| Aaron Judge is under the microscope.
Part of that is because he is in the second year of a nine-year, $360 million deal, and part is because the Yankees offense is faltering. The results haven't been pretty.
Gleyber Torres faces a different kind of scrutiny as he looks to become a free agent for the first time.
Both heard boos Monday, neither for the first time this spring, on a day Judge made the final out in a 2-0 loss to the lowly Athletics.
The single-season American League home-run record holder has gotten off to an uncharacteristically rough start.
After going 1-for-3 with a double in Tuesday's 4-3 win over the A's (the Yankees were blanked after scoring four in the first inning), Judge has just three homers and an OPS of .663. His batting average of .180 ranks 169th out of 186 hitters in the majors with enough plate appearances to qualify.
 Juan Soto hasn't gotten the kind of lineup support from Aaron Judge that Yankees fans assumed when the two became teammates in the offseason.
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Judge has acknowledged his poor performance, and after Monday's loss, Gerrit Cole, one of the only other players in the game who can relate to the expectations of having a contract worth more than $300 million, told Sports+ he didn't believe Judge's slump was due to any increased pressure.
"He had the same expectations on him before the contract,'' Cole said. "It is different once you get it, but it's not new to him. It's not unfamiliar territory for him. He's built different. He knows what he's doing."
Cole also believes that in coming up through the Yankees system makes Judge better prepared for the scrutiny.
"He earned it,'' Cole said of the monster deal. "And he did it all here. It's not like he's known anything else and then all of a sudden got hit with everything. No one is better at dealing with all of it than he is."
The Yankees are counting on it — and they're counting on Torres, as well.
 Gleyber Torres hopes his slow start to the season is nothing more than his usual struggles in April.
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The second baseman is striking out at a career-high 25.7 percent clip after having his best year in that category (14.6 percent) in 2023. He's struggled against all types of pitches, and has yet to hit a homer.
A slow start is not unusual for Torres, whose career OPS in April is .695, by far the worst of any month of the season.
But his OPS is down to .499 after an 0-for-3 Tuesday with an OPS-plus of 59, the worst of any Yankees regular.
"I don't know why April is always a rough month for me,'' Torres said this week. "This year is hard because I was good in spring training, and for some reason, at the start of the season, I haven't found my timing.''
On top of all that, the 27-year-old Torres, who is making $14.2 million this season, is set to hit the open market for the first time in the offseason.
 The Yankees' middling offense has been a complain during their 16-8 start.
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He insisted that hasn't played a role in the slump, which, like Judge's troubles, has garnered an increasing amount of attention amid a mostly underperforming lineup that ranks 14th MLB in runs, 21st in batting average and 19th OPS.
"I feel like every year is important,'' Torres said. "I know as a free agent, I have to show numbers to be in a good position, but that's gonna be over the next seven months. I don't worry about it now. I'm just trying to improve."
Perhaps the calendar turning to May in a little over a week will help — that's been Torres' best month with a career OPS of .869 — but he'd rather not wait that long.
"This month, maybe they've got me," Torres said. "But I get the next few months to come back. It's not the first time I've been in this situation and had to figure out a way."
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Garden variety Madison Square Garden has been the place to be this week with two wins by the Knicks matched by a pair of playoff victories for the Rangers, who held off the Capitals in Game 2 of their series Tuesday night.
And much like the Knicks' thrilling comeback win over the Sixers on Monday, the Blueshirts' 4-3 win over Washington came down to the final seconds.
As Jacob Trouba said in Larry Brooks' post-game column, "It was ugly a lot of the time, obviously there are some good plays out there that were made, but for the most part it was mucky, chip it out, chip it in and more of a grinding game. It seemed it had more of a playoff feel."
 Vincent Trocheck is showered with cheers after scoring a goal during the Rangers' Game 2 win over the Capitals at the Garden.
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It certainly looks as if there will be more postseason action at the Garden in the coming weeks, with both home teams primed for a run.
Now that the home teams are headed back on the road — the Rangers and Caps will play Game 3 on Friday in Washington — the next big date at MSG comes Friday, when Billy Joel has one of the final performances of his residency.
Controlling interest Almost every year, an NBA team overcomes a 0-2 series deficit in the playoffs.
Last year, it was the Warriors, who came back against the Kings in the first round in the Western Conference playoffs.
 The Knicks hold a seemingly commanding 2-0 series lead over the Sixers despite Jalen Brunson's subpar shooting.
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The year before, it was the Mavericks (with Jalen Brunson) rallying past the Suns in the Western Conference semifinals.
And in 2021, it happened four times: The Bucks won four straight games versus Phoenix in the NBA Finals after beating the Nets in seven games in the Eastern Conference semifinals, and the Clippers knocked off the Mavericks in the first round and the Jazz in the conference semis after being down 0-2.
But it's hard to see the Knicks blowing a similar lead to the 76ers — despite Joel Embiid's comments after Game 2, when he said the Sixers were "the better team" and would "win the series," especially with Embiid clearly hobbled by his surgically repaired knee and the Knicks already surviving two poor shooting performances from Brunson, their best player.
 Joel Embiid has been held to 39 percent shooting through two playoff games against the Knicks.
Charles Wenzelberg/New York Post
The Knicks don't just have a commanding lead in the series, but thanks in part to what the NBA judged was a favorable whistle in the game's final minute, they have added momentum.
As Elias Sports Bureau noted, the Knicks became just the fourth team in the past 25 seasons to win a playoff game after trailing by at least five points in the final 30 seconds of regulation.
The series picks up Thursday with Game 3 in Philadelphia.
No DJ Plenty of time has been spent analyzing the rest of Giancarlo Stanton's Yankees contract, but DJ LeMahieu's injury setback Tuesday during a rehab game with Double-A Somerset was another example of the question marks surrounding the durability of the 35-year-old, who has had foot problems in each of the past three seasons.
The Yankees owe LeMahieu $15 million per year through 2026, and he hasn't approached the production he displayed in his first two seasons in The Bronx, when the Yankees had him for a relative bargain at a combined $24 million.
 DJ LeMahieu progressed from workouts to a rehab appearance Tuesday night ... that lasted just one inning.
Jason Szenes for the NY Post
LeMahieu finished in the top four in AL MVP voting both seasons, but injuries have robbed him of some of his skills and plenty of his playing time since then.
Prospect of the day Spencer Jones is starting to get hot.
The Yankees outfield prospect went deep for the second straight game, going 3-for-5 with two RBIs on Tuesday for Double-A Somerset.
Jones crushed a third-inning two-run homer off Reading lefty Lachlan Wells to dead center, and added singles in the seventh and ninth innings to round out his third consecutive multi-hit game.
Jones missed the start of the season with a stiff neck, but looks no worse for wear with a .423/.483/.692 slash line through seven games.
What we're reading 👀 🏒 The Islanders face a massive goalie decision for Game 3, returning home with a 2-0 series deficit, and Patrick Roy hinted he would stick with Semyon Varlamov.
🏀 The Knicks aren't doing this with superstars and high draft picks, writes The Post's Stefan Bondy, but rather a collective identity of toughness and hard work.
⚾ The Mets were shut down by Giants ace Logan Webb in a 5-1 loss as their skid hit three in a row.
🏈 Check out the final seven-round beat writer mock drafts for the Giants and the Jets.
🏈 The Post's Ryan Dunleavy has an issue with the fixation on finding QBs who can take a team to the Super Bowl.
🏀 St. John's made a big move in the transfer portal, landing high-upside 7-foot-1 former USC center Vince Iwuchukwu.
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