Aaron Judge faced a total of two strikes in his first four at-bats.
The Yankees captain swung the bat once in his fifth at-bat.
That one foul ball on a changeup down the middle was perhaps the Yankees’ best chance to win a Subway Series game.
Jose Quintana and the relievers behind him fended off Judge four times before defeating him with a crucial pitch in the ninth. Mets win 3-2 in the Bronx On Tuesday, the Yankees’ lineup once again proved thinner than barbed wire.
“We’ve seen a few teams take that approach,” manager Aaron Boone said after a disappointing game in which Judge reached base in four of five at-bats. “We’ll get a little more consistent up the middle of the lineup over the next few days, and that should make a little difference.”
All other options are undecided except for numbers 2 and 3.
With Juan Soto reaching base once on a walk, there was little reason for opponents to throw to Judge, as the cleanup hitter was pitching to right-hander J.D. Davis that night and left-hander Ben Rice was pinch-hitting for him.
In the bottom of the first inning, with two outs and no one on base, Judge walked Quintana on five pitches.
With one out in the bottom of the third, the bases were clear, but five more pitches saw Judge advance to first.
Davis then drove in a double play to end the inning.
In the fifth inning, when Judge walked four pitches and then Davis struck out to end the inning, Quintana didn’t bother to throw a strike to Judge.
Two innings later, Trent Grisham was on second base, but the Mets didn’t even pretend to pitch to Judge, and he was given his seventh intentional walk of the year.
The Mets had no problem leaving runners on base with a chance to score the winning run, as Rice and Volpe were scheduled to bat, and Dedniel Nunez got both out.
“[Quintana] “I was just being careful,” said Judge, whose on-base percentage had risen to .439 but who didn’t have many chances to hit his 36th home run. “I just had to pass the baton to the next guy.”
Next up is a Yankees franchise that has seen so many players fail at various times, including Volpe, Alex Verdugo, Gleyber Torres and DJ LeMahieu, and they have failed consistently.
Few know this better than the Mets, a team managed by former Yankees bench coach Carlos Mendoza and whose starting pitcher, Luis Severino, recently criticized the two-batter-dominant offense.
“I know that lineup very well,” Mendoza said after essentially walking four batters. “They’ve got good hitters in there. Judge is special. Soto is special. … Sometimes you have to make a decision.”
Mendoza had a different option in the ninth inning when left-hander Jake Diekman walked Soto with one out.
Rather than put a runner on second base to potentially tie the game and a runner on first base to potentially take the lead, the Mets elected to pitch to Judge.
Judge threw five pitches, fouling one and getting three strikes on a fastball that Diekman hit inside.
The rest of the lineup gave No. 99 just one chance, but he couldn’t capitalize.
“We’ve got to get a little more consistent in the middle of the lineup,” Boone said, “and hopefully when other teams do that it’ll bounce back and force them to go after Aaron.”
