00:00Joel Sherman back with 3Up. We're doing this the day of, the night of, Game 3.
00:08Yankees and Blue Jays series now back in the Bronx.
00:11Yankees need a 3-game winning streak to save their season.
00:16Obviously, that has to start Tuesday night.
00:18Carlos Rodon against Shane Bieber.
00:21Why don't we start 3Up here at number 1?
00:24I always think there's a difference between fair and sports fair, F-A-I-R.
00:32In life, you usually have nice long runways.
00:35We don't make judgments in very short periods of time, hopefully, etc.
00:40In sports, sometimes it's about, hey man, the starting quarterback got hurt.
00:44You got one week to prove if you're the backup that we should be playing you
00:48or you should get a job someplace in the league, etc.
00:51And that's it. The windows are small.
00:54There's no smaller windows than the postseason.
00:57And there's no bigger judgments than in the postseason.
01:00And that's not meant as a pun on judgment.
01:02Because this, number one, is about Aaron Judge, who has played 63 postseason games.
01:07Let's not kid ourselves who Aaron Judge is, big picture.
01:10He's going to the Hall of Fame.
01:11He's probably about to win a third AL MVP.
01:14Certainly, it's either first or second with him and Cal Raleigh of Seattle.
01:18He's one of the greatest right-hand hitters who's ever played the game.
01:23He's had astonishing regular seasons.
01:25He's played 63 postseason games, though.
01:29And what's missing from his resume is a great moment or two that helps his team get through.
01:36I don't know how the Yankees have a three-game winning streak if that doesn't happen.
01:40Judge is actually hitting this postseason.
01:42He's 8-for-18, but seven of them are singles.
01:45The two runs he's driven in, one was a gift for both the official scorer and Jaron Duran of the Red Sox, their left fielder, who dropped the ball.
01:55It was called, in Game 2 of the Wild Card Series, it was called a hit.
01:59And it got an RBI.
02:02The other was the Yankees were down 13-2 in Game 2, and there was an RBI.
02:06It would have been better that he's 1-for-10 in this series, but the one was when he came up with the bases loaded in the sixth inning of Game 1, and it was a 2-0 game.
02:17He popped a grand slam or a three-run double.
02:20Instead, he struck out on what would have been ball four against Kevin Gosman.
02:24At this point in his career, it's strange.
02:26The top five, there's a statistic, a metric called win probability added on baseball reference, and it's essentially what brings you closer percentage-wise with each hit-bat to a win.
02:41And the five best in Judge's career, which is well up over 230 plate appearances now in the postseason, four have come in losses, four have come before the fifth inning.
02:51One of them came in the first inning last year of Game 5, a two-run homer off of Jack Flaherty.
03:01Later in that game, Judge dropped the fly ball at center field that triggered a five-run inning for the Dodgers and the downfall for the Yankees that ended their season.
03:10So he is still missing, you know, a signature where it's throw him on the shoulders, and I just don't know how the Yankees do this the next three days unless it's not just singles.
03:24It's some real meaning, stuff we remember 10 years from now.
03:28Judge has played almost a decade now.
03:30What's your memory of him in the postseason?
03:32At this point, it's probably dropping that fly ball.
03:35He has to carry this team and have a couple of big moments.
03:38He is hitting.
03:40A lot of guys on the team aren't, but this is the judgment on a historic great player, is does he do it at this time of year or not?
03:47Number two, 80 of the last 90 teams that have gone down, 80 of the 90 teams all time, we've gone down two games to nothing in a five-game series, have lost.
03:5817 of the last 18 have lost.
04:00The one exception in that 17-18 is the 2017 Yankees, who beat a very good Cleveland team.
04:08That is the defending AL champions in 2017.
04:11Remember, they went to game seven the year before in the World Series against the Cubs.
04:16And they had the best record in the American League.
04:18They go down two-nothing.
04:19They came back home, won two, back to Cleveland, and won three.
04:24By the way, Judge Wendt won one for 13 with 11 strikeouts in those three games.
04:28They won in spite of him in those three games.
04:31Why did they win?
04:32Is there some formula the Yankees can grasp onto now?
04:36Well, it started with a great start in game three by Masahiro Tanaka, seven shutout innings.
04:41Is Carlos Rodon up to it tonight?
04:43He's got to get the ball deep and give a belief system that the Yankees can slow down this high contact and suddenly very powerful Toronto lineup.
04:54The second phase of the comeback in 17 by the Yankees was essentially flawless relief led by Tommy Canely, David Robinson, and Aroldis Chapman.
05:05And are some combination of Duvall, Cruz, Williams, and Bednar up to this.
05:14There is no margin for error.
05:16They got to hold the leads late if the Yankees are going to have a chance.
05:20And the big hits in that series were by Greg Bird hit a homer to win a one-nothing game in game three.
05:26Lots of big hits by D.D. Gregorius and a couple by Brett Gardner.
05:30They're going to need some guys from the chorus besides Judge to step up and have some big moments here to have a three-game winning streak.
05:40And I mentioned the name that takes me to number three.
05:43I have no idea who's throwing out the ceremonial first pitch tonight.
05:47I suspect it will not be the guy I mentioned who has been distant from the team since he retired.
05:56And really, it was a forced retirement.
05:58Brett Gardner wanted to come back for another year.
06:01The Yankees moved on from him.
06:03It was not a pleasant ending for a guy who was a career-long Yankee and really appreciated by the crowd.
06:11He obviously had tragedy with his family in the last calendar year, losing a son.
06:17The house would come down if Gardner threw out the first pitch.
06:21If he came back into the flock, he was an important mentor.
06:28And Judge talks about it to Aaron Judge.
06:30And I think they remain close.
06:33I wish there was a way the Yankees could bring back Brett Gardner, who I personally liked,
06:38and who I thought maximized his talent as a Yankee as much as anyone else.
06:44It might be a good way to see if they could trigger a three-game winning streak.
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