Yankees' Aaron Judge Addresses Boos from Fans in Game 2: 'I Gotta Play Better'
October 14, 2022
New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge has gone 0-for-8 with seven strikeouts through two American League Division Series games against the Cleveland Guardians. On Friday, he went hitless in five at-bats, four of which ended in strikeouts.
The Yankees offense sputtered, and the defense made critical mistakes en route to a 4-2 loss to Cleveland, who knotted the best-of-five matchup at one game apiece.
Judge's performance even led to a few boos from the Yankee Stadium crowd, and he addressed that after the game when asked about it.
As far as what the problem may be, Judge told reporters that his "timing’s a little off, and I have to fix it."
Judge is coming off a 62-home run season that broke Roger Maris' 61-year American League single-season homer record of 61. The AL MVP candidate was the catalyst for the Yankees' 99-win season, which resulted in an AL East title and the No. 2 seed in the AL playoffs.
The 30-year-old also hit .311 with an MLB-high 1.111 OPS.
Judge is obviously capable of far better than what he's shown over the past two games, and teammate Giancarlo Stanton isn't worried moving forward.
The series now moves to Cleveland's Progressive Field for Games 3 and 4. Game 3 will go down Saturday at 7:37 p.m. ET.