Aaron Judge picked a bad time to stop hitting.
The right fielder has just three hits in the postseason after Wednesday’s 8-4 loss to the Rays in Game 3 of the ALDS, with the Yankees now on the brink of elimination.
For the second straight night, Judge made the final out of the game, grounding out to third against Diego Castillo this time.
But Judge believes he and the Yankees can turn it around in time to save their season Thursday.
“These are the games you live for,’’ Judge said of the potential elimination game. “Those are the games I like to play in.”
His first two hits of the playoffs were both important home runs, but Judge has been mostly silent otherwise.
“With Aaron, it’s one good at-bat, one swing gets him rolling,’’ Aaron Boone said. “I don’t necessarily worry about it because I know as soon as it clicks — and I feel like what I’ve been witnessing in batting practice the last couple days is him — one good at-bat and he takes off.”
Judge had a chance to give the Yankees the lead in the bottom of the third in Game 3, when he came up with the bases loaded and one out against Charlie Morton.
He delivered a sacrifice fly to right field, but the Yankees didn’t score again that inning and fell behind for good in the fourth.
He also grounded out and struck out against Morton before a two-out single in the eighth.
Judge will head into Thursday just 3-for-23 with nine strikeouts in the playoffs.
“They’re working the corners pretty well,’’ Judge said of Tampa Bay’s pitching staff. “The ones I do get over the plate, I’m a little out in front, a little off the end. I’ve got to keep swinging. That’s the only way to change the tide. … This is the playoffs. You’re not gonna get any cookies.”
And he agreed with Boone’s assessment about being close.
“I feel good at the plate,’’ Judge said. “I feel like I’m swinging at the right pitches.”
Judge’s main contribution on Wednesday was with his glove.
After Randy Arozarena’s two-out single off Mashiro Tanaka in the top of the first, Ji-Man Choi sent a fly ball to deep right. Judge, battling the sun, raced back and caught it at the tip of the webbing of his glove and held on as he hit the fence to keep the game scoreless.
It’s been a mostly disappointing year for Judge, who missed a chunk of the abbreviated regular season with a strained calf that sidelined him for two weeks before he returned too soon and aggravated the injury, which cost him two more weeks.
Conversely, Giancarlo Stanton has overcome an injury-ridden regular season to deliver five homers so far in the playoffs.
Judge was also just 6-for-25 against the Astros last year in the ALCS.
After that series, Judge stood in the visiting clubhouse at Minute Maid Park in Houston and called the Yankees’ season “a failure.”
They’re just one loss away from a similar outcome — one round earlier.