Mets’ Aaron Judge’s free-passing strategy leads to victory

Aaron Judge allowed a total of two strikes in his first four at-bats.

In his fifth at-bat, the Yankees captain swung once.

That one — a foul ball on a changeup in the middle of the plate — might have been the Yankees’ best chance to steal a Subway Series win.

Jose Quintana and the relief pitchers behind him got around Judge four times before throwing a strike in the decisive ninth inning. Mets win 3-2 in the Bronx On Tuesday, the Yankees’ lineup once again exposed its fragility.

“We’ve seen some teams take that approach,” manager Aaron Boone said after Judge reached base in four of his five at-bats in a disappointing game. “Look, we’re also going to get more consistency in the middle hitters over the next couple of days, and that’s going to shake things up a little bit.”

Except for No. 2 and No. 3, other positions are still unstable.

Juan Soto reached base once on a walk, and Judge’s opponents had little reason to pitch to him as the fourth batter of the night kept hitting right-handed JD Davis until left-handed-hitting Ben Rice pinch-hit.

With two outs and no one on base in the first inning, Judge walked Quintana on five pitches.

In the third inning, with one out and the bases empty, five more pitches put Judge on first base.

Davis then ended the inning with a double play.

In the fifth, Quintana didn’t try to throw a strike to Judge, but Judge reached base after throwing four walks, and then Davis struck out to end the inning.

Two innings later, with Trent Grisham occupying second base, the Mets didn’t even fake a pitch to Judge, who was intentionally walked for the seventh time this year.

The Mets didn’t allow a potential leadoff run to come home as pinch hitters Rice and Volpe would come in to bat. Dedenil Nunez got both outs.

“(Quintana) was careful,” said Judge, who improved his on-base percentage to .439 but didn’t have many chances to hit his 36th homer. “You just have to pass the baton to the next guy.”

The Yankees’ next guy has been failing, and the team has seen the likes of Volpe, Alex Verdugo, Gleyber Torres and DJ Lemaheux fall short on too many occasions.

Few understand this better than the Mets, who are managed by former Yankees manager Carlos Mendoza and have a starting pitcher in Luis Severino who recently called for an offensive strategy with two good hitters.

“I know that team’s lineup well,” Mendoza said after ordering four walks. “They have great hitters. Judge is special. Soto is special. … Sometimes you have to make a decision.”

In the ninth inning, Mendoza made a different choice, as left-hander Jake Diekman walked Soto with one out.

The Mets chose to pitch to Judge instead of putting the potential tying run on second base and the potential winning run on first base.

Judge saw five pitches, hit a foul ball and froze a fastball that Dickman threw to the inside corner for a strikeout.

The rest of the team gave No. 99 only one chance, which he failed to seize.

“We just need to get that middle of the order a little bit more settled,” Boone said, “and hopefully when they do that, it’ll come back to hurt other teams and force them to go after Aaron.”