For the New York Yankees, if Saturday night was the Gio Urshela show, then last night it was all slugger Aaron Judge. Judge hit a homer to hit a long ball in five straight consecutive games and added one in the eighth to win it for the Yankees.
James Paxton, the Yankees starter, got roughed up again but went three innings this time, giving up three runs, which is an improvement from his outing against the Nationals when he went only one inning. The Red Sox didn’t give the Yankees much competition in the first two games, but played really well in this game, particularly Xander Bogaerts and Raphael Devers. Bogaerts went 4 for 4 with two homers, and Devers was the defensive star of the game.
James Paxton, last year at the end of the season, was lights out, as the Yankees won eleven straight games pitched by Paxton. This year not so much. Last night as he has not found his control and he fastball lacked velocity. All of this possibly due to his February back surgery. At the top of the first he struck out Devers but gave up a two-run homer to Bogaert.
At the bottom of the frame, the Yankees loaded the bases off Austin Brice, but Luke Voit struck out, leaving three Yankees on the bases. At the bottom of the second with two on Aaron Judge gives the Yankees the 3-2 lead by driving a blast well into the stands of left field for his fifth run in five games.
At the top of the third, Paxton allowed another two runs, one of them unearned as Miguel Andujar bobbled a ground ball, allowing Devers to score, and the Red Sox regained the lead 5-3, and that was it for James Paxton. Michael King came in and closed out the inning. In the bottom Gary Sanchez that got his first hit of the season the day before doubled off the right-center wall diving in Stanton from first. That was followed by a long ground ball to left by Urshela driving in Sanchez to tie it up at five runs apiece.
In the fifth Bogaerts, hit his second home run of the night, and in the bottom, Luke Voit had his own long-shot into the left-field corner to tie it back up again at 6. The Red Sox took the lead again in the top of the seventh when Devers went deep into the bleachers. The game stayed that way until in the bottom of the eighth with two men on Aaron Judge got his second home run of the night, a 468′ shot into the night, and the New York Yankees took the lead at 9-7 for the final score and the three-game sweep of the Red Sox.
Right now, Aaron Judge, Gio Urshela, and Giancarlo Stanton couldn’t be any hotter. In these games, when the pitching let down the Yankees, the hitters picked them up. The long ball has been king with the Yankees blasting 18 in eight games. But it’s not just the homers or the slugging stars; the Yankees have been playing some fine small ball as well. Last night Tauchman walked and stole second with DJ LeMahieu driving him in to tie the game in the fifth.
New York Yankee reliever Adam Ottavino got the win for the Yankees, Barnes took the loss for the Red Sox, and Zack Britton scored his third save in as many tries.
All in all, last night was a classic rivalry game between these two foes that was a fight to the finish. In a schedule change, the New York Yankees will now host Joe Girardi’s Phillies for two games at the Stadium and then return to Citizen’s Bank Park to complete the four-game set. Tomorrow night Gerrit Cole is scheduled to go after his third straight win. If he gets that win he will be the winningest pitcher in baseball, Judge will be the home run king of MLB, and the Yankees will continue to be the winningest team in all of baseball.
Notes: Aaron judge beat his own record last night when hit homered in his last five games in a row. If he homers tomorrow night again, he will equal the record of Mikey Mantle and Roger Maris with 6 straight games. Looking forward to the all-time consecutive home run leader is Don Mattingly, with 8 games in a row. Could it be that Aaron Judge can beat that record?