AROUND THE HORN
▪ Yankees: Aaron Judge hit his 58th and 59th home runs of the season to move within two of Roger Maris’ American League record with 16 games remaining and lead the Yankees over the Brewers 12-8 on Sunday in Milwaukee. Judge added a two-run double in the ninth as part of a four-hit day for the Yankees (88-58), who hit five homers and avoided a three-game sweep. The Yankees opened a5 ½-game lead over the second-place Blue Jays in the AL East. Judge’s 11th multihomer game tied the season record set by the Tigers’ Hank Greenberg 1938 and matched by the Cubs’ Sammy Sosa in 1998. Seeking a Triple Crown, Judge leads the major leagues in homers and with 127 RBIS. His .3162 batting average is just behind AL leader Luis Arraez of the Twins at .317 and the Red Sox’s Xander Bogaerts at .3164. Maris hit 61 homers for the Yankees in 1961, one more than Babe Ruth in 1927. Anthony Rizzo homered in his return from the injured list, his 31st of the season, and had three hits. Aaron Hicks and rookie Oswaldo Cabrera also went deep as the Yankees overcame 3-0 and 4-1 deficits.
▪ Mets: Jacob degrom struck out 13 batters — the most ever for a Mets pitcher who threw five or fewer innings — but didn’t factor into the decision, when the NL East leaders beat the Pirates 7-3 to complete a four-game sweep. The host Mets scored four in the eighth to break the tie. Mets pitchers combined to strike out 20 batters, tying the big league record for a nine-inning game. Degrom allowed a leadoff double to Oneil Cruz in the first before retiring the next 15 batters, 13 by strikeout. Sid Fernandez (June 30, 1986) and Oliver Perez (Sept. 12, 2006) each struck out 11 batters in five-inning starts for the Mets. The two-time NL Cy Young Award-winning degrom set a big league record by allowing three earned runs or fewer for the 40th straight start, breaking a tie with Jim Scott (1913-14).
▪ Braves: Rookie Spencer Strider took a no-hit bid into the sixth and struck out 10, William Contreras hit a tiebreaking HR and the Braves beat the visiting Phillies 5-2 for a three-game sweep. Strider (11-5) didn’t allow a hit until Alec Bohm homered to tie the score 1-1. The defending World Series champion Braves improved to 68-28 since June 1, best in the majors over that span. They’re one game back of the Mets in the NL East. Strider gave up one run and one hit with three walks in six innings in his sixth double-digit strikeout performance. Three relievers finished a four-hitter.
▪ Astros: Framber Valdez set an MLB record with his 25th straight quality start, and Yordan Alvarez and Martin Maldonado had four RBIS each to help the Astros build an early lead in an 11-2 rout of the visiting A’s. Alvarez drove in three runs with a double in the Astros’ five-run third and padded the lead with an RBI double the sixth. He extended his hitting streak to a seasonhigh nine games, piling up nine hits, four HRS and nine RBIS in the series, in which the Astros took three of four. Valdez (16-5) allowed four hits and two runs with seven strikeouts in six innings to pass degrom (24 in 2018) for the most consecutive quality starts in a single season in MLB history. Valdez, who threw his first career shutout in his last start, is 15-4 during this streak, which began April 25.
▪ Marlins: Sandy Alcantara pitched his major league-leading fifth complete game, a seven-hitter that led the Marlins over the host Nationals 3-1 to avoid a series sweep. Alcantara (13-8) struck out seven and walked one, throwing 103 pitches. His 2.37 ERA is second in the NL to the 2.27 of the Dodgers’ Julio Urías, and Alcantara leads the major leagues with 212 ⅔ innings.