New York Yankees superstar Aaron Judge is an incandescently brilliant regular-season hitter. But when he steps into more meaningful games in October, his light flickers — and often goes all the way out.
After starting the 2024 postseason with four strikeouts and one measly infield single in seven at-bats, the 32-year-old outfielder is in danger of mirroring another regular-season stud known for flopping in the playoffs: Clayton Kershaw.
A guaranteed MLB Hall-of-Famer, Kershaw has some of the best numbers in history between spring and summer. The 36-year-old southpaw has a 2.50 ERA and a .693 winning percentage for his career. His 1.01 WHIP is the third-best in history.
The Los Angeles Dodgers ace has three Cy Young Awards, an MVP and 10 All-Star appearances. He also won a pitching triple crown (leading the league in wins, ERA, and strikeouts) in 2011.
However, he regularly falls apart in the postseason. He’s gone 13-13 with a 4.49 ERA overall, a drastic drop-off from his regular season output. But the best illustration of his playoff failures is his 2014 season.
That year he went 21-3 with a ridiculously low 1.77 ERA and 0.857 WHIP. When October rolled around, he went 0-2, giving up 11 runs in 12.2 innings. And that wasn’t a one-off — his postseason series log is littered with similar results, none worse than when he surrendered nine runs on 14 hits over 11 innings in the 2018 World Series. Needless to say, the Dodgers lost the series.
Likewise, Judge is one of the greatest hitters of all time — in the regular season. He’s the fastest player to 300 homers, and he’s the current active leader in slugging percentage, OPS, and OPS+. The slugger is also about to win his second MVP.
Turn the page to October, though, and Judge is more of a Joey Gallo–type hitter. The Yankees captain is slashing .208/.311/.449. While he has 13 homers, he’s struck out 70 times in 178 at-bats. Like Kershaw, after having an incredible 62-homer season in 2022, he hit just .139/.184/.306 in nine postseason games.
Judge could leave all of those terrible numbers far behind him by leading his squad to a championship this year. The way he’s played in the first two games of the ALDS hasn’t given fans any reason to hope he will.
