LOS ANGELES — In a way, the 2023 Yankee season ended at Dodger Stadium.
It was there on June 3 of last year that Aaron Judge slammed his foot into the fence while making a catch against the Dodgers.
The result was a sprained big right toe that sidelined the outfielder for nearly two months, then robbed him of some of his power during the rest of what turned out to be a miserable season in The Bronx.
The other result is that the Dodgers installed padding in the area to cover the concrete and reinforced the gate that Judge broke through in an attempt to prevent another similar injury.
People familiar with the ballpark believe it was an almost impossible set of circumstances to repeat.
But now, the Yankees are back at Chavez Ravine for the first time since Judge’s injury as they look to complete their turnaround season by winning their first World Series title since 2009.
“I felt like we had a great club last year and hit a tough spell,” Judge said of the impact of his injury while speaking at Dodger Stadium on Thursday in advance of Game 1 of the World Series. “Nobody likes getting hurt, but I don’t really think about [the foot injury]. I’ve torn obliques, pulled muscles and done this and that. That was just another one you’ve got to go through.
“You can’t dwell on it and I haven’t really thought about it since it healed up and I got back out there.”
Aaron Boone said he hasn’t spent much time rehashing the injury that derailed the 2023 season, which ended with the Yankees just two games over .500 and sitting out the postseason.
But he did recall that Judge “didn’t seem right after the game. I don’t think any of us realized how serious it would turn out to be.”
This season, a healthy Judge rebounded with 58 homers and on the eve of the first World Series game of his career, the Yankees captain reflected on his decision to stay in The Bronx as a free agent instead of taking an equally lucrative offer from the San Francisco Giants — the team he grew up rooting for in California.
“It came back to me to unfinished business,’’ Judge said of remaining a Yankee, the team that drafted him over a decade ago out of Fresno State.
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“The money was great and the teams were great and all of that,” Judge said. “But for me, it was about what I want to get out of this game and the mark I wanted to leave on the game.”
It’s a mindset that he said he’s carried throughout his time with the organization.
“Back to [being drafted in] 2013, being a Yankee has always been about World Series championships,’’ Judge said of what helped keep him in The Bronx following his historic 2022 regular season. “To be at that point and not have one [title] or even be at the dance yet didn’t sit well with me. That played a big role in the legacy I wanted to leave here.”
For Judge to follow through on his goal of getting the Yankees another title, he’ll almost certainly have to do more than he has so far this postseason.
While much of the rest of the lineup has flourished, with Giancarlo Stanton, Anthony Rizzo and Juan Soto building on already impressive October résumés and Gleyber Torres and Anthony Volpe creating their own, Judge has mostly struggled.
He’ll enter Friday’s Game 1 having gone just 5-for-31 with two homers, a double and 13 strikeouts to go along with an OPS of .704.
All of that can be erased with a strong performance against the Dodgers.
His game-tying home run in Game 3 of the ALCS in Cleveland looked like the beginning of that turnaround, but the Yankees’ bullpen implosion later in the game robbed him of the moment.
Friday could start another chapter — as long as he doesn’t find any concrete.