Aaron Judge breaks out of postseason slump with three-run homer

Because you knew it would happen eventually: Game 3 of American League Championship Series turned into The Aaron Judge Show.

Judge, who had two hits and 19 strikeouts in the ALDS and ALCS coming into Monday night, turned around a disappointing postseason — at least for one game. Judge hit a three-run homer to cap a five-run fourth inning, which gave the Yankees an 8-0 lead at the time. They’d eventually win the game 8-1 and getting their first win of the series. The Astros lead 2-1.

This was Judge’s first homer since the American League wild-card game on Oct. 3, his only other homer of the postseason. The homer wasn’t a titanic blast — just barely cleared the left-field fence — but when you’re having a postseason like Judge, just getting one over the wall is cause for celebration.

The Yankees rookie had a lot more to celebrate too. He made two great catches in the outfield, the first of which came in the top of the fourth inning when Judge crashed face-first into the right-field wall to steal a hit from Yuli Gurriel.

After the catch, Judge homered in the next half inning, then came back out in the fifth and made a slick diving catch in right field to steal a hit from Cameron Maybin.

Welcome back to the postseason, Aaron Judge.

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Mike Oz is the editor of Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at mikeozstew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @MikeOz