THE ‘A’ TEAM
Judge & Stanton both go deep as Yankees set MLB record for homers in June on way to sweep of Oakland
Standing in front of reporters Wednesday afternoon, Giancarlo Stanton wore a T-shirt that featured two of the biggest heavyweights in history. The sleeveless, black shirt features Mike Tyson taking a swing at Muhammad Ali. Stanton knows a thing or two about heavyweight sluggers. He and Aaron Judge had just used two big swings to beat the A’s 5-3 at Yankee Stadium minutes before.
“We leaned on our big boys today,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said after their two sluggers handed them their major-league-leading 24th come-from-behind win.
With the sweep of the A’s (25-52) in three games here this week, the Yankees (56-20) have swept nine series. It was the first time they have swept a series against Oakland since a four-game sweep in Oakland on May 19-22, 2016. The last time the Yankees swept the A’s in the Bronx was back in 2010.
After Yankees starter Jameson Taillon gave up three runs in the top of the first, Judge and Stanton stepped up and bailed him out.
“We can turn the game really quickly,” said Taillon, who buckled down and held the A’s scoreless in the next four innings “So yeah, it doesn’t surprise me, but it’s still super impressive to sit back and watch.”
The Yankees lead the majors with 126 homers and just set an MLB record for homers in the month of June with those two blasts. They have 57 with a game to go, besting the 2016 Orioles’ and 2019 Braves’ June marks of 56.
And they have the personnel to knock out more records in Judge and Stanton.
Judge answered right away with a two run shot in the bottom of the first. It was his major-league-leading 29th home run. The 429-foot shot landed in the left-field bleachers.
“It’s big. When you give a little punch back right away. It’s good for everything,” Stanton said. “It just changes the aura in the dugout even though there’s no panic.”
Judge’s homer not only changed the tenor of the game, he became just the fourth Yankee to hit at least 29 homers in the Yankees’ first 76 games of the season, joining Babe Ruth, Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle.
He is tied for the franchise’s fourth most homers before the AllStar break, four shy of Maris’ 33 in 1961 with 16 games left before the break. It’s the second time in his career he has hit 29 before the All-Star break, He also did it in 2017. Judge tied Mantle as the only two players in Yankees history to hit 29 homers before the All-Star break twice in his career.
“It’s unreal. It’s fun. It’s been fun to watch,” Stanton said. “He’s putting everything together, all his hard work, all of everything he has done to get to this point.”
Judge is on pace to hit 62 home runs this season. Stanton was the slugger who came the closest to hitting 60 homers in a season when he slugged 59 in his 2017 MVP season with the Marlins.
“It’d be incredible and he’s definitely capable of doing it,” Stanton said. “But he can’t look that far ahead. One at a time, one game at a time and that’s the way.”
For his part, Judge isn’t looking at that.
“Not really. It’d be great if it happened, it’d be something that’s pretty cool. But
I think having a ring on my finger during the year it’d be even better,” Judge said.
Stanton hit his 19th of the season in the third, a threerun shot that put the Yankees back in control of the game. His 391-foot homer went to right-center field and was his fifth homer in six games. His last six hits have been homers.
“That was a big, big punch for us right there,” Judge said of Stanton’s homer. “When you know we’re able to answer back and make it a close game and also got a couple guys on again for him and he battled and then got another changeup that he can handle and hit it out there. So that kind of sealed it for sure.”