NEW YORK _ Aaron Judge can't help but make a big impression when he enters a room or a batter's box or even a 50,000-seat stadium.
But Judge hadn't made much of an impression in the American League Championship Series against the Astros until Monday night at Yankee Stadium.
In Game 3, Judge hit a three-run home run _ his first long ball since the AL wild-card game _ and made two outstanding defensive plays as the Yankees took a 8-1 win behind CC Sabathia.
The Yankees entered the game trailing 2-0 in the best-of-seven series after losing a pair of 2-1 games at Minute Maid Park. Judge was 1-for-7 with a walk and three strikeouts in Houston and 4-for-31 (.129) with 19 strikeouts in the Yankees' first eight postseason games.
The Yankees were leading 4-0 in the fourth inning when Astros manager A.J. Hinch brought in right-hander Will Harris to replace starter Charlie Morton with the bases loaded and two outs to face Judge.
The Yankee Stadium crowd was looking for a big hit from the rookie slugger so the Yankees could break the game open.
They got one, but not before Harris threw a run-scoring wild pitch to make the score 5-0.
The count got to 2-and-2. Judge, who struck out in the first and walked on a close 3-and-2 pitch in the third, was probably just looking to make contact. He did much more than that, lining a three-run homer to left to give the Yankees an 8-0 advantage.
The crowd chanted "MVP, MVP," but it wasn't the first time Judge heard that on Monday.
The Yankees had a 3-0 lead on Todd Frazier's second-inning three-run homer when Yuli Gurriel sent a drive to the right-field wall leading off the fourth.
Judge raced back and grabbed the ball with a leap before face-planting into the wall. "MVP, MVP" was heard in the Bronx. Sabathia pointed at Judge to give his thanks.
In the fifth inning, Judge showed he could make a great catch coming in, too. He robbed Cameron Maybin of a base hit with a diving catch for the first out of the inning.
Before the game, Yankees manager Joe Girardi was asked about the high number of called strikes on Judge in the postseason. The Yankees think umpires have been calling too many low strikes on the 6-foot-7 Judge.
"It's part of what's going to happen to him because he's so tall," Girardi said. "And he works on hitting a low pitch. And he'll continue to get better as time goes on. I think there are some pitches that were called on him during the series that haven't necessarily been strikes. There's a big difference between 1-and-1 and 2-and-0, 2-and-1. There's a big difference in the way it changes an at-bat. Hopefully, he'll start getting some that go his way, and they start making some mistakes up."
