LOS ANGELES — When Aaron Judge is the best version of himself, the version that tormented pitchers all summer on a tear not seen since peak Barry Bonds, he demolishes the 2-0 fastball Yoshinobu Yamamoto threw him in the sixth inning of the New York Yankees' 4-2 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 2 of the World Series on Saturday night at Dodger Stadium.
The 94 mph offering was on the lower half of the strike zone, down the middle, ripe for Judge on which to feast. But Judge didn't feast.
He didn't even swing. Instead, it was a called strike. «When we're going well, we can usually fire on that,» Judge said. Judge fouled off the next pitch, a low curveball that he usually devours, too.
Then came the knockout punch: a splitter that darted underneath his hands. Judge swung and missed for strike three, an alarmingly common result in October for Judge and Yankees.