The Yankees hit three 2-run homers in their win over the Blue Jays
After losing in the first game of the series to the Blue Jays, the Yankees bounced back on Saturday with a convincing 8–3 win after hitting three two-run home runs.
The Yankees are tied with the Orioles for first place in the AL East since the Orioles also won on Saturday. After losing five of their first seven games after the All-Star break, the Yankees have now gone 6–1 in their last seven games. They have averaged 8.4 runs a game in this seven game stretch after averaging just 4.5 runs a game in their first seven games after the All-Star break.
The Yankees had their 27th win by at least five runs this season, which is the most in MLB. They have scored at least five runs in more games than any other team. They have scored at least five runs in 59 of their 115 games.
Aaron Judge hit one of the team’s three two-run homers. Judge hit his 16th first inning homer of the season with his homer with one out off of a 94 mph sinker from Jose Berrios. He tied Babe Ruth for most homers in the first inning in Yankees history.
Babe Ruth’s 16 first inning homers in 1927 were the most in Yankees history. The most first inning homers in a season all time is A-Rod’s 18 with Texas. Judge could have the record for most first inning homers in a season in the next week or two.
Judge hit has 41st homer and drove in his 103 RBI of the season with that two-run homer. His 16 first inning homers is so remarkable since only 43 players in MLB this year have hit more than 16 home runs all season long.
Judge now has 298 homers in 945 career games and will get to 300 homers faster than anyone else in MLB history. In his last 12 games, he is a very impressive .432 average (19–44) with 13 runs scored, seven homers and 17 RBI. With 15 walks in his last 12 games, he has raised his OBP from .434 to .452 in his last 12 games.
Judge should win the 2024 MVP but Bobby Witt Jr. will have a chance. Witt Jr. recently became the first player ever to have 20 homers and 20 steals in each of his first three MLB seasons. Witt Jr. hit .489 in the month of July, which is the fifth highest average in a calendar month since 1930 (min. 75 AB). Witt Jr. leads the AL in average and WAR but Judge leads the AL in homers, OPS, RBI, SLG% and total bases. Witt Jr. is also the first player to record at least 44 hits and a .489 average in any month since Lou Gehrig in 1930.
Proof of how dominant of a season Judge is having is that he had a very rarely seen intentional walk with nobody on base in the second inning. Judge smashed a 477 foot homer in the first inning on Friday and then another first inning homer on Saturday.
In was a very hot and humid day in The Bronx and boos were coming from the fans when they realized the Blue Jays manager decided to intentionally walk Judge with two outs and nobody on instead of pitching to him. The crowed wanted him to have a chance to hit another homer.
“I honestly didn’t feel like seeing him swing. That was kind of it,” Schneider said after the game. “He’s in a different category I think than anyone else in the league, where he can just flip the script of a game with one swing.”
“He’s the best hitter in the game,” starting pitcher Carlos Rodon said. “He demands a lot of respect, for sure.”
Blue Jays manager John Schneider gave him the Barry Bonds treatment. Judge, who is 32, became the first player intentionally walked with the bases empty in the first two innings of a game in the past 50 seasons. In a different situation in the game but also rarely seen and surprising, Buck Showalter decided to intentionally walk Bonds on May 28, 1998 with the Diamondbacks beating the Giants 8–6 with two outs in the ninth inning.
In 1998, Bonds had 29 intentional walks. He led the league in intentional walks 12 times. His career high in intentional walks was 120 in 2004 when he was walked a total of 232 time and had a .609 OBP and a 263 OPS+ and he led the league in all those categories.
The two other Yankees two-run homers were hit by Trent Grisham and Anthony Volpe. Grisham hit a homer on a hanging curve ball to about the 10th row in the second inning. Grisham’s average is just .188 and is OBP is just .296 and he has 21 RBI in his 61 games but in his last 29 games he has a solid .250 average (21–84) with 14 RBI and in those 29 games he has raised his OBP from .257 to .296.
Volpe hit a homer on a hanging sweeper in the fifth inning to give him five homers in his last 11 games. He has been slugging and barreling the ball much more recently since the All Star break than he did before. Volpe went 2–4 with three RBI in this game.
He had a .245 average and a .666 OPS going into the All-Star break. In his 14 games since the All-Star break, he has at least one hit in 13 of the 14 games and has a .373 average (22–59) with four, doubles, five homers, 12 RBI, five steals and has raised his OPS from .666 to .718 since the break. He has really improved his production in his last 14 games, which is a real positive for the lineup.
Volpe’s homer came in the fifth inning and gave the Yankees a 6–1 lead. The Yankees added two more insurance runs in the seventh and eighth innings on an RBI single by Volpe to make it 7–3 and then a RBI single by Austin Wells to make the score 8–3.
Gleyber Torres got benched for the rest of the game after not hustling on Friday. He came out and talked to media quickly after the game and took accountability. In this game he went 1–4 with a run scored and a walk.
Jazz Chisholm got his first Yankees Stadium hit with the Yankees in the first inning on a play Spencer Horwitz couldn’t make at second. The Yankees are now 5–1 with Chisholm in the lineup since being traded from the Marlins. He has a .308 average and a .357 OBP in his six games with the Yankees.
Rodon threw 99 mph on his 99th pitch. With one out in sixth Boone came to mound and Rodon talked his way into staying into the game. Rodon’s splitter has been much better recently and he earned the right to stay in to face Vladimir Guerrero Jr. It was a positive that Boone showed confidence in Rodon, who pitched well, but he did allow a double in that at-bat to continue the very good at good by the son of a Hall of Famer. That batter was Rodon’s last batter.
The next batter after Guerrero Jr. was Alexandro Kirk and he hit a two-run single off of Jake Cousins, that scored George Springer and Guerrero Jr. to make the score 6–3. Cousins got the next two batters out to end the sixth inning. Those two runs that scored were charged to Rodon, which means that his line went from allowing one run to three runs with him out of the game. Cousins has allowed just five earned runs in 18 games with the Yankees this season and has 28 strikeouts in 20 innings.
Guerrero Jr. went 3–4 with a solo homer in this game and during his current 15-game hitting streak he has a .519 average (28–54) with eight doubles, eight homers and 17 RBI. He has really been on a hot streak since basically the beginning of May.
Rodon might have had his best fastball of his season. He threw 61 4-seamers and they went 2–11 and he got six strikeouts off of his 4-seamer.
“I am just trying to attack the zone when I get a lead like that.” Rodon said about having a 4–1 lead after the second inning. “I got some fastballs by guys today.” He his three straight wins and a 2.89 ERA in last three starts after allowing a combined three earned runs in 13.1 innings in his previous two starts. Last start he was heavy on his changeup and this start he emphasized his slider and curve to a lesser extent. He has done a good job improving his secondary pitches recently.
If Rodon can continue pitching like he has in his last three starts he will be in the playoff rotation behind Gerrit Cole and Luis Gil. He has allowed six earned runs combined in his last three starts in 19.2 innings after allowing a combined 29 earned runs in his previous six starts in 27 innings. He dominated and was on track to being an All-Star before those six starts since after his first 14 starts this season he had a 2.93 ERA.
The Yankees were 6–16 in their previous 22 home games going into Saturday. The have surprisingly been a much better road team than home team this season as they are 16 games above .500 on the road but four games above .500 at Yankee Stadium this season.
After Saturday’s win, the Yankees are now 21–23 against the AL East but against the AL Central they are a commanding and dominant 17–2. The Yankees will play three of their next five series against the AL Central, which includes a series against the White Sox, who are 59 games below .500 and 41.5 games out of first place.
