Aaron Judge sets sights on MLB playoffs, quest for World Series after hitting home run No. 62
ARLINGTON, Texas — The wife, parents and relatives all left town.
The bottle of Dom Perigon, presents, and gift bags sitting in front of his locker were all put away.
The horde of local TV stations, camera crews and fans that flocked Globe Life Field the past two days, stayed home.
And Aaron Judge, for the first time in 56 games, going back to Aug. 4, had a day off Wednesday, sitting out of the Yankees’ starting lineup in their meaningless season finale against the Texas Rangers.
So how was it?
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“Terrible,’’ Judge said as he packed his bags for their trip back to New York. “I didn’t know what to do with myself sitting on the bench.
“It’s been a while since I had an off-day. It was a little weird.’’
While the fans started chanting in the ninth inning “We want Judge! We want Judge!” with Yankees manager Aaron Boone pretending not to hear them, Judge felt a tinge of guilt.
setting the American League single-season home run record with his 62nd on Tuesday night sink in. He still can’t fathom that President Joe Biden and former president Jimmy Carter reached out, and half-expected former President George Bush — a diehard baseball fan who once owned the Texas Rangers — to walk through the door. He heard from actors and actresses, musicians, athletes in other sports, and his own peers, all wanting to congratulate him for reaching one of baseball’s greatest milestones.
“I still can’t believe it,’’ Judge says. “That meant so much to me.’’
It was a moment he’ll forever cherish.
Now, he wants to make it a season he never forgets.
The Yankees, 99-63, once again will be a force in the postseason. They aren’t favored to win the World Series. That’s the Los Angeles Dodgers. They aren’t even favored in the American League. That’s the Houston Astros.
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This is a team that won 44 of its first 60 games, threatening to break the record of 116 victories in a season, only to struggle. The Yankees’ 15½-game lead in July melted to 3½ games. They were nearly knocked out in August, going 10-18 — the second-worst record in baseball that month behind only the Detroit Tigers. They cleared their head, regained their footing, and won 20 of 27 games down the stretch, winning the AL East by seven games over the Toronto Blue Jays.
his historic season, but it will truly be celebrated if they’re all riding together on World Series parade floats.
“You don’t know when these opportunities come along again,’’ says Yankees first baseman Anthony Rizzo, who won the 2016 World Series with the Chicago Cubs, “so you have to take advantage of it. The more fun we have, the better off we’ll be.
“We win, we’ll have a lot of fun.’’
Follow Bob Nightengale on Twitter @Bnightengale.