Stephen Vogt made the right choice. Still, it was breathtaking. Still, it was at least a little insulting to Aaron Judge.

The Guardians manager had decided to treat ALCS Game 2 as close to an elimination affair as possible and steer it in that direction with aggressiveness.

So when the second inning unfolded and the Yankees opened with three straight hits to take a 2-0 lead in an attempt to take a commanding two-none lead in this best-of-seven, Vogt was his best set- up man already warming up. Cade Smith.

And when Gleyber Torres popped out to tie the score at one with the second and third runs, Vogt decided he had to do whatever he could to keep the Yankees from even scoring that third run. After all, through the first seven games against the Yankees this year, including the ALCS opener, Cleveland had scored just 15 runs without the help of a ghost runner in overtime.

Several Yankees described what came next as “pick your poison.” But in October 2024, Juan Soto had been much deadlier than Judge, a much tougher player, who certainly had a better chance of putting up a run from third down. So Vogt walked Soto to face the batting monster who was thrown around and intentionally walked more than anyone this season.

“You want to try to get two outs on one pitch,” Vogt said. “You want to try to find a way to get out of that inning.”

The previous day in the NLCS, the Dodgers intentionally loaded the bases for Mark Vientos, who said he was offended by that and responded with a grand slam that clinched a Game 2 Mets win. The judge emphasized that he felt disrespected.

He did make a sacrifice fly to make it 3-0. It shouldn’t be ignored that it came on a 1-2 pitch from a great right-hander in Smith, as Judge is still hitless in his last 21 postseason at-bats as the count reaches two strikes.

But the Yankees needed more from Judge. He is their whistleblower. As he goes, so often goes the offense and so does the team. The Yankees have won this postseason, but not overly impressively. They’re a homer-hitting team, and through five postseason games and six innings of ALCS Game 2, they had just five home runs and only the first — a two-runner by Torres in the Division Series opener — wasn’t a solo shot been. That’s why the Yankees couldn’t open a game.

And then Judge came up with one on and one out in the seventh with a 4-2 lead. Another tough right-hander, Hunter Gaddis, threw a 1-1 fastball and Judge hit the hardest ball of the game, 110 miles per hour, with a towering shot to right-center. It landed in the net 130 yards away. The Yankees finally had breathing room in this postseason against an outmatched AL Central foe. It helped render Jose Ramirez’s solo home run in the ninth meaningless in a 6-3 victory.

But it’s more than that.

“It just feels right (having Judge play the lead role),” Clay Holmes said. “He is such a big part of the organization. It’s one of those things where no matter what happened, the last at-bat, the last 50 at-bats, you know who he’s going to be in the end, and you have a lot of confidence in it. There is never a moment when we doubt him.”

Yes, but the October slumps are different than what Judge experienced in April, when there was a long season ahead of him to erase a slump. Judge did that with 58 home runs and what will likely be a second AL MVP. However, this time of year your season can end quickly and legacies can go one way or the other just as quickly.

Judge went 3-for-15 in this postseason, homerless with one RBI. He had a .204 batting average through 49 postseason games. For the fifth time this postseason on Tuesday, Torres and Soto opened a first inning with singles, passing the baton to Judge to immediately break open a game. He failed on the first four and here he hit an infield pop-up that dropped shortstop Brayan Rocchio, allowing Torres to score.

Still, it left Judge 1-for-his-last-22 with runners in scoring position in the playoffs. That certainly provided more information for Vogt to walk Soto and chase Judge in the second inning. And it provided more resonance when Judge broke open the game later. Judge emphasized that even at this time of year, he doesn’t make any moment too big. But if the Yankees want to get from five postseason wins to 11 and The Canyon of Heroes, they need Judge Homer to be a starting point for him to carry them.

“It was a big step to give us that cushion,” Aaron Boone said. “I think the bank was pretty excited when that happened.”

Of course they were pumped. Judge is the captain, the most fearsome player in the sport and a catalyst. As he goes, the Yankees so often follow. He finally went over the fence in ALCS Game 2. It was worth two runs and breathing room, but will it be worth that much more because it was the start of a Judge tear?