Aaron Judge’s extended slumber appears to be over.
The New York Yankees slugger Judge finally gave his team’s fans what they were looking for during Game 5 of the World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Wednesday. Judge stepped up to bat in the first inning with one on and one out and ambushed a first-pitch fastball from Dodgers righty Jack Flaherty. The poor baseball didn’t stand a chance and ended up in another zip code for a towering two-run home run by Judge to send the Yankee Stadium crowd into delirium.
Here is the video.
AARON JUDGE GETS #WORLDSERIES GAME 5 STARTED! pic.twitter.com/HHRJ9Uo4KA
— MLB (@MLB) October 31, 2024
Flaherty’s misery that inning didn’t stop there either as the very next batter, Jazz Chisholm Jr., also took him deep to give the Yankees an early 3-0 lead.
JAZZ CHISHOLM JR. GOES BACK-TO-BACK! #WORLDSERIES pic.twitter.com/FUuRUcdbGn
— MLB (@MLB) October 31, 2024
Much has been made of the likely AL MVP Judge’s woes this postseason and rightly so. After a regular season where he hit .322 with 58 homers and 144 RBIs, he entered play on Wednesday hitting a horrifying .198 in the 2024 playoffs with 20 strikeouts in 59 plate appearances. Judge had not gotten an extra-base hit since Game 3 of the ALCS against Cleveland, and there were even calls from Yankees fans for the team to drop Judge down in the batting order during the World Series.
But Judge, who also hadn’t been getting many pitches to hit this postseason, finally got a meaty fastball right down the heart of the plate from Flaherty and took full advantage of it. While it certainly took a very long while for Judge to show up, perhaps this is what he meant back in August when he said that you would know once he was finally locked in.
