Aaron Judge snaps World Series slump with homer, then makes costly error that sparks Dodgers rally

AP Baseball Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Game 5 of the World Series was quite a roller coaster for Aaron Judge.

The star slugger busted out of a postseason slump with his first Series home run Wednesday night, connecting for a two-run shot in the first inning that put the New York Yankees ahead against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

He also made a spectacular catch while banging hard into the outfield fence — and then dropped an easy fly for an embarrassing error that helped Los Angeles rally for five runs to tie the score at 5 in the fifth.

New York’s bullpen squandered a one-run lead in the eighth, and the Dodgers held on for a 7-6 victory that clinched their eighth championship and second in five years.

“You can’t give a good team like that extra outs,” Judge said. “It starts with me there on the line drive coming in. I misplayed that. So that doesn’t happen, then I think we’ve got a different story tonight.”

Judge was batting just .152 in October and .133 during his first Fall Classic before sending a 403-foot shot to right-center on the first pitch he saw from starter Jack Flaherty.

Three innings later, Judge made an outstanding grab to rob Freddie Freeman of extra bases.

Freeman sent a drive to deep left-center that Judge ran down as he crashed into the fence with his right hand and shoulder near the 399-foot sign. From his knees, the 6-foot-7 center fielder flipped the ball to teammate Alex Verdugo to throw back into the infield.

Judge then smiled and winked at Verdugo as the Yankee Stadium crowd chanted “MVP! MVP!”

In the fifth, however, Judge took his eye off Tommy Edman’s soft liner at the last moment and flubbed it for his first error all year, putting two runners on with nobody out.

“I just didn’t make the play,” he said.

After two more defensive miscues by New York, the Dodgers tied the score when Freeman hit a two-run single and Teoscar Hernández followed with a two-run double off Gerrit Cole with two outs.

The 6-foot-7 Judge also walked twice and doubled in Game 5, but his costly error in center field loomed large.

“We just didn’t get the job done,” the Yankees captain said. “Just a couple of mistakes along the way that hurt us.”

Juan Soto was aboard on a one-out walk when Judge homered. It was the 16th postseason homer and third this year for Judge, expected to win his second AL MVP award in three years next month.

He hadn’t gone deep in 29 plate appearances since a tying drive at Cleveland late in Game 3 of the American League Championship Series on Oct. 17. Judge also homered in Game 2 of that series.

Jazz Chisholm Jr. followed with another home run off Flaherty, giving the Yankees back-to-back homers in a World Series for the fifth time and first since Thurman Munson and Reggie Jackson connected in Game 5 at Dodger Stadium in 1977.

It was the 14th set of back-to-back homers in Yankees postseason history. Judge and Giancarlo Stanton launched successive shots in the eighth inning during Game 3 of the ALCS.

Judge began to show small signs of breaking out in World Series Game 4, when he went 1 for 3 and reached base three times on a walk, a hit by pitch and a single. He knocked in a run with a base hit in the eighth inning that made it 11-4, his first RBI of the Series.

In the end, he batted .184 over 14 postseason games with nine RBIs, a .752 OPS and 20 strikeouts in 49 at-bats. That leaves him with a .205 average, 34 RBIs, a .768 OPS and 86 strikeouts in 58 career postseason games.

“We didn’t finish it,” Judge said. “It was fun playing with this group of guys. They really came together.”

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