Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees is struggling. Through the first two games of the World Series, he is 1-9 with six strikeouts.

Judge hit .322 this season with 58 home runs and 144 runs batted in. His on-base percentage was .458, and his on-base plus slugging percentage was 1.159. Since the MLB app didn’t send out a notice every time Judge hit a loud foul, it may surprise you that he had a better year than Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Dodgers, who hit .310 with 54 homers, 130 RBIs, a .390 OBP, and an OPS of 1.036. If Judge doesn’t win the American League Most Valuable Player Award, there should be an investigation. Unfortunately for Judge, his success in the regular season has not carried over to the postseason.

Judge hit just .154 with no homers or RBIs in the American League Division Series, and although he had two home runs and six runs batted in in the League Championship Series, he hit just .167. Down 0-2 to Dodgers, the Yankees really could use some production from their 6’ 8” slugger. However, if Judge’s struggles continue, he will be in good company when it comes to big-name stars who fizzled out in the World Series.

In 1946, Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox was the AL Most Valuable Player. He hit .342 with 38 home runs and 123 RBIs; his OBP was .497. The Red Sox lost the World Series to the St. Louis Cardinals that year in seven games; it was the only time Williams played in the Fall Classic.

Williams hit just .200 (5-25) with one RBI in the Series, and all five of his hits were singles. In Game Seven, the Red Sox rallied for two runs in the top of the eighth inning to tie the game at 3-3 and had the go-ahead run at second base with Williams coming to the plate. Considering what a dominant hitter Williams was, I’m surprised the Cardinals did not issue an intentional walk. Rudy York was the on-deck batter, and he was a powerful hitter, but he was no Ted Williams. The decision turned out well for the Cardinals as Williams popped out to third base to end the threat.

The Cardinals took the lead in the bottom of the eighth on the Mad Dash by Enos Slaughter and held on for a 4-3 victory and a World Series Championship. The most surprising stat for Williams in the Series was that he struck out five times–that’s one strikeout for every six plate appearances. Williams struck out only 44 times in 672 plate appearances during the regular season, which was one strikeout every 15.27 plate appearances. In his career, he averaged one strikeout every 13.8 plate appearances.

In 1981, Dave Winfield was in his first year with the Yankees, having signed a 10-year contract during the offseason. He had a fine first season in the Bronx, hitting .294 with 13 homers and 65 RBIs in a season shortened by a players strike, but his performance in the World Series was disastrous. Winfield hit .045 (1-22) with one RBI; that RBI came on a bases-loaded walk in Game One. The Yankees lost the Series to the Dodgers is six games. Winfield fell into the bad graces of Yankees’ owner George Steinbrenner, who by 1985 labeled Winfield “Mr. May” as opposed to Reggie Jackson, who was “Mr. October.”

Judge still has at least two games to improve on his performance in this year’s World Series. He seems like a good guy, so I hope he does.

(All statistics are from Baseball Reference. Game accounts are from Retrosheet. Steinbrenner’s comments about Winfield are from the September 17, 1985 edition of the Daily News accessed via Newspapers.com.)