Orioles series is proving Aaron Judge, Yankees' resurgence vs Brewers was fraudulent

If the Baltimore Orioles were out here beating the New York Yankees to a pulp with relentless hitting and base stealing, we probably would just let it be. They're a really good team and have very much given the Yankees problems over the last few years.

But the O's managed just six runs on 13 hits and five walks over the first two games of this four-game set. They've won 2-0 and 4-2. Clarke Schmidt pitched admirably while Nestor Cortes was burned by his defense. The pitching staff did exactly what it was supposed to do, even if Aaron Boone made weird decisions.

Instead, it was the radio silent offense. Feast or famine. Following up a 36-run weekend with two runs on 12 hits and seven walks in their next 18 innings against the Orioles. And the biggest culprit has been Aaron Judge, who's gone 1-for-7 with a walk against inferior pitching. He went 0-for-3 with runners in scoring position, the worst on the team in the series. He's looked completely overmatched, particularly when Jacob Webb dominated him in relief during a key at-bat in the eighth inning on Tuesday night. Completely uncompetitive at-bat in the biggest spot against a division rival.

Judge grounded into his 10th double play of the season in the most recent loss, which leads all of MLB. It's really getting exhausting. We'll be the first to tell you that it's a long baseball season and this will all normalize, but outside of facing minor-league pitching in Milwaukee, Judge has been rather lost.

We're not saying Judge doesn't deserve those five hits, two homers and five RBI from the Brewers series -- we're just saying it hasn't swayed us one bit into thinking he's "back."

Same goes for the rest of the offense. Anthony Volpe, Anthony Rizzo and Giancarlo Stanton have quickly returned to pumpkin status, going a combined 2-for-23 with six strikeouts this week.

Orioles series is proving Aaron Judge, Yankees' resurgence vs Brewers was fraudulent

The concern about the offense not "clicking" has never dissipated. The wins have certainly pushed it into the background, but it's still a reality. Outside of a handful of games this season, the Yankees bats have been inconsistent, incompetent, and unable to ride momentum/spark a rally.

And those wins against the Astros are feeling a lot more meaningless after Houston's horrible 9-19 start to the season (and they're down 3-0 to the Guardians right now, too).

Nonetheless, whatever is going on with Judge is a massive problem. He's getting completely fooled when he should be commanding at-bats. He's not driving the ball (.414 slugging percentage). He's not getting big hits (.200 BA with RISP, .154 BA with 2 outs and RISP). It's bad.

The Yankees went 0-for-8 with RISP on Monday night. They put runners on in six innings of Tuesday night's game and none of them scored (Austin Wells and Juan Soto hit solo shots).

The uncompetitive at-bats need to stop. The Yankees went down in order in record time to end Tuesday's game when Stanton and Rizzo struck out on SIX pitches before Gleyber Torres grounded out weakly to end it.

For everyone that was encouraged by the offensive burst in Milwaukee, well, that's what this team should've done against Joe Ross, Tobias Myers, and a patchwork bullpen. But it's definitely not the standard for this offense, which has been searching for its rhythm ever since 2019.