The Yankees set up a decisive Game 5 in the ALDS with a 4-2 win over the Guardians on Sunday, powered by seven innings of work from Gerrit Cole. And in looking ahead to that game, which will take place tonight at Yankee Stadium, and its ramifications, let’s start with Aaron Judge, because he is the face of the franchise, the face of the era and could soon become the face of its ending.

There is every chance that Judge could be playing his final game in pinstripes tonight in The Bronx, as the Yankees face a do-or-die Game 5 against the Guardians with the American League home run record holder entering unrestricted free agency. What Judge will do when that time comes, be it on Tuesday or when free agency officially begins after the World Series, is unclear — he bet on himself in rejecting the Yankees’ extension offer prior to the season — but this is a moment in which things look uncertain once the season wraps up.

If it does so in disappointing fashion, which is to say if the Yankees exit in the divisional series following a regular season in which they won the AL East and played at a historic pace through the first half of the year, then that sense will only grow.

In every 162-game season during what you might call the Judge Era, which we can essentially date back to 2017, the Yankees have won over 90 games. They’ve made the playoffs in all of those years, including 2020. They’ve won 100 or more games twice, and fell one short of making it a third time this season. To show for it, they have … two losses in Game 7 of the ALCS, two playoff losses to the archrival Red Sox and zero pennants, let alone World Series rings.