Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I think this may be the only time Yankees fans look back optimistically on the Red Sox’ 2004 comeback.

In today’s SI:AM:

😴 The quiet bats of the Yankees
🔥 Walker Buehler steps up
🏈 NFL Power Rankings

The New York Yankees are eyeing a possible World Series sweep after dropping Game 3 to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the Bronx on Monday night as New York’s offense sputtered again.

The Yankees’ struggles at the plate has been the story of this series, and while it has been an issue for the entire lineup, the focus has rightly been on star player Aaron Judge. He went 0-for-3 with a walk and a strikeout in Monday’s 4-2 loss, making him 1-for-12 with seven strikeouts in the series. After completing one of the best regular seasons of any hitter in baseball history, he has been freezing all postseason. He has now played twelve games in October and is 6-for-43 (a batting average of .140) with two homeruns and 20 strikeouts.

There isn’t a hitter on earth who is immune to the occasional slump. Judge’s weakness as a hitter is his relatively high strikeout rate, which is to be expected for a power hitter. He struck out in 24.3% of his plate appearances this season, which ranked in the bottom 35% of the league. But strikeout numbers won’t be an issue if the other aspects of Judge’s game are clicking. That’s the problem for him now. Not only did he strike out in 37% of his at-bats this postseason, he walked just 14.8% of the time after leading the Majors with an 18.9% walk rate in the regular season. His walk in the eighth inning on Monday night was his first since Game 4 of the ALCS.

The judge’s tendency to sniff is rarely a problem because if he makes contact he does damage. Or at least, he usually does. This postseason, however, Judge hasn’t been able to do much when he puts the ball in play. He has only six hits, two of which are home runs.

That easily makes this October one of the worst stretches of Judge’s career. He has fewer than 12 games with at least 20 strikeouts and six or fewer hits since 2017his rookie year. He’s prone to the occasional power outage (he even had a 16-game homerless streak in late August and early September of this year) as well as bouts of frequent strikeouts, but rarely have the two coincided in this way. There have only been two stretches in Judge’s career where he has struggled this much: a 13-game stretch from July 29 to Aug. 12, 2017, in which he hit .207 with 21 strikeouts and two home runs, and a 23-game stretch. from August 15 to September 11, 2016, during which he batted .153 with 38 strikeouts and one homer.

What everyone wants to know is what is causing Judge’s problems in the postseason. Is it just unfortunate timing that he’s floundering when his team needs him most? Is it a mechanical problem? A product of harder pitching? Or is it the pressure of the bright lights? Whatever the cause, the Yankees’ 3-0 deficit means it’s likely too late for a court reversal to save their season. It will be another long winter full of questions about his ability to pull it off on the big stage.

…things I saw last night:

5. Steven Adams Cancel Keldon Johnson off the floor while fighting for a loose ball.
4. Jason Zuckers Baseball style goal for the Sabres. At least someone in upstate New York managed to make solid contact last night.
3. Calvin Austin III’s 73 yards punt return touchdown.
2. Freddie Freemans home run in the first inning. That’s five straight World Series games with a homer for Freeman, tying George Springer’s record.
1. Perfect throw from Teoscar Hernández to nail Giancarlo Stanton. (Should the Yankees third base coach have sent the stumbling Stanton home on a sharply hit ball to left? That’s another story.)