Yankees: Aaron Judge batting second will doom NYY unless he produces in Game 4

Aaron Boone is still batting Yankees slugger Aaron Judge second, and it’s a problem.

Nobody wants to talk about this. Nobody wants to speak ill of Aaron Judge. He’s one of the coolest, larger-than-life figures in all of Major League Baseball. Hell, even Gerrit Cole thinks he’s a superhero!

But the New York Yankees have a problem right now. Their backs are up against the wall and they need to produce runs. Everyone seems to be worried about the pitching, and yes, while an awful start puts any team in an insurmountable hole, the Yankees’ eternal problem is having the offense go silent. That’s what has cost them in the postseason.

That’s what happened on Wednesday night (in addition to the bad pitching). The Bombers had no answer for Charlie Morton, dumbfounded by each proceeding pitch as if they had never witnessed that kind of movement before. With the Yankees needing to threaten the Rays at every turn, the top of the lineup needs to be comprised of the team’s best hitters AT THIS VERY MOMENT.

So, continuing to bat Judge second is going to doom the Yanks unless he wakes up tonight and tears the cover off the ball.

There are a couple of problems with Judge. One is that he’s simply too valuable a player to move down in the lineup. We know what his bat is capable of and how one monstrous swing can dictate the outcome of a game. What else? He’s peppered in very timely home runs this postseason to mask that fact he’s actually performing terribly.

Yankees fans cannot put into words how crucial his two-run homer off Shane Bieber was, or how momentum-shifting his laser off Blake Snell proved to be, but when those are your only two big hits amid a 3-for-23 slide with nine strikeouts and an astounding 13 runners left on base in 26 plate appearances, it’s a detriment.

The history he’s made so far is downright stunning, but this is a win-now type situation for the Bombers. Judge has sadly been a shell of his usual self since coming off the injured list and at this point he feels like an automatic out in the two-hole (he finished the regular season going 8 for his last 44 with one home run, four RBI and 17 strikeouts).

We’ve talked about Boone’s stubbornness in terms of not moving hitters around in the lineup, and though he did that to kick off the postseason against the Indians, he’s remained steadfast in keeping Judge in the every-important No. 2 spot.

And with that, Yankees fans need to be constantly rising tonight or it’ll once again be an early exit for the Bronx Bombers.

Yankees: Alex Rodriguez blasts NYY on the air after Game 3 loss

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