After one hundred days away from the game he captains, Aaron Judge returned to Yankee Stadium on Tuesday night carrying the accumulated hopes of a fanbase that had come to see his absence as the singular explanation for their summer's suffering. The body, indifferent to narrative, offered no immediate redemption — three at-bats, two strikeouts, and an early exit reminded the Bronx that healing is not the same as readiness. The victory came anyway, authored not by the man the crowd had come to see, but by the one quietly filling his place.