Championship Series – New York Yankees v Cleveland Guardians – Game 4 / Jason Miller/GettyImages

If the Los Angeles Dodgers are going to win the World Series against the New York Yankees, they’re going to have to hope Aaron Judge’s slumber continues, and that Giancarlo Stanton’s tear ends. Based on the way they’ve handled both players in the past, that could be a tall task. Taller, even, than Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton.

As an AL East lifer, Judge has a limited sample size against the Dodgers, and the 10 games he’s played against LA include a ridiculously early-career home game in the Bronx back in 2016. Old-look Judge, with an entirely different stance and a hole in his swing big enough to accommodate Ryan Brasier, still went yard against the ’16 Dodgers, then succumbed to an injury later in the series.

Clearly, that set the tone for the reborn version of Judge that we all know and love to truly go off against the Dodgers during his prime years.

He homered in every single game of the 2019 Yankees’ “Black Jersey” series at Dodger Stadium, a moment in time when it … really felt like they were about to win it all (alas). He homered thrice against the Dodgers this year at Yankee Stadium. While the pain of his toe injury, mashed against the Dodgers’ concrete slab last year, still feels freshly sore in many fans’ minds, the fact of the matter is he crushes this team to a degree that only competes with his disdain for his hometown Giants.

Yankees stars Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton destroy Dodgers in their careers

Well, containing Judge should be a piece of cake, given his playoff struggles to date. Surely, there are zero other Yankees behemoths who perform well against the Dodg — oh.

Giancarlo Stanton, who mashed four home runs against the Cleveland Guardians to earn ALCS MVP honors, is a California kid who grew up in the bleachers of Dodger Stadium. His 2022 All-Star Game MVP in the building was extra memorable, and throughout his career with the Marlins (and Yankees), he’s always stepped his game up on the turf where he’s most comfortable.

Any time you’re approaching Coors Field territory in the slugging department, you’re probably quite comfortable.

Judge and Stanton will begin their World Series journey inside walls where they’ve mashed exceedingly confidently before. A split on the road, powered by the team’s two hulks (and Juan Soto, who won the 2022 Home Run Derby here), would set things up extremely nicely for the Yankees’ return home.

Or, if you want to get really greedy … no, that would never … I mean … ?