Aaron Judge homers twice, Yankees pound Tigers, 9-3

Aaron Judge smacked two home runs and the Yankees knocked around the visiting Detroit Tigers for 14 hits in a 9-3 win Thursday night in The Bronx.

The Yanks avoided the sweep and kept their hopes of winning the American League East alive as they improved to 81-65 on the season (44-31 at home) and are now 3.0 games back of the Toronto Blue Jays, who won earlier in the day to improve to 84-62.

Here are the takeaways…

– Judge put the Yanks ahead in the bottom of the first, crushing a 3-2 pitch into the visitor’s bullpen for a solo home run when a Tyler Holton cutter found the middle of the plate and it got smoked: 413 feet, 110.1 mph off the bat.

In his very next at-bat, Judge launched his second homer of the game to nearly the exact same spot, this time belting it 21 feet further, for a 434-foot solo shot to lead off the third. This one, off righty Sawyer Gipson-Long, was 114.9 mph off the bat and was the slugger’s 361st career home run, leveling him with Joe DiMaggio for fourth on the all-time Yankees home run list. He now has 46 home runs and 100 RBI for the season.

His hardest-hit ball (115.6 mph) came on a single up the middle to start the sixth. He finished 3-for-4 with a hit by pitch, but struck out looking on a 3-2 pitch to leave the bases loaded to end the seventh. 

– Yanks’ starter Cam Schlittler retired the first four batters with three strikeouts before allowing back-to-back singles to put runners at the corners with one out in the second. Schlittler jammed Dillon Dingler on the 11th pitch of the at-bat but was able to muscle it into right to level the score. After an early mound visit from Matt Blake, a strikeout and groundout got the righty out of the jam.

Again pitching with a lead, Schlittler allowed a leadoff double in the third, but a lineout doubleplay set up six straight retired to get the next seven outs. That came to an end with Parker Meadows’ single to right with one down in the fifth. After back-to-back two-out walks, the Tigers had the bases loaded, and Blake was out for another visit. But on a fifth straight fastball, Schlittler got Riley Greene swinging at a 98 mph heater at the top of the zone to leave ‘em full.

A quick sixth finished the day for the 24-year-old, his final line: 6.0 innings, one run, five hits, two walks, and seven strikeouts on 95 pitches (62 strikes). His ERA stands at 3.05 on the year. Schlittler tossed first-pitch strikes to 17 of 24 batters he faced.

– With one out in the third, Giancarlo Stanton got a 3-2 hanging breaking pitch and smacked it 429 feet into left field stands (108.9 mph off the bat). It was his 20th home run of the year, giving the Yanks seven players with 20 or more on the season, which ties a franchise record. Stanton now has 449 in his big league career. He finished 1-for-5 with three strikeouts and bounced into a 5-4-3 twin killing.

– Jazz Chisholm opened the home half of the second inning by cracking a two-strike single to right before stealing second with one out, his 28th steal of the season. Chisholm came around to score on Ben Rice’s double to the right field corner for his 55th RBI of the year.

Jose Caballero, playing short for the second straight game as Anthony Volpe had a cortisone shot on Wednesday, kept the line moving with an RBI single to left and immediately stole second for his 44th steal of the year, but was left stranded there.

– Rice cracked another double down the right field line to start the fourth and was moved to third on a single slapped into right by Caballero, who then stole second with one out. Austin Slater, batting leadoff and starting for the first time since August 4, was hitless his first two times up, but cracked a single against a drawn-in infield for an RBI. After Judge was hit on the elbow pad to load the bases, the Tigers brought in Bailey Horn, who promptly allowed an RBI single to Cody Bellinger. With two down, Chisholm muscled a broken-bat two RBI single to right to make it a 9-1 game. 

Chisholm finished 2-for-4 with two RBI and a walk. Rice went 2-for-4 with an RBI and a walk.

– Ryan Yarbrough was the first man out of the bullpen and surrendered a homer to Dingler down the line in left on the third pitch he threw. He allowed a two-out walk in the seventh and a two-out walk and single in the eighth, but no further damage. Javier Báez drove a triple off the wall in center with one out in the ninth before scoring on a groundout before the Tigers' 27th out. But Yarbrough's three innings of work were enough to earn him the save. 

Game MVP: Judge

Judge entered the game batting .319, the lowest his average had been since he started 1-for-4 on Opening Day. He fixed that with his three hits, bringing it back up to .322, and raising his OPS to 1.112 for the year.

Highlights

What's next

New York, with a half-game lead over the Red Sox for the top Wild Card spot, heads to Boston for a three-game set at Fenway Park, starting with Friday night's 7:10 p.m. first pitch.

New York has yet to name starting pitchers for the series. Boston is sending out right-hander Lucas Giolito for the first game, with RHP Brayan Bello and LHP Garrett Crochet following.

Read the full article here