The New York Yankees dropped a heartbreaker in Game 1 of the 2024 World Series on Friday night, blowing a 3-2 lead in the 10th inning by allowing a walk-off grand slam to Los Angeles Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman. To make matters worse, Yankees star Aaron Judge continued his rough postseason, to the extent that the Dodgers elected to intentionally walk Juan Soto to pitch to Judge in the late stages of the game.
Judge went 1 for 5 with three strikeouts and a single on the night, meaning that he'll actually enter Saturday's Game 2 with an improved postseason batting average. Indeed, Judge came into play on Friday having hit .161/.317/.387 with 13 strikeouts in 31 playoff at-bat in 2024.
As for the aforementioned choice by the Dodgers to pitch to Judge instead of Soto, it played out during the top of the ninth inning. After reliever Michael Kopech surrendered a two-out double to Gleyber Torres, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts gave up the free base to Soto. Roberts then inserted Blake Treinen to face Judge. Treinen prevailed, inducing a pop-up to keep the game knotted at 2-2 through 8.5 frames.
Aaron Judge pops up to end the inning!
— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) October 26, 2024
The decision to intentionally walk Juan Soto pays off for the Dodgers! pic.twitter.com/1pwgLEfAJK
"It's never easy," Roberts said of the walk to Soto. "I think the same thing could be posed to [Yankees skipper Aaron Boone] to walk [Mookie Betts] to get to [Freddie Freeman]. It's never comfortable. You've just got to sort of believe in your process and the matchup that you got right there. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't."
Judge's struggles, meanwhile, have reached the point where Boone was asked after the game if he had any thoughts of rearranging the Yankees batting order, perhaps by switching Judge with the hot-hitting Giancarlo Stanton (who homered again in Game 1). To that, Boone replied with a terse two-word answer: "No. No."
Judge, 32, is the presumptive American League Most Valuable Player Award winner. During the regular season, he batted .322/.458/.701 (223 OPS+) with 58 home runs, 144 runs batted in, and 10 stolen bases (on 10 attempts). His contributions were worth an estimated 10.8 Wins Above Replacement, according to Baseball-Reference's figures.
Alas, Judge hasn't been his usual self throughout the postseason, showing a greater willingness to expand his strike zone, among other negative developments. The Yankees can only hope that he gets back on track, ideally beginning with Saturday night's Game 2. Otherwise, the questions about lineup changes might give way to questions about how the Yankees intend to dig out of an 0-2 hole.
