NEW YORK — A few minutes after midnight on Monday, Aaron Judge stepped to the plate at Yankee Stadium. He could have done it himself, been the hero at least one more time with a home run for the history books. He could have tied the game with two outs in the bottom of the ninth to keep the season alive a little longer.
But if it’s going to end, it might as well be poetic. And so Judge himself slapped a softly hit grounder back to the pitcher for the final out. He trotted straight from the first baseline into the dugout, strode through the somber procession of players packing up, and walked right down the tunnel into the clubhouse.