The New York Yankees, the team that has won the World Series — and for that matter, lost the World Series — more times than any other team finally got back to Major League Baseball’s championship series last year for the first time since 2009.
But they lost, in just five games — in especially embarrassing fashion.
In inning five of Game Five they blew a five-run lead, allowing the Los Angeles Dodgers a two-out rally fueled by two Yankee errors that let saw the Yankee lead slip away with five unearned runs off ace Gerrit Cole — all in front of their home fans at Yankee Stadium.
The 2025 season is supposed to be one of redemption, and it has been. At least, it was until May 28 when the Yankees’ lead in the American League East reached a season-high seven games. And it’s been all downhill from there. Since then the Yankees have been living a nightmare, losing 21 of their 34 games including not one but two six game losing streaks, and now sit three games behind the Toronto Blue Jays.
Bizarre Incident Seems Typical For Yankees Recently
On Saturday, between the fourth and fifth innings of what turned out to be a 12-6 “Subway Series” loss to the New York Mets, a bizarre incident occurred that seemed to sum up the Yankees’ recent struggles had the team seeing their baseball life flash before their eyes.
After the final, as the Yankees fielders headed toward the dugout, shortstop Anthony Volpe casually tossed the baseball across the diamond — and hit team captain, two-time MVP and 2025 leading MVP candidate Aaron Judge in the face, square on the side of his right eye.
Even in the Yankees’ slump — with a June OPS (.718) ranking just 18th of the 30 MLB teams — Judge has continued to hit in spectacular fashion. Over the Yankees’ last 26 games, in which the team is 9-17, Judge has racked up 26 hits including 11 home runs for a 1.122 OPS.
Fortunately for the Yankees, the alarming incident appears, at least as of Sunday morning, to have caused no serious damage, though video showed bleeding next to Judge’s eye. The seven-time — including this year — All-Star Game starter took the field for the bottom of the sixth, albeit sporting a bandage over the area where Volpe’s careless toss struck him.
When reporters asked Judge about his status following the game, Judge gave a one-word reply, simply saying, “good.”
Loss of Judge Would Devastate Yankees
“I didn’t know what happened initially,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone elaborated, as quoted by the New York sports cabinetwork SNY. “I just saw kind of a, what felt like something happened. So of course I was concerned. (He) had a little cut. In the end I don’t think anything too serious obviously, but initially obviously very concerned.”
The loss of Judge for any period of time would be potentially devastating to the Yankees. In 2023 Judge missed 42 games with a toe injury. The Yankees went 19-23 without him, though they were 10 games over .500 at the time he went went on the injured list.
Judge has played in all 89 Yankee games so far this season, and appears on his way to a possible triple crown, with 32 home runs, three behind the Seattle Mariners’ surprising Cal Raleigh, 71 RBIs (also three behind Raleigh) and a league-leading batting average of .361.
Judge is even more dominant in the “sabermetric” categories, leading the Majors in Wins Above Replacement (WAR) at 6.5, runs created with 112 — 28 more than the Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani in second place — offensive win percentage (.884) and on-base percentage at .471.
Aaron Judge Breaks Silence After Totally Bizarre On-Field Injury