KANSAS CITY — The scene kept forcing its way into Aaron Judge’s mind.
He remembered the blank stares on the faces of his New York Yankees teammates. The emptiness he felt. The moment the final out of Game 162 of the 2023 season was recorded at Kauffman Stadium and how it meant that there would be no postseason, no chance at a World Series. Then he thought about the eerie quiet inside the clubhouse that day. It wasn’t supposed to end like that. Not for the Yankees.
Judge thought about it not long after he woke up and again on the team bus. It popped up before the game, and even as his shirt and his hair were soaked with champagne and beer as he celebrated a tense 3-1 win over the Kansas City Royals in Game 4 of the American League Division Series to send New York to the American League Championship Series.
“All day,” he said, “I was just thinking about how (last) season ended here. That’s where we ended. No playoffs.
“The (sting). A lot of guys stuck around. We were all just staring at the field. There were a lot of what-ifs and, ‘What could we have done here?’”
The moment Aaron Judge joined the Yankees’ team photo after winning the ALDS tonight. pic.twitter.com/OgNNxLVe28
— Brendan Kuty 🧟♂️ (@BrendanKutyNJ) October 11, 2024
Last season, the Yankees were a disappointment. Their 82-80 record meant a fourth-place finish in the AL East. They missed the playoffs for the first time since 2016. They dealt with lots of injuries, particularly to Judge, who missed approximately two months after crashing into a wall at Dodger Stadium. But they underperformed, too.
This season was different. They stormed out to a hot start, swooned in the summer and then separated themselves from the Baltimore Orioles in early September to win the division and secure the AL’s best record at 94-68.
Judge pointed to the sullen moment after their final loss of the season last year as motivation for not just him, but for the whole team.
“Guys made adjustments this offseason,” Judge said. “Guys went out and put in the work. To have this season moving on here is pretty awesome.”
Aaron Boone said the memory was fresh for him, too. Last year was his first season without a playoff berth as manger of the team.
“We talked in here after that series,” Boone said. “We were like, ‘We know what we have to do. We know the focus we need to have.’ And to a man in that group, they put in the work this winter to have a great season.”
Their season now leads them to the ALCS, where they’ll face either the Cleveland Guardians or the Detroit Tigers. The winner of Game 5 on Saturday will head to the Bronx for Game 1 of the ALCS on Monday. In the ALDS, the Yankees and Royals played four tight games. The Yankees outscored them just 14-12.
What did Boone learn about his club during the series?
“They showed what they’ve been all year,” Boone said. “They really handled the highs and the lows. The adversity. The good times that come your way. You’ve got to handle all of those within a game. I feel like they did that really well. I feel like we played a really good brand of baseball this series.”
As for Judge?
“We’re never out of any game,” Judge said. “We went up against a great Royals team. They had a great season, a great run. We were able to go battle for battle, in that first game there were five lead changes, this team had a lot of confidence.”
Later in the night, at the postgame interview podium, Judge called this Yankees team “a special group.” He said that there might have been a little bit more to their success than just talent. “I think we got a little bit of the ghost from the old stadium, a little bit of magic,” he said.
Judge was reminded that he’d been here before. Three of his Yankees teams (2017, 2019, 2022) have been to the ALCS, only to see their seasons halt there. Did those losses still motivate him?
Yes, Judge said, but not as much as how terrible it felt to sit in the clubhouse at Kauffman Stadium at the end of last year without going to the playoffs.
“What fuels us more is (that) in ’23, our season ended here,” he said. “Our season ended. No postseason. No playoffs. No nothing. It was just go home and get ready for the next season.
“I think a lot of guys took that to heart. There’s a video out there. Quite a few guys just sitting in the dugout just kind watching the field, just kind of soaking it all in. And I think that’s what fueled a lot of guys to go out there and say, ‘Hey, I don’t want to have this feeling again.’”
The Yankees didn’t have to experience that sadness again this time.
And if they can take care of business in the ALCS, they’ll experience something the franchise hasn’t felt since 2009 — a trip to the World Series.
(Photo of Judge: Jamie Squire / Getty Images)
