Yankees crush Pirates 14-2, Judge still seeking HR No. 61

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New York Yankees 14, Pittsburgh Pirates 2

NEW YORK — The Yankees trounced the Pirates 14-2 to sweep their two-game series on Wednesday. The game saw two home runs by Gleyber Torres. However, Aaron Judge, who had 60 home runs before the game, failed to hit another home run, which could have tied him with Roger Maris at the top spot in the AL homer list.

Fans were expecting homer No. 61 from Aaron Judge but left disappointed. However, the slugger did hit two doubles and scored on Oswaldo Cabrera‘s first-inning grand slam, which played a significant role in pushing New York to a convincing victory over Pittsburgh.

Aaron Judge hit home run No. 60 in game 1 against the Pirates on Tuesday. His accomplishment overshadowed a ninth-inning Yankee rally to come back in the game. The game ended in favor of New York with a grand slam by Giancarlo Stanton.

In game 2, Judge doubled on the first pitch in the first and fifth innings. A crowd of 46,175 was impatient to see him hit his record homer. But Aron had an eighth-inning walk against Pirates’ rookie Eric Stout to their dismay. This led to fans booing the pitcher.

Judge went 2 for 4 with 14 games remaining, falling one home run short of tying the American League record set by Roger Maris of the New York Yankees 61 years ago. Judge leads the American League in average (.317), home runs, and RBI (128) and is on track to become the league’s first Triple Crown winner in a decade.

Both Cabrera and Torres had 5 RBI. Torres hit two home runs in the eighth inning, giving him 23 for the season.

Fans stood and took pictures every time Judge walked onto the on-deck circle and got a round of applause. Family members of both Maris and Judge were in the stands.

Aaron hit a liner to left off a pitch by Roasny Contreras. Again, he blasted a one-hopper to the left field to start the fifth.

New York (90-58) was getting close to making the playoffs for the sixth straight year and the 24th time in 28 years. At the start of the night, the Yankees were 5 1/2 games ahead of the Blue Jays in the AL East.

Cabrera made the Yankees the first team in the history of the major leagues to end a game with a grand slam and then hit another one in the first inning of the next game. Only the 1955 Boston Red Sox and the 2017 Los Angeles Dodgers had ever hit grand slams in the last inning of one game and the first inning of the next.

Since his debut on August 17, Cabrera has played in 30 games and hit three home runs with 14 RBI. After Judge’s double and Contreras’s two walks, the bases were loaded. Cabrera hit a hanging slider into the right-field stands.

This season, New York has hit four grand slams in four games against the Pirates. On July 6, they did it twice in a row. This season, the Yankees have hit 10 grand slams, which is the most since 2012.

Harrison Bader hit a two-run double in the big eighth, and in his first two games with the Yankees, he has driven in five runs.

Luis Severino (6-3) came back from the injured list. He had a strained right lat and was out of action since July 13. In five innings, he gave up one run on two hits and struck out six batters. He got up to 98.9 mph.

UP NEXT

In the first game of a four-game series between the Yankees and Boston on Thursday, Jameson Taillon (13-5, 4.04) goes up against Michael Wacha (11-1, 2.61), who is 8-0 in his last 12 starts.

When do you think Aaron Judge will hit No. 61?

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