Aaron Judge has had a rough ALDS so far. It’s not that he’s hitting weakly. He’s just not hitting period. Across 14 plate appearances, the right hander owns a .000/.286/.000 batting line. Judge struck out eight times over that span as well. Of course this represents a small sample size, but everything gets magnified in the postseason. When a player struggles for the Yankees during the playoffs, then the scrutiny amplifies a hundredfold.
Judge’s struggles, however, have a tangible cause. This isn’t random noise in the sample. We can authoritatively point to the strikeouts as the culprits, namely the number of times he’s struck out looking.