KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The New York Yankees gained the edge in the American League Division Series despite the Kansas City Royals neutralizing slugger Aaron Judge again. Giancarlo Stanton, whose booming bat combined with the Yankees' bullpen to help New York win Game 3 on Wednesday, expects Judge to snap his postseason slump soon, possibly in Game 4 on Thursday in Kansas City.
"He's definitely going to do damage -- it's only a matter of time," Stanton said. "He's had great at-bats, and it'll come when we need him." The Yankees can advance to the American League Championship Series with another victory in the best-of-five ALDS, but so far they have received little production from the league's top offensive force.
Judge, the likely AL MVP who hit 58 home runs in one of the best individual performances ever during the regular season, went 0-for-4 with a walk and a strikeout as the Yankees won 3-2 in Game 3. He is 1-for-11 overall in the ALDS, and he is mired in a 11-for-81 (.136) postseason rut going back to the start of the 2020 playoffs.
Some positive signs are there. Judge did manage the hardest-hit ball in play in Game 3, a 114.4 mph liner to shortstop Bobby Witt in the first inning.
Judge also hit a 99.2 mph flyout in the fifth. He just couldn't convert among multiple opportunities with runners on base, aside from drawing a walk in the ninth.
Opposite of Yankees ace Gerrit Cole in Game 4, the Royals will give the ball to right-hander Michael Wacha. He started against Cole in G.
