NEW YORK — At 6:08 p.m. ET on the last day of the regular season, Aaron Judge came to bat in the bottom of the ninth with two on and one out. A hit would send the New York Yankees to the postseason, another couple of outs and things would get a lot dicier. Somewhere in the crowd of 40,409 a scattered “M-V-P” chant started to gain traction, but quickly dissolved into the buzzing ambient noise of anxiety and excitement.
At 6:11, Judge smacked a ball 104.4 mph up the middle. It bounced off the mound, got scooped up by the Rays second baseman and hurled back towards home plate, where it arrived just a touch too high and a second too late to beat Tyler Wade, pinch-running for Rougned Odor.