Aaron Judge’s first 3-homer game helps the Yankees break a 9-game losing streak. Aaron Judge had a knack for beating out Kyle Higashioka and Anthony Rizzo, a fervor that has disappeared recently as the New York Yankees fall out of contention. He had three home runs, and Judge did not have one.
He always reminded me that every game I had two, and I couldn’t get the third one: ‘Hey, one of these days, kid, you’ll join my club. The judge said it with a smile. He secured his membership at the most opportune time on Wednesday night.
Judge homered three times and tied his career high with six RBIs, almost single-handedly breaking the Yankees’ first nine-game losing streak in 41 years with a 9-1 victory over the Washington Nationals.
Higashioka said that we have been waiting for this for a long time. Now we have nothing to put on his head.
Two hours after general manager Brian Cashman called the season ‘a disaster’, Judge threw a first-inning curveball off Mackenzie Gore (6-10) to right-center in the opposite field of the Yankees’ bullpen. Judge made it 6–0 in the second with his fifth career grand slam, a shot into the netting over Monument Park in center field.
I left a few pitches down the middle of the plate, Gore said.
Then the seventh judge, Jose A. Ferrer, combined with DJ LeMahieu for back-to-back homers, lofting the ball over the right-field short porch just inside the foul pole.
Yankees manager Aaron Boone, who had a pair of three-homer games two decades earlier, at first thought Judge had accomplished the feat the previous season.
Then the manager was reformed. Boon said, so I had to welcome him to the club.
Judge is hitting.279 with 27 homers and 54 RBI in 72 games. The current AL MVP, who had his 32nd multi-homer game, entered on a 3-for-19 slide. He missed nearly eight weeks after spraining his right toe against the Dodger Stadium fence on June 3 and returned before the injury was fully healed.
It hurt us, Boone said. Obviously, you understand what a big blow this was for us.
According to the Elias Sports Bureau, last-place New York (61–65) was on its first 10-game losing streak since 1913. Prior to Judge’s first homer, the Yankees had gone 61 innings without a lead since August 14 in Atlanta, third in franchise history after 63 between August 16–23, 1906, and 62 between September 25–October 1906, which is the longest period.
1, 2000. Luis Severino (3-8) allowed one hit and tied a season high with 6 2/3 innings, going 0-4 since defeating Kansas City on July 23. Severino lowered his ERA from 7.98 to 7.26. Catcher Kibert Ruiz delivered Washington’s only hit against Severino, lining a two-out single to right in the fourth.
When Severino left the mound, he was given a rousing reception.
“I’m getting a lot of appreciation, so it’s nice to have those fans cheering for me,” he added.