Yankees took two of three against the Rays at the Trop.
Aaron Judge hit his 26th and 27th home runs of the season, Jose Trevino hit a two-run home run in the eighth inning, and the Yankees beat the Tampa Bay Rays 5-4 on Wednesday night.
Judge’s 22nd career multi-homer game helped the Yankees rally from a 4-1 deficit after the Rays’ Isaac Paredes hit his fourth home run in two games.
Clarke Schmidt (4-2) earned the victory, and Clay Holmes pitched a goalless ninth inning for his 12th save in 13 chances.
The Yankees won their 18th game in 21 games, maintaining their 12-game lead in the AL East.
Trevino’s sixth home run gave the Yankees the lead, but it was a defensive performance by the catcher in the fourth inning that turned the game around. The Rays were leading 4-1 with the bases filled when third baseman Josh Donaldson snuck behind Taylor Walls, and Trevino’s perfect pickoff throw ended the inning.
Tampa Bay lost for the eighth time in 11 games, and by losing two of three to the rival Yankees, the team suffered its fourth consecutive series loss for the first time since August 2017.
Paredes, who homered three times in the Rays’ 5-4 victory on Tuesday, hit his ninth homer of the season to lead off the second inning against Montgomery. In the same inning, Vidal Brujan added a two-run homer to put Tampa Bay up 3-0.
Shane Baz pitched 4 2/3 innings for the Rays in his sixth major league start, allowing one run and four hits while striking out six. On his final pitch, he struck out Judge with the bases loaded.
In the fifth and sixth innings, the Yankees left the bases loaded while scoring only one run. But, after homering off Baz in the fourth, Judge led off the 7th with another home run off Colin Poche, cutting the Rays’ lead to 4-3.
Trevino’s home run came off Rays pitcher Ralph Garza Jr. (0-2) after Isiah Kiner-Falefa led off the 8th with a walk, one of 8 issued by Rays pitchers over the final five innings.
For the first time in his 14 starts this season, Montgomery allowed more than three earned runs. In six innings, he allowed four runs and nine hits.
UP NEXT
RHP Jameson Taillon (8-1, 2.70 ERA) attempts to become the American League’s first nine-game winner Thursday night at Yankee Stadium in the first of a four-game series against the Houston Astros.
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