'They woke up Judge': Captain's HR seals Yanks' 2-0 ALCS lead

NEW YORK -- The navy turtleneck fit perfectly under Aaron Judge’s pinstriped jersey, a welcome throwback to a late 1990s and early 2000s dynasty in which the Yankees roared into so many chilly Octobers like this. Their rosters were stocked with future Hall of Famers and recognizable superstars, exploits filling highlight reels for the ages.

The current captain is still seeking those signature moments. After seeing the supporting cast shoulder the load while his postseason struggles extended through five games, Judge joined the fun with a homer that broke open the Yankees’ 6-3 victory over the Guardians in Game 2 of the American League Championship Series.

“I was excited it went out,” Judge said. “You never know on these windy, chilly nights what that ball is going to do when you hit it to center here. The ghosts were pulling it out there to Monument Park, that’s for sure.”

Coming off one of the most dominant seasons by a right-handed hitter, Judge slugged a two-run homer off Hunter Gaddis that marked his 59th trip around the bases this year, and his first in this postseason. A few more of those would make the Yankees’ path to the World Series appear even more clear.

“It’s always a matter of time with Aaron,” said manager Aaron Boone. “I thought he had some good swings tonight. It’s definitely good to see him put one in the seats and really give us a cushion there.”

The victory gives the Yankees a commanding 2-0 lead as the series shifts venues to Cleveland’s Progressive Field, where the visitors will aim to advance to their first Fall Classic since 2009.

In all best-of-seven postseason series, teams taking a 2-0 lead have gone on to win the series 76 of 91 times (84%). The most recent of the 15 comebacks in those situations occurred in last year’s NLCS, when the D-backs rallied against the Phillies. Under the current 2-3-2 format, teams winning the first two games at home have gone on to take the series 44 of 55 times (80%).

“We defended our house. We played really good here,” said Gleyber Torres, who had three hits and two runs scored. “We’ll go there and try to play like we didn’t do anything here, just the same mentality.”

The presumptive AL MVP, Judge was 2-for-15 (.133) with one RBI through New York’s first five games against the Royals and Guardians -- a stark contrast from the regular season, when he hit .322 while leading the Majors with 58 home runs and 144 RBIs.

Though it was Judge’s 14th career postseason homer, he has struggled since 2020, managing just 12 hits in 85 playoff at-bats (.141) over that span coming into Tuesday’s action. Anthony Rizzo noted that Judge probably wasn’t doing so hot in the newspapers, either, adding, “I'm pretty confident he doesn't really look at any of that.”

Perhaps the tone of those stories and the accompanying reactions changed in the first inning, when New York’s first run scored on a sky-high Judge popup that was dropped by shortstop Brayan Rocchio.

“You’ve just got to stay focused on what you can control,” Judge said. “I've been booed here plenty of times. There's been a lot of legends that played here that have been booed. It's just part of it. You can't focus on that.”

As right-hander Tanner Bibee wobbled in a second inning that included Alex Verdugo’s run-scoring double, Cleveland intentionally walked Juan Soto and loaded the bases for Judge. It was a gamble that had backfired for the White Sox in August, when Judge made them pay with his 300th career homer.

This time, Cleveland got away with just a sacrifice fly, but as Torres said: “They woke up Judge, and after that, he’s getting better.”

In a contest decidedly less crisp than the autumn conditions, the Yankees had to outlast sloppy baserunning, including Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Rizzo both being picked off second base in the sixth inning.

The miscue that the Yankees laughed about came on Judge’s homer, when Torres returned to first base to tag up, not expecting the drive to clear the wall. Rizzo said he was "disappointed in Gleyber for not knowing Judge’s pop there.”

“He did that this year earlier, too,” Judge said, with deadpan. “I was pretty pissed then. I was pretty pissed again. … I’ll let this one slide.”

Three early runs could have made for a cruise-control night for Yanks starter Gerrit Cole, but the ace’s command was not as sharp as it had been in ALDS Game 4 at Kansas City. Cole survived a bases-loaded jam in the fourth before running out of steam in the fifth, when Cleveland touched him for a pair of runs.

“It was all right,” Cole said. “Bend, don’t break. … I lost a little bit of the zone, a few too many walks again. I think they threw a lot of quality at-bats together, and they strung them together.”

But Rizzo -- playing with two fractured fingers -- picked up a clutch sixth-inning double that brought home a run after a Cleveland fielding error. As they have done all postseason, the Yankees' bullpen performed admirably: Clay Holmes, Tim Hill and Tommy Kahnle combined for 3 2/3 scoreless innings before Luke Weaver surrendered a ninth-inning José Ramírez homer.

“Every guy that comes out of that bullpen, they’ve been lights out,” Judge said. “It’s going to take everybody if we’re going to get to where we want to go.”