Aaron Judge gets revenge against Trevor Bauer with first hit of ALDS

To say the Cleveland Indians pitching staff has tormented Aaron Judge in their American League Division Series matchup would be a colossal understatement. He was 0-for-10 with eight strikeouts in the first three games of the series. Including a four-strikeout night in Game 1 when the Indians started Trevor Bauer.

Well, Judge got his revenge in Game 4 — getting his first hit of the series and knocking Bauer out of the game in just the second inning. Judge knocked a two-run double off the left-field wall, plating Aaron Hicks and Brett Gardner.

In a bit of fitting baseball symmetry, Judge’s double made the score 4-0, the same work by which Bauer beat the Yankees in Game 1. The Yankees would eventually win 7-3 to force a decisive Game 5 on Wednesday in Cleveland.

Aaron Judge celebrates after his two-run double in the second inning. (AP)
Aaron Judge celebrates after his two-run double in the second inning. (AP)

The Indians had neutralized Judge by feeding him a steady diet of breaking balls down and away. It was a strategy that Bauer employed for part of their eight-pitch battle. But Judge, to his credit, was able to lay off three of Bauer’s knuckle-curves that broke into the dirt. On the eighth pitch, a fastball up and in, Judge knocked it off the wall.

(MLB.com)
(MLB.com)

It’s the type of adjustment that Judge was able to make in September, when he fixed his post-All Star slump and homered himself back into the MVP discussion. The Indians still were able to strike out Judge four times in Monday’s game, so it wasn’t a huge breakthrough for the Yankees slugger.

He’ll need to keep making adjustments to help keep the Yankees alive in the playoffs.

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Mike Oz is the editor of Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at mikeozstew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!