KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The two biggest stars of the American League Division Series involving the Yankees and Royals, sluggers Aaron Judge of New York and Bobby Witt Jr. of Kansas Royals, have yet to produce at the plate through the first two games.
Judge and Witt, the probable 1-2 finishers in AL Most Valuable Player voting this year, combined to go 1-for-17 as the Yankees and Royals split two games at Yankee Stadium.
When asked about keeping Judge under wraps, Royals manager Matt Quatraro said to expect something different when the best-of-five series, tied at one win apiece, resumes Wednesday night.
“You can’t take it for granted (and say): ‘Oh, we’ve got him.’ There’s none of that,” Quatraro said before his team’s off-day workout on Tuesday.
After a dominant regular season, Judge has started the postseason 1-for-7 with four strikeouts. He reached on an infield single and drew a walk Monday in Game 2, which the Royals won 4-2.
During the regular season, Judge hit .322, topped the AL with 58 home runs and 144 RBIs, and compiled a .458 on-base percentage and a .701 slugging percentage. The only others to amass at least those figures in a single season were Hall of Famers Babe Ruth (in 1921 and 1927) and Jimmie Foxx (in 1932).
“He’s one of, if not the best hitter in the game,” Quatraro said. “One of the most elite hitters in the last decade. We’ve pitched him tough, and we’ll have to continue to do that.”
Quatraro said the same goes for the Yankees against Witt, whose league-leading .332 batting average, along with a .389 on-base percentage, .588 slugging percentage, 31 stolen bases and elite defense at shortstop would make him an MVP favorite in many other seasons.
Witt came through with three hits in nine at-bats as the Royals swept the Baltimore Orioles in a two-game AL wild-card series, but he is hitless in 10 at-bats with four strikeouts against the Yankees. However, he is stinging the ball when he connects, and Quatraro noted how many full counts Witt has worked before expanding his strike zone and chasing pitches out of the zone.
“If those are walks, we’re talking about how he’s seeing the ball well, he’s getting on base, how he’s likely to have stolen a couple bases, those kinds of things,” Quatraro said.
The Royals overall are slashing .282/.325/.366 against Yankees pitching through two games.
“Hitting is really tough, and when you’re somebody like Bobby that everybody is bearing down on at all times, you’re going to get their best,” Quatraro said.
Judge’s playoff struggles go beyond a couple of well-pitched games. They continue a personal trend where he has gone 11-for-77 with 29 strikeouts in 19 postseason games back to the start of October 2020. Still, Judge isn’t more worried than usual about his performance.
“If I’m not hitting 1.000, I’m not feeling good,” he said.
Judge also maintains that he doesn’t carry extra mental weight to the plate.
“It’s really not about putting any pressure on anybody,” Judge said. “It’s the same game we’ve been playing all year.”
The Royals are set to send right-hander Seth Lugo to the mound. Lugo made the AL All-Star team this year and finished 16-9 with a 3.00 ERA in 33 starts. He lost to New York on June 10 after allowing four runs in seven innings, but then he stymied the Yankees on Sept. 10, striking out 10 over seven shutout innings.
Lugo warned not to give too much weight to what happened that day.
“A month ago, that’s a long time,” Lugo said. “It’s all about today, not yesterday or tomorrow.”
Lugo got a no-decision in Game 2 of the wild-card series against Baltimore, yielding one run in 4 1/3 innings. In his career vs. the Yankees, he is 5-2 with a 2.55 ERA in 14 games (four starts).
Witt and the Royals will face right-hander Clarke Schmidt, who went 5-5 with a 2.85 ERA and 93 strikeouts in 16 regular-season starts.
In four career games (two starts) against Kansas City, Schmidt is 2-0 with a 3.29 ERA. He will be starting in the postseason for the first time in his career.
–David Brown, Field Level Media