How much of Team USA’s loss is on Aaron Judge?

Aaron Judge got to pull double-captain duty this year, serving in the role for both the New York Yankees and Team USA at the World Baseball Classic.

Unfortunately for the Americans, the WBC Final versus scrappy Venezuela looked all too much like a signature Yankees playoff game. Few quality at-bats, poor quality of contact, almost no offense. Bryce Harper’s game-tying home run was irrelevant almost as quickly as it flew out of LoanDepot Part at 109.4 mph. Garrett Whitlock’s leadoff walk led to Javier Sanoja’s stolen base, which led to Eugenio “Geno” Suarez’s go-ahead RBI double to the gap in left-center, and that’s all she wrote. Venezuela won the game and the Classic, 3-2.

And what we forget is that right after Harper’s homer, Judge struck out looking to end the inning. The reigning AL MVP and batting champion who will all but certainly hit his 400th career home run in his age-34 season. Caught looking on a low changeup by Andrés Machado. Not really a borderline call, either.

It capped an overall mediocre World Baseball Classic for Judge who, despite two homers and an .845 OPS, batted just .222.

Now, granted, this isn’t a referendum on Aaron Judge, Team USA, nor the World Baseball Classic itself. Judge is still a once-in-a-generation talent. Team USA kind of stumbled to the WBC Final as it is, largely thanks to some questionable strike calls in the semifinal against the Dominican Republic.

Most importantly—and we all kind of know this is true—Venezuela winning the Classic is great for both the event and the sport. Japan has won three of six tournaments, but each Final has had a different matchup. No repeat champions since Japan beat Cuba and South Korea in 2006 and 2009.

But let’s shift back to Aaron Judge who, despite his mediocre Classic, is a good clutch hitter. He’s hit .264 for his career with two outs and runners in scoring position, and .278 in “late and close” situations.

We should also note, Judge is only a .236 career hitter in the postseason. There, he at least has the “excuse” of facing the best pitching in baseball. Not so easy to suddenly turn on a fastball or hanging breaking pitch at that point.

Which makes Judge’s ill-timed strikeout on Tuesday more puzzling. Team USA just didn’t show up against a scrappy Venezuelan team that just wanted it more. The Americans had the better roster on paper, yet lefty Eduardo Rodriguez shut them down over 4.1 innings. The same Eduardo Rodriguez who has posted a 5.02 ERA over the last two years.

Venezuela had a solid bullpen too…except Andrés Machado hasn’t pitched in MLB since 2023. That isn’t to say the guy’s a bad pitcher. Far from it, in fact. The 32-year-old has notched 51 saves for Japan’s Orix Buffaloes in the last two years.

And even then, Judge just kind of looked lost. He had plenty of protection in the lineup and didn’t take many bad swings, but clearly something was up in that final at-bat.

Now keep in mind, this is the World Baseball Classic. This doesn’t mean that Aaron Judge is going to have a terrible season. It’s a meaningless preseason tournament.

But if the three-time MVP can’t show up when it counts in a game that means nothing? Let’s just say I wouldn’t blame Tony from North Bergen if he called into WFAN and was worried about the Yankees’ chances today.