Another Judge moonshot helps Bombers rally past brutal Jays LIVING LARGE
Aaron Judge watches his third-inning homer — a two-run shot for his MLB-leading 13th of the season — as the Yankees came back for an 8-6 win over Toronto and took over sole possession of first place in the AL East. Judge finished with three hits to help overcome a poor CC Sabathia start.
Aaron Judge hit another home run, the Yankees offense erupted and they overcame another deficit. Just another night in The Bronx in 2017. This one ended with an 8-6 victory Wednesday over the Blue Jays and came after CC Sabathia let the Yankees fall behind 4-0 in the first inning and 6-3 in the second.
The win put the Yankees back into first place as they head to Chicago to start a road trip against the Cubs on Friday.
“Down four, five, six [runs], it doesn’t matter,” Judge said. “We feed off each other.”
On Wednesday, the lineup came through once again, finally taking the lead in the bottom of the seventh.
The winning rally began — as they all seem to these days — with Judge.
Instead of a homer — like the one he hit in the third — Judge singled to left with one out. Chase Headley followed with a double, setting up Chris Carter, who tied the game with a broken-bat single to left over a drawn-in infield in the seventh.
Pinch-hitter Didi Gregorius then hit one back to reliever Joe Biagini, who couldn’t handle the hard comebacker, resulting in an RBI single and the Yankees’ first lead of the game.
“We haven’t given up,” Headley said of the team’s knack for overcoming early holes. “We hit big home runs to get back in it, but we know we can score runs in bunches. … There’s no panic.”
It helps when Matt Holliday answers Toronto’s four-run first with a three-run blast to Monument Park in the bottom of the inning. It was the 300th home run of his career.
Sabathia was knocked out in the fifth after giving up six runs in his third straight ugly start. But the bullpen, starting with Adam Warren and ending with Aroldis Chapman, tossed five scoreless innings in relief.
That gave the offense time to cut into the deficit, with Judge hitting a two-run shot to dead center off Marcus Stroman in the third. It was Judge’s 13th homer of his incredible rookie season and cut Toronto’s lead to 6-5.
“Judge has been out of this world,” Headley said. “He’s been dominant.”
After manager Joe Girardi was tossed in the seventh by home-plate umpire Bill Welke for arguing balls and strikes, the Yankees came alive — thanks to some rotten work by Toronto’s bullpen — as Joe Smith entered after the goahead single by Gregorius and walked Brett Gardner and Aaron Hicks to force in a run.
It marked the 11th time this season the Yankees have scored seven or more runs.
The win didn’t come without some trouble, as Sabathia had to be bailed out of another poor performance.
Coming off a game in which he coughed up seven runs in 52/3 innings, Sabathia wasn’t much better Wednesday.
The lefty blamed it on his cutter not working and he lamented having to rely on the lineup once again.
“It feels good to have the team be winning,” Sabathia said. “But you want to be a part of the winning.”
Sabathia briefly settled down before leaving after he walked the first two batters in the fifth. The bullpen took over and retired the final 11 batters it faced.
When it was done, the Yankees were able to leave town with a one-game lead over Baltimore.
“Our expectations aren’t changing,’’ Headley said. “That’s a part of putting on the pinstripes. Our expectations [had] better be, ‘You’re gonna give yourself a chance to make the playoffs and play for the World Series.’ … We’ve weathered a couple of big injuries, but we’ve got a long way to go.”