The King earned his Crown in the Bronx
THE BRONX, NY — The saying is ‘heavy is the head that wears the crown’, and last night, the King of New York proved why he wears his crown, on the ultimate Judgement Day.
The Yankees season looked as good as over when starter Carlos Rodon gave up six runs in 2.1 innings to the Blue Jays, putting the Yankees down 6-1 early. The Yankees began chipping away to the Jays’ lead in the third inning, chasing starter Shane Bieber out of the game.
The Yankees downfall in the 2024 World Series started with a dropped fly ball. The Yankee comeback started the same way, with Addison Barger dropping a popup on the left field line, resulting in a two-base error, with Austin Wells ending up on second. Side note: This is the second time this postseason that Wells has come through huge by putting the ball in play and reaching on an error, if you put the ball in play, good things will happen. After Trent Grisham took a walk, that set the table for The Captain.
Judge has had by far his best postseason to date so far, going 11-22 (.500), but eight of those eleven hits were singles. This time, Judge wanted more. After falling down 0-2 in the count against reliever Louis Varland, when Varland executed a 99.7 MPH fastball well off the plate, that Judge was able to pull off the left field foul pole for a game-tying Three-Run home run, flipping the script.
“I guess a couple ghosts out there in Monument Park helped keep it fair” Judge said, reflecting on his home run. “He’s a great pitcher. He’s been a great pitcher in his career so far. I wish I could throw at 102 mph. Just trying to go up there and do my job and see what happens”
“I thought it was really going to go over the foul pole and they were going to make the wrong call” Jazz Chisholm said. That might be a dig at the umpires during the series against the Rays that missed a clear home run off the bat of Judge, resulting in the subsequent ejection of manager Aaron Boone.
“It was ‘best player in the game’-type performance. It was special” Manager Aaron Boone said. “He’s the real deal. As beloved a player as I’ve ever been around by his teammates. They all admire him, look up to him, respect him, want his approval. And that’s just a credit to who Aaron is and how he goes about things”
“You give him credit. That was a ridiculous swing.” Said John Schneider, manager of the Blue Jays.
Judge’s heroics sent the Bronx into pure pandemonium and more importantly, woke up the dugout. Jazz Chisholm Jr. would park a solo homer off the facing of the second deck in right, Wells would add an RBI single and Rice with a sac fly later on, giving the Yankees a three-run advantage. The Yankees bullpen would end up pitching 6.2 scoreless innings, allowing a combined 9 strikeouts, three hits, and no walks, locking down the victory, and sending the Yankees to Game 4 of the ALDS.
