Aaron Judge’s playoff nightmare deepens with another disappearing act

Hints of progress arrived in the eighth, when Aaron Judge was more disciplined.

Against Ryan Brasier, he swung through two borderline pitches and the crowd grew disgruntled, ready to boo the Yankees captain with one more whiff.

But Judge laid off three straight sliders that slid out of the zone, reaching on a walk that showed the process might be improving.

But “process” is for April and May and June. In October, results matter, and Judge has not found nearly enough.

Maybe his approach improved Monday, but he reached base one time in four plate appearances. Judge has stepped to the plate 13 times in the World Series.

He has gone back to the dugout unhappy 11 times. Seven of those times have been strikeouts in a series in which he is hitting .083.

“I’m not doing my job right now,” Judge said after going quietly in Monday’s 4-2 loss to the Dodgers in The Bronx that put the Yankees in a 3-0 hole, a defeat away from not just a series loss but a series embarrassment. “Got to pick it up.”

The best hitter in at least the American League and perhaps the world has stopped hitting in the games that mean the most, with one single to show for three of the most disappointing contests of the club’s season.

The Yankees have scored seven runs in three games, and their offensive ineptitude begins with their strongest slugger.

If Judge does not awake, severe slumps would bookend his 2024 and cast a pall over one of the greatest offensive seasons the baseball world has seen.

His manager has confidence that Judge can and will break out of this. Why?

“He’s Aaron Judge,” Aaron Boone said after Judge had four more chances in Game 3 and wasted three of them.

He stepped to the plate with Gleyber Torres on first base in the first and left him there. With a sellout crowd on its feet that tried to will Judge out of this funk, Judge again was undone by uncharacteristic impatience, chasing a Walker Buehler cutter off the plate.

He only saw one more pitch from Buehler, a knuckle curve in the middle of the plate in the fourth, and flew out.

Judge had another opportunity with a runner on first (Giancarlo Stanton) in the sixth, but fireballing Brusdar Graterol induced a weak comebacker that he knocked down and got an out at second.

In his final try, Judge worked a one-out walk that was followed by strikeouts from Stanton and Jazz Chisholm Jr.

“He’s had a tough postseason, and I think we all love him the same, we all think of him the same,” Nestor Cortes said. “If this postseason were to be extended and hopefully go to Game 6 and 7, I’m sure he’s going to have that timely hitting and come up big for us at some point.”

His teammates are believing, and so is Judge, who preached for the team — and probably for himself — that “all it takes is one swing, one at-bat, one play,” he said. “Everything changes.”

In just about every at-bat, there is a feeling that something might change and the reality that nothing has: During this postseason, the presumptive AL MVP is 6-for-43 (.140) across 12 games. He is 3-for-22 (.136) with runners on base and 0-for-10 with six strikeouts with runners in scoring position.

There are signs that the at-bats are improving. But in October, signs are worthless.

“I didn’t get any hits,” Judge said simply about another day that was not good enough. “I didn’t drive anybody in. I’ve got to get something done up there.”