Rich notes the difficulty that Aaron Judge has had at getting over the hump with his pursuit of 62 home runs. But it isn’t merely that hitting that many home runs is hard, or that the closer a player gets to that record, the more pressure there is on every at bat. There’s also the fact that pitchers, who don’t want to be remembered as the answer to a trivia question about giving up a historic home run, no longer are willing to give you any pitches to hit.
Consider this, from before yesterday’s game:
From @MLBNetwork:
Since HR No. 60, #AaronJudge has seen just 74 of the 224 pitches against him in the strike zone (33%).
In the two games since No. 61, that rate has been even lower—just 12 of 46 (26.1%). (MLB Average for 2022: 48.7%).
— Bryan Hoch (@BryanHoch) October 2, 2022
With so few hittable pitches, Judge has been left with a choice — either be patient and don’t swing at pitches out of the zone, or start chasing pitches. It’s no wonder he’s been alternating between walks and strikeouts as of late.