Aaron Judge of the Yankees moved back into third place in the Baseball Musings Batter Rankings with a single, walk, and hit by pitch in the 11-4 win over the Dodgers in game four of the 2024 World Series. That put New York on the board, but the Dodgers still lead the best of seven series 3-1. Dodgers lead-off hitter Shohei Ohtani went one for four to stay in first place, while Juan Soto of the Yankees doubled and walked to move two points behind the Dodgers star.

The highest game score of the night went to Anthony Volpe of the Yankees, a 74. He posted a two for three night with a walk, a double, and a grand slam. Note that in his regular season career, Volpe saved his power for men on base situations. He hit fourteen home runs with the bases empty, and 19 with men on base in about 300 fewer PA.

Austin Wells, batting behind Volpe, posted the same line in terms of hits and walks, but came away with a game score of 71 as he only drove in one run. An early base running blunder by Volpe cost Wells both a triple and an RBI. I saw Wells interviewed after the game, and his response to a question about a change to his approach at the plate was “Screw it.” I suspect he was channeling another Yankees catcher who once said, “How can you think and hit at the same time?” Teams, of course, throw a lot of analytics at batters. Maybe Wells just decided to screw all the information and just try to hit the ball. Whatever “Screw it” means Wells certainly did.