Two-run Rizzo homer powers Yankees to 7-5 win, Judge walks back without 61st HR

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New York Yankees 7, Boston Red Sox 5

NEW YORK — A two-run homer by Anthony Rizzo helped the Yankees crush the Red Sox 7-5 on Saturday. The game saw four other players hitting home runs. However, Aaron Judge walked back to the dugout without a hit and his wait for the 61st home run continued.

Judge went 0 for 3, as he struck out twice, hit a fly ball to medium center, and a walk. Since the slugger hit his 60th home run on Tuesday night, which started a comeback in the ninth inning, he is 3 for 13 with two doubles, five walks, and six strikeouts.

New York defeated the Red Sox 7-5 to get closer to winning the AL East for the first time since 2019. In the seventh Anthony Rizzo‘s hit a two-run homer against Boston’s Schreiber.

Judge didn’t unleash his swing against the pitch when John Schreiber of Boston threw a 2-2 fastball. The pitch went high and outside at Yankee Stadium.

Chris Conroy called strike three, and Judge pointed his left arm at the first base umpire and waved his hand in disgust as he walked back to the Yankees dugout.

The New York slugger has been without a home run for the fourth consecutive game and is just one homer away from Roger Maris’ AL single-season home-run record. Yankees manager Aaron Boone came to Judge’s rescue against an increased expectation to see the slugger hit the record homer before the home crowd. He told:

“Judgy reacts. He just doesn’t go argue with you. It was a case of he felt like he held a swing, A simple reaction, but he was locked right back in.”

The batting average of the Yankees star dropped to .314 as Xander Bogaerts of Boston went 2 for 4 and took over the AL lead with a batting average of .315. Aaron Judge has the most RBI in the major leagues with 128. He is in the running for the Triple Crown, which hasn’t been won since 2012 by Miguel Cabrera of Detroit.

The Maris and Judge families were there again, and the sellout crowd of 47,611 stood and cheered when Judge walked up to the plate. When the pitcher threw a pitch, the crowd went quiet, as if watching a circus performer do a trick. Every foul was met with groans, and every pitch outside of the strike zone was met with boos.

Later Boone said:

“Even for a guy who hit 60 home runs, he still doesn’t hit them every day. A lot of things got to line up to go deep, even for the best of the best. So as long as he continues to take good at-bats and make good swing decisions, it’ll happen sooner rather than later.”

Two pitches later, Rizzo broke the tie at 5-5 by sending a changeup into the right-field bleachers. With that home run, he reached his career high of 32 home runs for the fourth time.

Aron Judge was up to bat when the eighth inning ended, and many thought the Red Sox could win in the ninth, even though they were down by two runs. Scott Effross hasn’t played since Aug. 20 because he hurt his right shoulder. He let Boston load the bases before Bobby Dalbec grounded into a game-ending forceout, which gave him his third save.

Reacting to this, the Red Sox manager said:

“In fact, it was kind of strange. During the last inning, a group of Yankee fans in the right field section started chanting ‘Let’s go, Red Sox!’ They had their jerseys on.”

New York (93-58) is already in the playoffs, and they have won six straight games and 10 of the last 12. They have now more wins than the last year, and it has given them an 8 1/2-game lead in their division. The Yankees still have 11 games to play. On Sunday, they will finish this four-game series and then go to Toronto for three games.

Nick Pivetta gave up a two-run homer to Oswaldo Cabrera in the fourth inning. It was the rookie’s homer no. 4 since he made his debut on August 17. Gleyber Torres too hit a homer taking his total home runs to 24.

Boston lost four games in a row and is likely to have its second losing record in the last three years.

Domingo Germán gave up home runs to Triston Casas and Reese McGuire. In five innings, he gave up three runs and three hits. Alex Verdugo hit an RBI single against Lucas Luetge in the seventh to tie the game at 5.

The 22-year-old rookie first baseman for Boston, Casas, talked to Judge after the Yankees star walked.

Casas said, “I just wanted to tell him I’m a fan and that I like what he’s doing. He’s such a great guy.”

UP NEXT

Nestor Cortes (10-4, 2.67 ERA) will pitch for the Yankees in the last game of the series on Sunday night. Brayan Bello (2-6, 4.75 ERA) will pitch for the Red Sox.

Is Judge under pressure? What do you think?

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