SLAM A GAVEL
Judge belts HR to fuel Yanks — and silence his hecklers
CHICAGO — Their voices bounced off the ocean of empty seats in Guaranteed Rate Field’s right field Wednesday night and Aaron Judge had no trouble hearing the chant that started with his last name and ended with a word that rhymes with bucks and starts with an “S.”
“Tonight I heard them pretty good because with the [rainy] weather there weren’t that many people here,’’ Judge said after the Yankees drubbed the pitiful White Sox, 12-3, in front of an announced gathering of 15,259.
After the top of the sixth the anti-Judge chants stopped because the majors’ leading home run hitter sent a laser to left for a two-run homer that highlighted a five-run rally.
As Judge started to tour the bases with his 27th homer that helped turn a 3-2 Yankees lead into an 8-2 bulge, he glanced at the hecklers. And when he got to right field for the home sixth he smiled at them instead of engaging them with words.
“I let actions speak for myself,’’ said Judge, who went 1for-3 and drew two walks. “If I had said anything it would have gotten worse.’’
Outside of Gary Sanchez not using proper techniques while trying to block a pitch in the third and still being bothered by a groin problem when he runs, the night was as close to perfect as the Yankees can get.
They moved past the Red Sox into first place in the AL East by percentage points and are in position to take three of four from the White Sox on Thursday night.
And there was a whole lot more.
Working without their No. 2 hitter Aaron Hicks, cleanup hitter Matt Holliday and No. 5 hitter Starlin Castro the Yankees turned to neophytes in Tyler Wade in left field and Miguel Andujar in the designated hitter spot.
In his f irst big league at-bat Andujar delivered a two-run, two-out single in the first inning against Carlos Rodon and added a two-run double in the ninth off Michael Ynoa. Wade made his f irst big league start and provided a twoout RBI double in the five-run sixth.
“When I looked up I thought there was a chance it was going to get through,’’ said Andujar, who went 3-for-4, drove in four runs and stole a base, of the first-inning single that presented Masahiro Tanaka a 3-0 cushion to work with.
Didi Gregorius added a two-run homer in the ninth when the Yankees scored four with the final two coming on Andujar’s double off the centerf ield wall against the righthanded Ynoa.
Tanaka gave up two runs in the f ifth on ex-Yankee Melky Cabrera’s bases-loaded, no-out single but immediately fed Jose Abreu a double play ball that took the air out of the rally. After hitting Avisail Garcia with a pitch, Tanaka retired Todd Frazier on a ground out.
“The double play was huge,’’ said Tanaka, who gave up two runs and six hits in six innings, winning for the first time since May 8 at Cincinnati and improving to 6-7. “I told myself not to give in. I am glad we got out of that with minimal damage.’’
The contributions from Andujar and Wade were nice and make for cute stories. Nevertheless, without Hicks, Holliday and Castro, who leads the Yankees with 92 hits, the load on the shoulders of Gary Sanchez (0for-5; two strikeouts) and Judge increases.
Wednesday night Judge delivered and in the process silenced the mouths with the best muzzle: a bullet home run that sealed a win.