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| Photo Credit: AP. |
TORONTO (AP) — Aaron Judge and the New York Yankees held a lively clubhouse party to cheer another AL East title. A celebration for home run history, that’s still on deck.
Judge walked
four times and stayed at 60 homers, one shy of Roger Maris’ American League
record, as the Yankees clinched the division by beating the Toronto Blue Jays
5-2 Tuesday night.
“I’ll take
four walks for a win every day,” said Judge, who scored twice.
The Yankees
won their first division championship since 2019 and 20th overall, tied for
second-most with the Dodgers behind Atlanta’s 21. New York (95-59) secured a
first-round bye and home-field advantage in the Division Series.
“We knew
this was coming, but it’s only step one,” Judge said.
The Yankees
marked the clinching with loud, splashy fun in the visiting clubhouse at Rogers
Centre, with beer and sparkling wine flowing freely.
“This is a
big moment,” Judge said as beer dripped off his backwards cap.
Manager
Aaron Boone, who carried a glass of Prosecco to his postgame news conference,
certainly agreed.
“We can say
we’re the best team in the best division this year, and it wasn’t easy,” Boone
said. “We took everyone’s punches. We had some low moments but tonight is to be
celebrated. It’s not easy going through the American League East and
surviving.”
Judge lined
out in his first at-bat and then drew four straight walks in his seventh
straight game without a home run. He has walked 11 times in 30 plate
appearances since hitting homer No. 60 against Pittsburgh last week.
All five of
Judge’s plate appearances went to full counts — he saw 33 pitches, 14 strikes.
His longest drought without a home run this year was nine games in mid-August.
“It’s just
awesome to see the discipline and the consistency of the at bats while he’s
going through this with all the attention around it,” Boone said. “I keep
saying he’ll get there, he’ll get it, but to see him rack up quality at-bat
after quality at-bat is impressive.”
The Yankees
have eight games left in the regular season for Judge to tie or break the AL
mark set by Maris in 1961. With the division now secure, however, Boone said he
wasn’t sure Judge would play Wednesday.
“We’ll see,”
Boone said.
Judge hasn’t
missed a game since Aug. 3 at Seattle, the day before a Yankees off day. New
York is off Thursday.
Judge’s
batting average stayed at .314 as he went 0 for 1. He leads in all three AL
Triple Crown categories.
Toronto
(87-68) maintained its place atop the AL wild-card standings, but lost ground
to Tampa Bay. The Jays lead the Rays by 1 1/2 games — Tampa Bay holds the
tiebreaker.
Gleyber
Torres had three hits and drove in three runs.
Jameson
Taillon (14-5) pitched 7 1/3 sharp innings, allowing two runs and five hits.
He’s 4-0 in five career starts in Toronto.
Lou Trivino
came on with runners at first and second and got George Springer to ground into
an inning-ending double play on his first pitch.
Trivino wrapped
it up in the ninth for his first save with the Yankees, and his 11th in 14
chances.
Kyle
Higashioka had three hits and scored twice and Anthony Rizzo had two hits as
New York won for the eighth time in nine games.
Many in the
crowd of 40,528 booed when José BerrÃos (11-7) walked Judge in the third and
fifth innings.
With
Harrison Bader held out of the starting lineup, Judge moved over from right
field to center field, and picked up one of two Yankee outfield assists in the
sixth.
Bader came
on as a defensive replacement in the seventh, shifting Judge to right.
Higashioka
and Aaron Hicks chased BerrÃos with back-to-back doubles in the sixth, making
it 4-1. Right-hander Zach Pop came on to face Judge and got ahead 0-2 before
eventually issuing an eight-pitch walk, prompting more boos.
Blue Jays
right-hander David Phelps got ahead of Judge 1-2 with back-to-back swings and
misses in the eighth, but three of the next four pitches were balls.
Springer
homered on Taillon’s second pitch of the game, but the Yankees right-hander retired
15 of the next 16 batters.
Springer’s
home run was his 24th of the season and the 52nd leadoff homer of his career.
Taillon set
down 10 straight following Whit Merrifield’s leadoff single in the third.
Springer ended that streak with a one-out single in the sixth.
Bo Bichette
followed with a single to center and beat the throw to second base, but was
called out after umpire Tripp Gibson ruled Bichette didn’t have his foot on the
base while being tagged by shortstop Isiah Kiner-Falefa.
Vladimir
Guerrero Jr. followed with an RBI single but was thrown out at second base by
left fielder Hicks, meaning Toronto’s rally ended with three straight hits.
“Vladdy
flat-out has to run faster,” interim manager John Schneider said. “That’s
inexcusable. I’ll tell him that.”
BerrÃos
reached 1,000 career strikeouts when he caught Hicks looking to end the third.
WALK THIS
WAY
Judge walked
four times in a game for the second time in his career. He also did it Sept. 4,
2017, at Baltimore.
60 MEETS 60
Toronto
Maple Leafs star Auston Matthews threw out the ceremonial first pitch. In
April, Matthews became the first American-born player in NHL history to score
60 goals in a season. Along with Maple Leafs teammates Michael Bunting and
Mitch Marner, Matthews and Judge posed for a photo outside the Yankees
clubhouse before the game.
TRAINER’S
ROOM
Yankees: INF
DJ LeMahieu (right toe inflammation) could return as soon as Wednesday after
hitting and running the bases before the game. “The last couple of days have
been encouraging for him,” Boone said. “There’s a chance he could be in play
tomorrow. If not, I might push a little more till Friday.” After Thursday’s off
day, New York wraps up its home schedule with three against Baltimore.
UP NEXT
Yankees RHP
Gerrit Cole (12-7, 3.49 ERA) starts Wednesday’s series finale against Blue Jays
RHP Mitch White (1-6, 5.12 ERA). Cole is five strikeouts away from breaking Ron
Guidry’s 1978 mark of 248, the Yankees’ single-season record.
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