Here comes the Judge; Yankees, too
Rookie slugger’s prints are all over comeback victory
NEW YORK — With a soaring shot headed for Yankee Stadium’s Monument Park, Aaron Judge got New York back on track for another memorable October.
Judge ignited a rally with a home run, then doubled in a four-run eighth inning to spur the New York Yankees to a 6-4 win against the Houston Astros Tuesday night that tied the AL Championship Series, 2-2.
trailed The 4-0 Baby against Bombers starter Lance McCullers Jr. until Judge homered leading off the seventh. He tied it with a line drive that nearly left the park in the eighth and scored when Gary Sanchez hit a go-ahead two-run double off loser Ken Giles.
The Yankees overcame three errors and have roared back from a second straight 0-2 playoff eries deficit — they beat Cleveland in the Division Series by winning three in a row to take that best-of-five matchup.
Aroldis Chapman struck out two in a perfect ninth to cap a three-hitter. New York improved to 5-0 at home in the playoffs and won for the 18th time in their past 21 home games.
Yankee Stadium will be rocking again when Masahiro Tanaka pitches for New York against Dallas Keuchel in Game 5 Wednesday.
It’s a rematch of the series opener, when Keuchel outdid the Japanese righthander in a 2-1 Astros victory.
An AL MVP candidate mired in an untimely October slump, Judge sparked the Yankees by chasing McCullers, who had baffled the New York hitters with hispower breaking ball. Exceptfor the last one. Judge launched a curveball into the netting above center field’s Monument Park for New York’s second hit.
“Once we’re within striking distance like that, anything can happen,” Judge said.
Houston manager A.J. Hinch pulled McCullers after 81 pitches, Didi Gregorius tripled off Chris Devenski and Sanchez brought Gregorius in with a sacrifice fly. “I thought Aaron’s home run just lit a little spark,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. Todd Frazier led off the eighth with a double to left, and pinch-hitter Chase Headley did the same — only after falling between first and second base, taking one step back, then heading for second and sliding in ahead of Jose Altuve’s tag. “Panic,” Headley recalled. “I went from one of the best feelings of my career to one of the worst in just a matter of seconds, but fortunately it worked out.” Brett Gardner brought in Frazier on a groundout, and Judge came to bat with the bundled crowd on its feet. He reached down to stay with a slider and drilled a double high off the leftfield wall as a fan in a longsleeve yellow shirt reached down and touched the ball. Gardner came home with the tying run, and Gregorius grounded a single just beyond shortstop Carlos Correa’s reach to put runners at the corners. Sanchez, who had been 0 for 13 in the series, scored them both with a slicing drivewall in that right-center. skipped to the Houston had not lost consecutive games since Sept. 8-10 at Oakland and owned the major leagues’ best road record in the regular season. The Astros had three hits and are hitting .153 in the playoff series.