Perhaps least discussed among Major League Baseball’s new rules designed to improve pace of play is the one eliding four comically wide pitches for an intentional walk into a raised four fingers flashed by the manager. That change has saved us maybe a minute per intentional walk, but it does not make for great television.
The New York Yankees did their best to give the fans what they wanted on Tuesday when, in the second inning of a game New York would win 6–3 to take a 2–0 lead in the American League Championship Series, Cleveland Guardians manager Stephen Vogt issued perhaps the most dramatic intentional walk of the season: One out, runners on second and third, Juan Soto striding to the plate, Aaron Judge lurking in the on-deck circle. Yes, that’s right: Vogt was walking Soto to take his chances against the likely American League Most Valuable Player and AL single-season home run record holder.
“They were hitting the ball around the ballpark, and we needed to stop the game,” says Vogt. “In that situation, you want to try to get a double-play ball. You want to try to get two outs with one pitch. You want to try to find a way to get out of that inning.”
The TBS cameras caught the reaction in the Yankees’ dugout, where first baseman Ben Rice and shortstop Anthony Volpe stared at one another. “There’s no way he’s doing this right now!” Rice yelped. Volpe waved his arms. Next to them, third baseman Jazz Chisholm gaped. “I understand Soto’s having a great postseason, but you can’t never count out the cap,” he says now. Judge’s teammates were offended on his behalf.
Judge insists he was not.
“He’s been swinging the bat well recently, and trying to get a double play there, try to get him out of the inning,” he says. “I would probably walk him too at this point.”
His teammates aren’t buying it.
“He doesn’t take too kind to those kinds of things,” says left fielder Alex Verdugo.
“I think he was like, O.K., I’m gonna show you who I am,” says infielder Oswaldo Cabrera. “You can see his body language. You can know when a guy wants that moment.”
“Those types of situations give motivation for everybody,” says second baseman Gleyber Torres. “I think they woke up Judge.”
Judge had indeed been slumbering. He was 2-for-the American League Division Series against the Kansas City Royals and he went hitless in Game 1 against Cleveland. He has left 15 runners on base and is 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position this October.
The Yankees are 5–1 so far this postseason but have not yet faced a mighty opponent. The Royals’ 86–76 record was significantly propped up by 13 games against the historically awful White Sox, against whom they went 12–1; on games against major league–quality opponents, they played to an 80-win pace. The Guardians can pitch but own a team adjusted OPS+ of 99, below league average. On Tuesday, the Yankees ran into two outs on the basepaths and twice walked the No. 7 hitter on four pitches; if they advance, that brand of baseball is unlikely to beat the Los Angeles Dodgers or the New York Mets.
Boone has been insisting for days that Judge is just a swing away from returning to his regular-season self, but his slugger had not yet proven him right. So Vogt’s gambit made sense. “It takes a lot of courage to do that move,” says first baseman Anthony Rizzo.
It was only the third time in Judge’s career he faced such indignity: once this August in a similar situation—a runner on second with one out—and once in 2016, when he was simply not very good. In ’16, he struck out. In August, he homered.
Judge normally possesses a flair for the dramatic, but in the second, he was only able to loft a fly ball to center field, deep enough to drive in a run.
But two at bats later, with Torres aboard first base and one out in the seventh, Judge got a 95-mph four-seamer on the outer edge of the plate, nearly at his armpits. It wasn’t a bad pitch. It didn’t matter. He blasted it to center for his first home run of the postseason.
The dugout went crazy again, this time in joy. “In these games, it really doesn’t matter who it is, how excited we are for everyone, but when Aaron does stuff, it’s extra special just because he’s such a special human being,” says Rizzo. They teased Torres for tagging up at first base rather than trusting that the ball would go out. They exhaled.
All except Chisholm, who just shook his head. “I was like, Dang,” he says with a laugh. “That should’ve happened [two] at bats before.”
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