In the strange, paranormal world known as striking, in which lucky socks or a borrowed bat are believed to possess superpowers, there exists an unwanted five-letter intruder who might as well be known as The one who shall not be named. Strikers don’t even like to use the word “slump”, and recognize that such an enemy exists, such are its negative forces.

“I’m not in bad shape,” early hardball sensei Yogi Berra once said. “I just don’t hit.”

In the worst case scenario, a recession is undeniable, even if it is indescribable. For Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees, he has become as great as the man himself. This cannot be ignored.

One of the great hitters of this generation can’t seem to get out of his own way. He takes strikes and swings at balls. He’s late on fastballs and early on breaking pitches. He struck out 19 times in 11 games this postseason while hitting .150.

Game 2 of the World Series on Saturday hit a new low. Judge struck out three times on pitches out of the zone, only the 16th time he had done so in his career. Once again, the Yankees could not survive without the positive energy of their captain, lose 4-2 to the Los Angeles Dodgers to fall in the series two games to none.

The judge never said the word “collapse” after the match, as he parried different versions of the question: What’s wrong? He didn’t have to say it. Responsible as he is, Judge revealed one of the root causes of his slump by the number of times he used the same two words, with emphasis on:

“I definitely i have to intensify. I i have to do my job. »

“Especially with Gleyber (Torres) and what Juan (Soto) did at the top of the lineup, I i have to save them.

“They will continue to come to the base. I have i have to drive them or move them.

“My boys will keep coming for me, but I have i have to step up and get them back too.

“It’s plain and simple. I i have to start going on strikes.

“I have to do it.” It’s a telling admission from a rushing hitter. Judge knows how important he is to the Yankees. He knows at 32 that he waited until his professional career to have this opportunity to play in the World Series. And worse still, he knows that the October crisis extends over several years. He’s putting together a legacy of empty-handed postseason bats that’s becoming increasingly difficult to overturn.

In 55 postseason games, Judge is a career .199 hitter striking out 34% of his plate appearances, which is about the same as Mike Zunino’s career regular season record. Judge has taken 85 breaths, 12 more than anyone in 55-game playoff history (next closest is 73-year-old Cody Bellinger).

Is there a factor you can pinpoint, someone asked?

“Just widen the area,” he said. “You know, that’s really what it comes down to. You need to get a location in the area and drive it. And if you don’t, don’t try to shake things up.

This is the obvious starting point. Judge chased shots during the regular season at a career-low rate of 18.7%. In the playoffs, this percentage reached 29.3%. He’s 0 for 10 on 34 chase swings.

But it’s much more than that. It’s mechanical. Manager Aaron Boone talked about Judge not being able to get into a charging position in time to throw a good swing. He hit sometimes with his feet in a slightly open stance and sometimes in the neutral stance which served him well in May when he came out of his opening 35 games of the season.e slump. His swing is more upward. He falls across home plate when he misses a pitch, a sign of a balance problem. His teammate Anthony Rizzo suspects a timing problem.

I had a specific pitch in mind from Game 2: a 2-0 fastball at 94 mph from Yoshi Yamamoto, Dodgers starter it froze him in the sixth inning – when I asked the judge if he felt he had any throws to make.

“Yeah, 2-0, Yamamoto, I think it’s my third at-bat,” Judge said. “He kind of pushed a radiator up and down on me. You know, when things are going well, we can shoot it. Then the next pitch is a curveball which we foul on. I just need to get a little more swing on these two.

The valley Judge is operating in these days is so deep that Boone was looking for signs of life in pop-ups. He said before the game that a pop-up against reliever Blake Treinen in the opener had the makings of a turnaround for Judge.

“He threw me a four-seam, kind of up and down, and I just missed it,” Judge said. “I would rather do the job in this situation, but it felt better. But like I said, at the end of the day, I have to do the work.

“We are getting closer. … I couldn’t transfer it to this play. You know, like I said, you’ve got to be disciplined in my strike zone. This is what allowed us to be in this position all year. So, I just have to get back to it.

I have to do it. We also have to recognize how well the Dodgers pitched Judge in the World Series. In Game 2, they threw Judge 21 pitches. Only twice have they doubled on the same pitch during an at-bat — and each time, Judge was fooled and struck out on a chasing swing.

Here’s how Yamamoto threw Judge in terms of changing speed from pitch to pitch:

First at bat, from 96 mph: -16, +17, -10, -8, -7, -1.

Second at bat, from 80 mph: -5, +21, -10, +9.

Third at bat, from 95 mph: -6, +5, -18, +16.

It’s an exquisite execution that shifts gears.

Judge is the kind of hard-hitting hitter who is always just one strike away. He broke his April slump, for example, with a May 5 homer off Tarik Skubal in his first at-bat when he recovered.

“You have to make your plate this big,” teammate Giancarlo Stanton said, clasping his hands roughly in the shape of a hamburger. “You feel like your plate is so big,” he spread his hands, “and you just have to compress it. No, it’s not mechanical. He’s going to help us win games here.

Time and opportunities are starting to pass. Judge has 55 playoff games where the pressure is on his shoulders. His team faces a real must-win Match 3 on Monday. He is one of the greatest hitters in the game and the emotional backbone of this team. He has i have to do something, and quickly. And isn’t that how we found ourselves here, in the land of the unspeakable?