NEW YORK (AP) — When the New York Yankees needed someone to save them Tuesday night, Aaron Judge practically put on a cape.
Captain clutch, indeed.
In a do-it-all effort for the ages, Judge hit a tying homer and drove in four runs as the Yankees staved off elimination by rallying past the Toronto Blue Jays 9-6 in Game 3 of their AL Division Series.
“Just an awesome, MVP-like performance,” New York manager Aaron Boone said. “A pretty incredible night for the captain.”
Judge went 3 for 4 with an intentional walk and scored three times, also making pivotal plays with his glove and legs as Yankee Stadium fans chanted “MVP! MVP!”
Down by five early, New York scored eight unanswered runs to prevent a three-game sweep and push the best-of-five playoff series to Game 4 on Wednesday night in the Bronx.
“Hopefully he gets a bad night’s sleep and has some bad food tonight or something like that,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said.
After struggling at the plate in previous postseasons, Judge is 7 for 11 in this series (.636) with five RBIs and three walks.
That makes him 11 for 22 (.500) with six RBIs, five runs and a 1.304 OPS in six playoff games this year as the two-time AL MVP and seven-time All-Star chases his first World Series ring at 33 years old.
Long way to go this October. But if not for Judge and 6 2/3 scoreless innings from the New York bullpen Tuesday night, the season would already be over.
“Tonight was special, but there’s still more work to be done,” he said. “Hopefully we have some more cool moments like this the rest of the postseason.”
Jazz Chisholm Jr. launched a go-ahead solo homer in the fifth, and New York improved to 3-0 in elimination games during these playoffs with the franchise’s largest comeback ever in those situations.
The only time the Yankees overcame a bigger deficit in the postseason was when they climbed out of a 6-0 hole in Game 4 of the 1996 World Series at Atlanta.
Toronto, which committed a couple of costly errors that led to a pair of unearned runs, hadn’t lost all season when leading by at least four.
With the Yankees trailing 6-1, consecutive doubles by Trent Grisham and Judge to start the third began the comeback. Later in the inning, Judge stayed in a rundown between third base and home plate long enough to allow Cody Bellinger to reach third. That became important when Bellinger scored on Giancarlo Stanton’s sacrifice fly.
New York was still down 6-3 in the fourth with two runners aboard when right-hander Louis Varland was brought in to face Judge, who sought out Stanton in the dugout for a scouting report.
Varland struck out Stanton in a key spot during Game 1.
“Big G saw him in Toronto. I asked him, I hadn’t seen Louis since he was with the Twins and was a starter. I wanted a brush up. I’ve seen all the videos, seen all the appearances, but it’s a difference when you step in the box and see him live. So I was talking to him about what certain pitches were like, what it felt like,” Judge said.
“Any info you can get like that kind of helps you sharpen your game plan a little bit and kind of gets you locked in a little bit better.”
Judge turned on an 0-2 fastball clocked at 100 mph off the inside corner and somehow kept it fair, launching a three-run drive that clanged high off the left-field foul pole for his 17th postseason homer.
“I guess a couple ghosts out there helped kind of keep that fair,” he said.
Schneider called it “a ridiculous swing.”
“He made a really good pitch look really bad,” Varland said.
Judge tossed his bat aside and gestured to teammates on the bench as the sellout crowd of 47,399 burst into a frenzy.
“It’s an amazing swing,” Boone said. “That’s shades of Edgar Martínez right there, taking that high-and-tight one and keeping it fair down the line. Manny Ramirez used to do that really well, too. But just a great swing on a pretty nasty pitch, obviously.”
At 99.7 mph, it was the fastest pitch Judge has ever homered on. And it was the first home run by any big leaguer on a pitch 99 mph or faster 1.2 feet inside from the center of the strike zone since pitch tracking started in 2008, according to MLB Statcast.
“I don’t know. I get yelled at for swinging at them out of the zone, but now I’m getting praised for it,” said Judge, who also went deep against Varland in the pitcher’s major league debut with Minnesota in September 2022. “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, and it looked good to me.
“After he blew my doors off on the pitch before, I said just get ready, see a good pitch, and drive it.”
The right fielder then made a diving catch with a runner at second in the fifth, drawing more “MVP” chants.
And in the sixth, Judge scored on Ben Rice’s sacrifice fly after being intentionally walked with one out and nobody on base.
Call it a sign of respect. Or perhaps, fear.
“He’s had a good postseason. He’s had a pretty good career,” Schneider said. “There’s times where you just don’t want him to swing.”
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