A painful end to late October for Aaron Judge and the Yankees

NEW YORK — Aaron Judge has experienced the heartache of October, but never this much.

“The deficit in the World Series will stay with me until the day I die,” the Yankees captain said quietly in the home clubhouse as the Los Angeles Dodgers celebrated wildly.

Judge and the Yankees traveled to California in the middle of Game 5 on Wednesday night, ready to take their impossible dream – coming back from a 3-0 deficit – back to Dodger Stadium.

Instead, the Yanks will remember a five-run lead that collapsed in overwhelming fashion and a one-run lead that slipped away in the eighth, leading to a Dodger victory party.

“Just like any other loss, these things don’t go away,” Judge said after the relentless Dodgers won 120^Th World Series with a 7-6 win at Yankee Stadium.

A supplement to Aaron Judge's Battle Scars

The judge counts these losses as “battle scars,” but “hopefully when my career is over, we will have a lot of battle scars, but also a lot of victories along the way.”

One of these scars was self-inflicted; a Judge error on a simple, soft liner to center that somehow bounced off his glove – paving the way for LA's improbable five-run inning against Gerrit Cole.

The ace got tougher with the bases loaded, getting two strikeouts and a soft grounder from Mookie Betts to first, where Cole — after taking a poor route off the mound — failed to cover the bag.

A soft single from World Series MVP Freddie Freeman (4 HRs, 12 RBI) and a long double from Teoscar Hernandez tied the game, and the sellout crowd went from jubilant to stunned almost immediately.

Judge blamed it on his misplay up the middle, the first of three Yankee errors if you count Cole's error.

“If that doesn’t happen, it could be a whole different story,” Judge said of his fall. “I just couldn’t finish the piece.”

An inning earlier, Judge had saved a run with a sensational running catch, bouncing off the 399-foot sign in left-center and intercepting Freeman's latest drive.

Judge had finally rediscovered his A-swing, hitting a two-run home run in the first and helping end Dodger starter Jack Flaherty's night early en route to a 5-0 lead.

The Yankees' long road back to October

But the ending was all too painful and familiar, like the Houston Astros' triumphs in the AL Championship Series, or the Tampa Bay Rays in the pandemic-impacted Division Series, or the Boston Red Sox in a wild-card game.

Once again, winter came sooner than Judge wanted, leaving him with a legacy that still lacks a World Championship.

And the road back will be difficult without Juan Soto riding shotgun with Judge in the starting lineup.

“I would love to have him back,” Judge said, praising Soto’s commitment behind the scenes as well as his importance as a constant threat and base machine.

But two years into his own free-agent whirlwind, Judge knows what's in store for Soto – a free-agent period that could land him a contract bigger than anyone except Shohei Ohtani.

Both Ohtani and Judge will likely win their leagues' MVP awards, and Ohtani will also receive a World Series ring.

But the Yankees lost that series while Ohtani hasn't been a factor since Game 1; He was 2 of 19 overall and 1 of 11 with a single since injuring his left shoulder on a slide in Game 2.

Mostly, the Yankees couldn't overcome Judge's postseason woes, an out-of-rhythm swing — 1 for 14, seven strikeouts — that lasted until late in World Series Game 4.

Soto and Judge were on base four times each in Game 5, with Juge also walking twice and doubling in the eighth inning, but he was stranded.

In the eighth Dodger game, Aaron Boone called on Tommy Kahnle to find his way at the bottom of the order – thereby saving Luke Weaver for the ninth – but Kahnle's command issues led to two runs.

Weaver couldn't save them, and Dodgers' Game 3 starter Walker Buehler – the last of seven Dodger relievers – ended another Yankees season, their 15th^Th especially without a world championship title.

The judge is 0 for 8, with another battle scar.

The Yankees' long road back to October

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