If the argument for much of Aaron Judge’s career has been that the Yankees have been overly reliant on their Hall of Fame slugger, their recent poor stretch of play is only strengthening it.
Certainly, Judge has gone uncharacteristically cold — in some ways going through one of the worst stretches of his career.
Including Friday’s loss, Judge is in the midst of an 11-game streak without an RBI, the longest such span he’s ever suffered in the majors, according to researcher Katie Sharp.
And in his last 15 games, Judge is just 10-for-56 with three extra-base hits and 21 strikeouts.
Not surprisingly, the Yankees have lost 10 of those games.
Also alarming: After Friday’s hitless night, Judge has just one hit in his last 23 at-bats with 10 strikeouts.
All of it is part of a Yankee offense that has gone from boom to bust, seemingly overnight.
But Aaron Boone, despite his team being held to just two runs against the Rays on Friday, believes the lineup — and Judge — might have turned a corner in the loss.
“I thought we swung the bats well,’’ Boone said after the defeat in The Bronx. “A lot of guys [were] squaring the ball up.”
And Boone singled out Judge, even as he reached base just once in five plate appearances.
“Aaron Judge had good at-bats,” Boone said.
He noted Judge “smoked” a ball in the third inning, a 111-mph smash that went right at shortstop Taylor Walls.
And Judge ended the game with a 106-mph shot to left-center that centerfielder Cedric Mullins ran down near the warning track.
Still, it was another game in which the Yankees lost without much production from the top of the lineup.
For the last two weeks, the Yankees have had one of the worst bottoms of the lineup in the majors.
Prior to May 8, their bottom half of the lineup ranked sixth in the majors in OPS, and even hitters seven through nine were 10th in the category.
Since that date, though, they are 24th in OPS from hitters five through nine and next-to-last in the bottom third.
Perhaps not coincidentally, May 8 was the day they faced — and were overmatched by — Milwaukee’s fireballing right-hander Jacob Misiorowski.
In that game, the 6-foot-7 24-year-old opened the game by striking out Trent Grisham and Ben Rice before Judge flied out.
He threw 10 pitches in that inning — five of which registered as the five fastest pitches recorded by a starter during the tracking era, which began in 2008.
In 13 games since that night, the Yankees have scored six runs in a game just three times.
A major part of that drought is the fact that Judge hasn’t hit like Judge.
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His dominance against fastballs remains, but hasn’t been as strong this season, with a .622 slugging percentage on the pitch, compared to .871 last season.
Two years ago, Judge was also in the midst of a rough first six weeks or so to the season before a mid-May heat-up propelled him and the Yankees to a strong season.
The Yankees, a season-worst 5 ½-games back of Tampa Bay, could use another dose of that from their best player — and Judge could also use some help from the rest of the lineup.
Jazz Chisholm Jr. has hit better of late after a brutal start and a healthy José Caballero should help.
If Ryan McMahon continues to be a complete non-factor at the plate, he’ll lose playing time, with Amed Rosario or Caballero at third and Anthony Volpe at shortstop.
And Austin Wells hit two balls hard on Friday — including his first homer since April 28.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
