Yankees News: Aaron Judge, Brett Gardner Motivated by Past Playoff Failures

The New York Yankees' shortcomings in the past two postseasons are serving as extra motivation for them this time around.

Per ESPN's Marly Rivera, Aaron Judge explained how memories of last year will impact his performance in the American League Division Series against the Minnesota Twins:

"My biggest motivator and biggest lessons I've learned are always from failure. I just think back to a lot of those games in '18; the little things. The little things we missed out on, the little details we missed that might not have affected a certain play but affected us later in the game or affected something later on. Failure is—that's a tough pill to swallow, but it can always be one of your biggest motivators."

Brett Gardner echoed Judge's sentiments: "What happened the last couple of years is still very fresh in our minds. Any time you get that close to something and fall a little short sometimes it hurts even worse than not getting close at all."

The Yankees are in familiar territory as one of the favorites to win the World Series. They won the AL East for the first time since 2012 and their 103 wins were their most in a season since 2009, which was also the last time they captured the Commissioner's Trophy. 

New York's last two postseason appearances have ended in disappointment. The Bronx Bombers reached Game 7 of the ALCS in 2017 before losing to the Houston Astros. They were knocked out of the ALDS last year by the Boston Red Sox in four games. 

Judge has performed right in line with his regular-season stats during these postseason runs, posting a .994 OPS with seven homers in 18 career playoff games. Gardner has struggled with a .200/.275/.283 slash line in the past two postseasons. 

Both of the teams the Yankees have lost to in the previous two years have gone on to win the World Series. Their current 10-year gap between titles is the franchise's longest drought since a 15-year wait from 1981-96. 

The Yankees will begin their quest for a 28th championship Friday when they host the Twins in Game 1 of the ALDS at 7:07 p.m. ET.