Yankees' Game 4 lineup is only going to make things worse for Aaron Judge

It feels like Aaron Judge and the New York Yankees have just about hit rock bottom, down 3-0 to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series after another dispiriting loss in front of a Yankee Stadium crowd desperate for any excuse to celebrate. New York once again kept on making critical mistakes, while Judge once again failed to deliver on the biggest stage, another 0-for-3 night dropping his postseason OPS to .580.

But the season is not in fact over yet, and in baseball, things can only get worse. With his team's season on the line, Aaron Boone has inexplicably decided to make life harder for his embattled star with some curious lineup changes for Game 4.

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Aaron Judge drops Giancarlo Stanton down in lineup for Game 4 of World Series

No, you didn't misread that: Boone's one big adjustment in the face of three games of offensive ineptitude was to drop Giancarlo Stanton, one of his only hitters with a pulse right now, down a spot in the lineup. Stanton will hit fifth in Game 4, with Jazz Chisholm Jr. moving into the cleanup spot behind Judge.

Jokes aside, you can understand Boone's logic here. The Los Angeles Dodgers will be going with a bullpen game, and Boone doesn't want to stack too many righties or lefties in a row — thereby giving Dave Roberts an easy way to decide on when to use which relievers. Separating Judge and Stanton, at least theoretically, makes it more difficult to bring a right-hander into the game.

But while that all sounds great in theory, it's baffling in practice. Getting Stanton to the plate with at least one man on base as often as possible should be one of Boone's main priorities right now; Stanton, Juan Soto and Gleyber Torres are basically New York's entire offense. While it sounds good to insert a lefty between the two big boppers, Chisholm Jr. can't be trusted to take advantage of that matchup right now — despite two hits in Game 1, the third baseman has a .475 OPS for the postseason and went 0-for-4 in Game 3.

And Chisholm Jr.'s struggles also mean that Judge will get even fewer good pitches to hit than he's already seeing. Why would the Dodgers not feed him a steady diet of soft stuff out of the zone, confident they can challenge Chisholm Jr. successfully if Judge works a walk? Judge is already pressing right now, and the last thing he needs in the face of that pressure is an excuse to expand the strike zone. This feels like yet another Boone decision that's clever for the sake of being clever, while harming his team in the process.