Judge hits first walk-off homer
Yanks rally for 14th victory in last 16 games behind three-run blast
Aaron Judge hit a mammoth three-run drive in the ninth inning for his first walk-off home run in the major leagues to give the New York Yankees a 6-5 comeback victory over the Toronto Blue Jays on Tuesday night.
Giancarlo Stanton tied it with a modest three-run shot in the sixth, and the Yankees rallied for their 14th victory in 16 games after three Toronto ejections left the angry Blue Jays seeing red.
New York overcame a shaky start from Luis Severino and improved to 21-8, the best record in the majors.
George Springer launched a leadoff homer for Toronto, and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. hit a tiebreaking double in the eighth that helped the Blue Jays take a 5-3 lead.
No. 9 batter Jose Trevino and DJ Lemahieu drew consecutive one-out walks in the ninth from Jordan Romano (1-2) before Judge sent a hanging 1-2 slider 450 feet into the second deck in left field. The big slugger, who hit a walk-off drive from Double-a Trenton in April 2015, did a little dance as he approached the plate and was swarmed by excited teammates.
Judge and Stanton have homered in the same game 20 times, including the postseason, and the Yankees have won 19 of those games.
It was the second blown save in 14 chances this season for Romano, who began the night leading the majors in saves.
Wandy Peralta (1-0) pitched a hitless ninth for the win.
starters were released in the first month of the regular season. Incaviglia rebuilt the roster on the fly and brought in better talent. After its abysmal start, Tri-city played better than .600 baseball (46-30) the rest of the season.
As of Monday, the Valleycats had 15 players — either active or inactive — on their roster who spent time with the franchise that season. That experience infused with new talent gives Incaviglia reason to be optimistic the team won’t stumble early, though he wasn’t making any guarantees.
“I’m never one to count my chickens before they’re hatched, but I feel really good about this group,” Incaviglia said. “This is a very talented, deep group. We have a lot more talent on this team, I mean a lot more, than we had last year. If you ask me why, coming off a COVID year (in 2021) and a lot of people moving on and didn’t know whether they wanted to play or not. It was more business as usual this year, where guys that got released (by MLB organizations) wanted to play.”
Incaviglia plans to start pitchers Joey Gonzalez, Matt Mercer and Oddy Nunez in the threegame series at Florence. None of them were with the Valleycats last year. Gonzalez, a former Astros prospect, was acquired in a trade with the American Association’s Winnipeg Goldeyes. Mercer is a former fifth-round pick of the Arizona Diamondbacks. Nunez, a lefthander, pitched in Double-a for the Pirates last year.
The Valleycats recently released pitcher Jose Cruz, who became a fairly reliable starter (1.29 WHIP) with Tri-city last season.
“Jose’s a good pitcher, but he’s 85 to 87 (miles per hour) with a plus-changeup and he has a hard time putting guys away,” Incaviglia said. “We’ve got guys that are in the 92 to 94 range with good secondaries and just have better stuff and deserve to be on the staff and have the opportunity.”
Trey Cochran-gill returns as the closer after saving 24 games a year ago.
Likewise, the Valleycats have a lineup that looks imposing on paper. Back are Denis Phipps (21 homers, 62 RBI) and third baseman Juan Silverio (.310 average, 16 HR, 53 RBI), two longtime favorites of Incaviglia. Also returning is outfielder Willy Garcia, who hit .297 before being lost to a quad injury late in the season.
The 6-foot-6 first baseman Brad Zunica (.358, 12 HR, 45 RBI) and 6-8 outfielder Carson Mccusker (.324) are a pair of big, tough outs. The Valleycats have a new middle infield combination in second baseman Brantley Bell and shortstop Pavin Parks that Phipps raved about.
“I feel good with the group of guys we have,” Silverio added through an interpreter, pitcher Pedro Alfonseca. “I always trust Pete with the guys he gets, so I’m looking forward to having a good season with the guys we have. Last year, we started bad, but we competed.”