After Saturday’s 4-2 loss in Game 2 of the World Series, New York Yankees They find themselves in a 2-0 series deficit against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Other than Juan Soto’s solo home run in the third inning, the Yankees’ offense remained quiet until the ninth inning, when Soto, Giancarlo Stanton and Jazz Chisholm Jr. singled and Anthony Rizzo led off on a groundout. run at first base. Unfortunately, New York’s captain and regular season MVP Aaron Judge looked lost on the field.

Judge whiffed on a first-pitch sweeper, watched as he was called for a hit up the middle of a 95-mile-per-hour inning, moved the ball well out of the zone, and then chased a sweeper out of the plate for strike three. He finished the game 0-for-4 with three strikeouts and increased his postseason total in the World Series to 6-for-40 (.150) with 19 strikeouts and 1-for-9 (.111) with six strikeouts.

The presumptive AL MVP posted historic regular season numbers at age 32, batting .322/.458/.701 and hitting a league-leading 58 home runs in 158 games. So what caused this significant decline in October? Ultimately, there are two changes in his approach.

Expanding the Attack Zone

Pitchers had been throwing him out of the zone all season long. While Hakim postponed these pitches during the regular season, he is now pursuing them.

Through 158 regular season games, Judge had the second-lowest pursuit rate (18.7%) in the American League behind Juan Soto (18.3%). In 11 postseason games, his chase rate increased to 29.3%.

Even more worrying is the declining contact rate. His whiff rate has increased from 30.7% to 44.1% since the end of the regular season, and he has missed 49 of his 111 postseason kicks. For context, the highest whiff rate in the regular season was recorded by A’s infielder Zack Gelof at 36.4%.

During the regular season, Umpire swung and missed on just 12.1% of the pitches he saw. So far in the World Series, that number has jumped to 32.6%.

Czech-Happy

If you’ve ever watched the Umpire take batting practice, you’ll notice that he rarely tries to hit a home run in this environment. With his power, this comes naturally. Instead, he focuses on staying closed and consistently hitting line hits over the second baseman’s head.

However, during these postseason games, the Referee abandoned his customary approach of running the ball in the opposite direction, opening up the field in an effort to move the ball to the outer half of the field. As a result, he was subjected to repeated breaking throws in the outside third, a tactic that Dodgers closer Blake Treinen used at the end of Game 2.

In a feature story Greg Joyce of the New York PostA key factor in Gleyber Torres’ resurgence after the All-Star break turned out to be Gio Urshela’s observation that Torres would frequently tumble and crash to the left side rather than driving the ball to the opposite court. past success.

Torres is still an aggressive hitter, but now, when he can’t throw, he stays patient, draws a walk, and hands the bat to the talented hitter behind him, Juan Soto.

Judge showed off that ability in his first 158 ​​appearances this year, so pitchers eventually had to challenge him in the zone. Conclusion? 58 home runs, 144 RBIs and 1.159 OPS.

Even if the umpire simplifies his approach like Torres did, leading to more walks than the heroic strikeouts expected from a team’s star player on the biggest stage, that would still put his team in good position to score. After all, ALCS MVP Giancarlo Stanton is batting right behind him and waiting to do the damage.