lead in the seventh, the likely AL MVP drove a fastball at the letters from Hunter Gaddis 414 feet to center for his 14th career postseason home run.
“It was a big swing to kind of give us that cushion,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “The bench was pretty pumped when that happened.”
Off-night for aces
Judge also was good-natured about Torres’ decision to tag up.
“You never know on these windy, chilly nights what that ball is going to do when you hit it to center here,” he said. “but the ghosts were pulling out there to Monument Park, that’s for sure.”
In a matchup of aces who had off nights, Cleveland’s Tanner Bibee got just just four outs in the shortest start of his professional career and an erratic Gerrit Cole was chased after four walks in 4 1/3 innings.
“Just got to do better, got to do better,” the reigning AL Cy Young Award winner said.
After a day off, Game 3 is Thursday in Cleveland. The Yankees lead the ALCS 2-0 for the first time since 2009 against the Los Angeles Angels.
