ANAHEIM, Calif. – Aaron Judge took another step toward history on Tuesday, hitting his 51st home run of the season.
And unlike their home run on Monday, this one helped spark a muchneeded win as they snapped a threegame losing streak with a 74 victory over the Angels at Angel Stadium to preserve their lead of seven games over second place. Tampa Bay east of AL.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Jameson Taillon said. “It seems like every time he gets up, he has an opportunity to do something special. It doesn’t matter what scouting report you have or if you run your pitch, he’s so good he can still make it all over the park.”
Judge is now just one homer shy of his career high in his 2017 rookie season.
Taillon appeared to have avoided serious injury after being drilled by a liner that forced him to leave the game after the second inning, diagnosed with a right forearm contusion.
Greg Weissert took over for Taillon to start the third and delivered another standout performance out of the bullpen, pitching two scoreless innings. It was the first of six relievers who combined to allow just two runs in seven innings out of the bullpen.
“They were amazing,” Taillon said. “When you give the ball to so many different people, there’s always the risk of an off night, but everyone who touched the mound was up.”
The Angels scored a run in the bottom of the ninth off Wandy Peralta, as Shohei Ohtani doubled and scored on Taylor Ward’s RBI single before batter Matt Duffy lined out to center to end it.
And the Yankees’ offense, which had been held to three runs or less in its previous four games, hit three homers in the first four innings, all against righthander Mike Mayers.
Andrew Benintendi hit a solo homer with one out in the top of the first and Anthony Rizzo led off the second with his 30th home run of the season, his second in as many games after hitting just one in his 17 games previous ones
“He’s too talented and too good to last long,” Aaron Boone said of his fall.
But Taillon surrendered the lead in the bottom of the inning. With two outs, former Yankee Mike Ford singled and Max Stassi followed with a blast to rightcenter to tie the game at 22. It was the sixth straight start in which Taillon had allowed a home run.
The Yankees loaded the bases with two outs in the third with a leadoff walk by LeMahieu, a oneout single by Judge and a twoout walk to Rizzo. Josh Donaldson then hit a routine grounder to the left side of the infield, where third baseman Luis Rengifo cut shortstop Andrew Velazquez to field the ball and then threw hard to first to allow LeMahieu and Judge to score for a 42 Yankee lead.
They threatened again in the fourth with backtoback singles by LeMahieu and Benintendi before Judge sank a 12 pitch.
Judge took third for the sixth time this season as Boone said he wanted to “change the lineup … to try to find a combination that unlocks us a little bit and gives us a chance to score some points.”
Lucas Luetge replaced Weissert to start the fourth and gave up a home run to Ford, the first baseman’s second in as many nights against his former team.
But Lou Trivino and Ron Marinaccio pitched scoreless innings and the offense did enough for a Yankee that had gone 817 in its previous 25 games.
“I don’t think we’re as far along as we look with the struggles we’ve had,” Boone said before the game. “We have had many close matches. I think we have all the pieces to be a great club. We have to get there. Many teams are capable of being great. We have to go do it.”
For Judge, he is now 31 games shy of hitting 10 home runs to tie Roger Maris’ AL and franchise record of 61 set in 1961.
He also leads the majors with 113 RBIs and had a pair of singles in the win.