Aaron Judge ended the longest home run drought of his major league career in the loudest way possible Friday night. With the New York Yankees facing a three-run deficit against the Boston Red Sox in the seventh inning, Judge clubbed a go-ahead grand slam for his major-league-leading 52nd home run of the season. The swat unleashed thunderous delirium at Yankee Stadium. MVP chants prompted Judge, the American League MVP front-runner, to emerge from the dugout for a curtain call.
The blast was Judge's eighth career grand slam and his first home run since slugging two against the Colorado Rockies on Aug. 25. He had gone 16 games, 60 at-bats and 75 plate appearances without one.
After the game, which New York held on to win 5-4, Judge claimed the length of the drought was news to him.
"Was it 16 games? I didn't really know that," Judge said. "It's just another day. I really don't focus on hitting homers. I don't focus on any of that. I've got a job to do.
"Sixteen games, is that a lot or was it not? I don't know."
Judge was told it's the most games he has gone without a home run as a major leaguer.
"It's the most?" Judge asked. "It'll probably be longer at some point in my career. So we'll definitely break that."
Yankees starter Clarke Schmidt wasn't buying Judge's ignorance.
"We try to keep our heads out of the weeds and just kind of pay attention to what we can control," Schmidt said. "But Judge, he's very aware of stuff like that, I think. So it's hard to ignore. It feels like when he has two games in a row where he doesn't get a homer, something's going wrong."
Most importantly for the Yankees, they held the lead after Judge's homer for their third straight dramatic win. The result, coupled with an Orioles loss, moved New York three games ahead of Baltimore for first place in the American League East with 14 games remaining. The three-game division lead is the Yankees' largest since June 7.
Scoreboard watching is heightened in October, but Judge said he believes the Yankees worrying about other teams' results hurt them during their funk against inferior opponents at the end of August into September.
"I think we were paying attention to the standings a couple of weeks ago, and I think that's when we just kept going back and forth, kind of passing the lead," Judge said. "We all talked in this room and said, 'Hey, if we just focus on us and what we got to do, we'll be where we want to be.' So hopefully nobody's looking at the standings. I'm certainly not."
The Orioles had already lost to the Detroit Tigers when Anthony Volpe stepped into the batter's box to lead off the bottom of the seventh inning with New York down 4-0. The Red Sox were in control. Then they unraveled.
Red Sox right-hander Zack Kelly began the inning with a full-count walk to Volpe. Alex Verdugo then fell behind 0-2 before clawing back to work another walk. Gleyber Torres followed with a single to score Volpe from second base for the Yankees' first run of the night.
Boston manager Alex Cora replaced Clark with left-hander Cam Booser to face Juan Soto with Judge looming. Booser added kerosene to the fire, walking Soto on four pitches way out of the strike zone to load the bases. With each ball, the decibel level in the building reached a new height. By the fourth one, Yankee Stadium was in a frenzy. Soto flipped his bat. Judge strolled to the plate. Booser was in trouble.
He exacerbated the situation by falling behind Judge with a cutter in the dirt. The next pitch was a fastball that appeared to be in the strike zone but was called a ball. Forced to attack the strike zone, Booser grooved a 96 mph fastball down the middle. Judge pounced and didn't miss it.
"Everything clicked," Schmidt said. "It was a perfect moment."
Judge's breakthrough extended the Yankees' streak of tense victories in playoff-like atmospheres to three.
On Wednesday, Soto cracked a go-ahead two-run homer with his right foot still throbbing moments after fouling a pitch off it and giving the Yankees a scare. New York went on to beat the Kansas City Royals 4-3 in 11 innings on Jazz Chisholm Jr.'s first career walk-off hit. On Thursday, Soto delivered his first walk-off hit in pinstripes in a 2-1, 10-inning win over the Red Sox to begin the four-game series against the Yankees' rival.
On Friday, it was Judge's turn to delight the home crowd with more theater.
"Jazz came up to me after Judge hit the homer, and just to see our dugout erupt, to see Yankee Stadium erupt, he was like, 'This is pretty sick,'" Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. "That was one of those really cool regular-season moments you get at Yankee Stadium."
The Red Sox bullpen has become the uninvited guest who shows up at the party, eats all the food, and falls asleep on your couch. It happened again as Zack Kelly and Cam Booser combined to allow five runs in the seventh inning, four coming on a grand slam by Aaron Judge that felt like the most predictable home run in baseball history.
The Red Sox were left with a bitter 5-4 loss.
Many of the players had stunned looks as they sat at their lockers after the game. The clubhouse was so quiet that "New York, New York" could be heard playing in the Stadium through the door that leads to the field.
"It’s a tough one," manager Alex Cora said.
After taking a 4-0 lead in the top of the seventh inning on Trevor Story’s first home run of the season, Cora needed nine outs from the bullpen.
Justin Slaten, who pitched the sixth inning, wasn’t part of the mix. He also wanted to stay away from using Chris Martin for a third consecutive game.
His first choice was Zack Kelley, who walked Anthony Volpe on six pitches then got ahead of Verdugo 0-2 before walking him.
"You have to throw strikes. You have to throw strikes," Cora said. "It’s a 4-0 lead with the eighth and ninth hitter up. We’ve got to throw strikes."
Gleyber Torres singled to drive in a run. With Juan Soto up, Cora wanted a lefthander and went to Booser.
He didn’t come close to the plate on any of his four pitches to Soto. Booser fell behind Judge 2-0 and the next pitch was finally a strike.
That Judge only hit it 369 feet and not 569 feet was the only surprise.
Kelly and Booser took full accountability for their mistakes. That has become a running theme. The Sox bullpen has a 6.32 earned run average since the All-Star break along with 15 blown saves.
Blame Cora for his choices if you want. But it’s not like he’s ignoring many better ones.
That Fitts was denied his first major league victory was far down on the list of concerns. But he deserved better.
The 24-year-old righthander from Alabama was drafted by the Yankees in 2021. He didn’t get into a minor league game until the following season but pitched well for two years.
The Red Sox noticed, and Fitts was one of the three pitching prospects they obtained from the Yankees for Verdugo. It was the most significant trade the old rivals had made in decades.
Verdugo has been a bust for the Yankees, but the Sox may be onto something with Fitts.
The rookie hadn’t stepped foot in Yankee Stadium until Thursday and didn’t expect to start on Friday. He was a late replacement for Tanner Houck, who was unable to go because of lingering shoulder issues.
Fitts found out during practice that he would start. He never imagined his first start at Yankee Stadium would be as a member of the Sox.
"I’m just super blessed and super thankful to have the opportunity to wear a Red Sox uniform now and hopefully for a long time to come," Fitts said.
For a few minutes, it looked like Fitts might not get out of the first inning.
He retired the first two hitters then walked Judge, Austin Wells and Giancarlo Stanton on 18 pitches. Fitts fell behind Jazz Chisholm 3-0 but came back to get a fly ball to center.
"That’s something I don’t want to do, walk three guys in the inning or walk three guys in general," Fitts said.
He put only two more hitters on base and ended his outing having retired 12 of 13.
Fitts has allowed two unearned runs over 10⅔ innings in his first two starts.
Maybe they should make the kid a reliever.
The tale of the tape?
• A go-head grand slam from Aaron Judge that erased a 4-1 deficit in the seventh inning and snapped the slugger’s 16-game homeless streak — the longest of his career. It was Judge’s MLB-most 52nd home run. The Yankees were down 4-0 to start the frame, and their four-run deficit matched their biggest comeback in a win this season (also four runs on March 28 at the Houston Astros).
• Some of the loudest moments of the season, including Judge’s post-homer curtain call and the final out of Luke Weaver’s scoreless two-inning save. The Yankees have been searching for their next closer, and Weaver might be showing signs he can handle the role.
• Another impressive start from Schmidt, who’s making a strong case to be included in the postseason rotation. Schmidt allowed two runs over 5 2/3 innings, striking out five while walking one and giving up five hits, including a two-run homer to Masataka Yoshida. Schmidt was bested by his counterpart Richard Fitts, who threw five scoreless innings. It was payback for Fitts, who was traded by the Yankees to Boston in the deal that brought Alex Verdugo to the Bronx last offseason.
• The Yankees’ lead atop the American League East extended to three games over the second-place Baltimore Orioles — their biggest division cushion since June. The Yankees (86-62) own the best record in the AL and the third-best in the majors. They have 14 games remaining.
At one point Friday, third baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr., who was traded to the Yankees from the Miami Marlins at the deadline, walked up to manager Aaron Boone.
“This is pretty sick,” Chisholm told Boone.
What did Boone think?
“It felt pretty turned up, as the kids like to say,” he said.
But was it the Yankees’ best win?
Baseball Reference features a statistic it calls its Championship Leverage Index. How it works is simple: “The importance of (each) game to the team’s probability of winning the World Series.” For example, a 1.0 would be an average win.
Entering Friday, the Yankees’ biggest win of the season was their July 13 road win over the Orioles, according to Baseball Reference, which gave New York a 1.79 in the Championship Leverage Index.
The website hadn’t assigned a value to Friday’s win as of late Friday night. But it figures to rank high.
Other candidates for the Yankees’ best win this season? A subjective list:
July 27: The Yankees were down 8-7 going into the ninth, but Trent Grisham’s RBI double sent it to extra innings, and Austin Wells (sacrifice fly) and Gleyber Torres (two-run double) played heroes to seal it in extras.
July 30: The Yankees beat the Philadelphia Phillies 7-6 on the road in 12 innings. Will Warren filled in admirably in his MLB debut for Gerrit Cole, who was scratched with general body fatigue. Clay Holmes blew the save, but the Yankees scored once in the 11th and again in the 12th to win it. Michael Tonkin finished the game with two innings and no earned runs.
June 2: A 7-5 win over the San Francisco Giants on the road. The Yankees were down 5-3 going into the ninth inning and scored four runs to win. Juan Soto’s two-run blast put the Yankees ahead for good.
As for Friday?
"That was one of those cool regular-season moments you get at Yankee Stadium," Boone said.
