Turner-esque standing ovation attempt does little for Aaron Judge in World Series Game 3

Aaron Judge is ice cold in October again. (Grace Del Pizzo/Phillies Nation)

A couple weeks after the release of a Netflix documentary on the subject, Yankees fans tried to follow in the footsteps of Phillies fans and awaken their superstar with a standing ovation, this time on a much bigger stage.

It didn’t work.

Surefire AL MVP Aaron Judge, who has gone ice cold at the wrong time, was greeted with a standing ovation before his first at bat of Game 3 by Yankees fans witnessing their first World Series home game since their team closed out the Phillies in 2009. Judge entered the at bat 6-for-40 in the postseason, including 1-for-9 with six strikeouts in the Fall Classic.

He worked the count full against Walker Buehler but struck out on a cutter off the plate. He went 0-for-3 on the night. The positive: For the first time since Game 2 of the ALCS, he didn’t strike out multiple times. The negative: He still did nothing (apart from a walk), and the Yankees trail the Dodgers 3-0. They’ll need to pull off a comeback that’s only happened once in a best-of-seven MLB postseason series — the lone instance being a lead that the Bronx Bombers blew.

It’s not the first time a different fanbase has tried to replicate the Turner effect with one of their own. Twins fans gave Carlos Correa a standing ovation (albeit much more subdued) last Sept. 8, when he’d struggled to a .705 OPS in the first season of his new six-year Twins contract. It worked a bit better than for Judge; Correa homered and doubled that game, but he had already been slightly heating up — and he fell cold again, anyway, before his season ended short 10 days later.

The reality is that Phillies fans caught lightning in a bottle when their greeting matched up with Turner’s redemption arc last season. Besides, it was actually the day after the ovation that Turner really caught fire. Yankees fans can cling to that hope ahead of Tuesday’s Game 4. It’s about all they have left.

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