As was the case in the ALDS against the Cleveland Guardians, New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge has opened up the ALCS on a lackadaisical start.

Judge sits at a .125 batting average through two games in the ALCS against the Houston Astros. Overall, he has reached base just once in the series, which came via a single in the fourth inning of Game 2.

During a press conference on Saturday ahead of Game 3, Yankees manager Aaron Boone was asked what he has seen from Judge as of late, as the 2022 American League MVP Award favorite has tallied more strikeouts (12) than walks (one) in the ongoing postseason. With what Boone saw from Judge in Game 2, he believes that the best may be yet to come from the outfielder in the postseason.

“Yeah, I thought he swung the bat really well the last game,” Boone said. “He had the base hit, smoked the ball to center, just missed homering to right. I thought he just missed another breaking ball that he popped up. So I thought he had a lot of really great at-bats in his last game. Hopefully a sign of things to come.”

As Boone touched on, Judge did orchestrate several quality at-bats in Game 2. While Judge recorded an xBA of at least .800 on two balls in play, he came away from the contest with a mere single to show for it all.

In the big picture, the Yankees sure could use a keen performance from Judge at the plate in Game 3 to help the reigning AL East champions avoid falling to a 3-0 deficit in the series.