Judge’s Home Run Propels Yankees to 6-2 Victory over Reds

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New York Yankees 6, Cincinnati Reds 2

CINCINNATI — On Friday night, Aaron Judge hit his home run number 13 and that ensured the New York Yankees beat the Cincinnati Reds 6-2.

His best friend Anthony Rizzo also hit a home run for the Yankees, who are now 9-3 in their last 12 games, thanks to their offensive turnaround.

Judge’s batting practice before the game got a standing ovation from the many Yankees fans there. He didn’t take long to make his presence known in the teams’ first game in Cincinnati since 2017. The current AL MVP hit his 13th home run of the season on the fifth pitch he saw from Reds starter Ben Lively. The ball went 431 feet to center field.

Judge only had one hit that night, but he has hit a home run in five of the last seven games, including two in two games.

Before the bottom of the fifth inning, when New York was still up 1-0, all four umpires gave Yankees starter Clarke Schmidt (2-4) a test for prohibited substances. Schmidt looked to clean off his glove hand, and the umpires allowed him to stay on the mound.

But Reds manager David Bell was thrown out when he argued with the umpires about letting Schmidt keep pitching without giving up any runs. At that point, Cincinnati had only three hits off of Schmidt.

Major League Baseball banned Yankees pitcher Domingo Germán for 10 games and fined him Wednesday for using an illegal substance on the mound.

Lively (1-2) was taken out of the game in the sixth after giving up six walks to Judge. Lively only gave up two hits, including Judge’s home run in the first inning. He also struck out a career-high eight batters as the Red lost their fourth game in a row.

After Lively left the game, Rizzo hit his 10th home run of the season off Reds relief Ian Gibaut to score Judge and make the score 3-0.

In the bottom of the sixth, Jonathan India hit a single and Matt McLain hit a double in back-to-back at-bats. This gave Cincinnati some flow against Schmidt. Schmidt was then taken off the show and replaced by Jimmy Cordero.

With a double off of Cordero, Jake Fraley drove in both India and McLain to cut New York’s lead to 3-2. The inning was over when Henry Ramos struck out, leaving men on second and third.

In the ninth, the Yankees added three more runs. Kyle Higashioka’s two-run double was a big part of this.

Aaron Boone, who is the manager of the New York Yankees, said before the game that he got emotional on the way to the ballpark.

Boone first played in the major leagues with the Reds in 1997. This was his first trip back to Cincinnati as a manager. It was also Boone’s first time back in the city since the weekend of the 2015 All-Star Game, when he was working as an ESPN broadcaster.

Boone expressed the significance of the place, stating that it had played a tremendous role in his life. He mentioned that it would always hold a special place in his heart, and every time he had the opportunity to visit, it carried a lot of meaning for him.

UP NEXT

In the second game of the three-game series on Saturday, Reds RHP Luke Weaver (1-2, 6.26 ERA) will take the mound. The Yankees had not yet said who would start on the mound.

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