Aaron Judge's triple, Carlos Rodon's pitching helps Yankees avoid sweep by Guardians

CLEVELAND – Aaron Judge will cool off eventually.

No, seriously, he will.

Maybe next series. Not this past one. Or the ones coming before.

Judge’s torrid month of April continued Wednesday afternoon at Progressive Field. The rightfielder, who went 4-for-4 the night before, skied an RBI triple off the 19-foot wall in dead center in his first at-bat.

The two-time AL MVP was again off and running, en route to a 2-for-4 day which helped the Yankees, who also received a brilliant seven innings from Carlos Rodon, avoid a three-game sweep at the hands of the Guardians with a 5-1 victory in front of a matinee crowd of 23,981.

“Right now, he’s like Tony Gwynn,” Rodon said of the Hall of Famer, who was an eight-time batting champion but was never known as a home run hitter.

Judge has not homered in his last seven games but is 12-for-28 (.429) in that stretch.

Rodon smiled.

“Next week, he’ll probably be like Hank Aaron,” the lefthander added of the 25-time All-Star who hit 755 home runs.

Judge, who singled his second time up Wednesday and walked in his third plate appearance, did make outs in his final two times to the plate. Coming into the afternoon leading the big leagues in batting average, on-base percentage, slugging, OPS, hits, times on base and WAR, Judge ended the day hitting .415 with a 1.247 OPS.

“It’s fun to watch,” said Paul Goldschmidt, who signed with the Yankees in the offseason. “I’ve seen it from afar for a few years now. It’s incredible. He’s a great hitter. Very smart. Obviously, physically gifted but does a lot of little things that stick out. Takes his walks, deals with failure very well. Just all the things we’re trying to do.”

Said Judge: “It’s just about keeping everything simple. It’s not trying to do too much.”

The Yankees (15-10), who are off Thursday before starting a three-game series against the Blue Jays Friday night at the Stadium, lost the first two games of this series before outhitting and outpitching the Guardians (14-10) on Wednesday.

Goldschmidt, himself having a pretty good April, went 3-for-5 with two RBIs, raising his batting average to .383 and OPS to .922.

“You know there’s going to be ups and downs,” said Goldschmidt, a seven-time All-Star coming off the worst regular season of his career last year with the Cardinals. “It’s been a decent start for me and we’ll just try to keep it going, keep working hard. There’s a lot of games to go.”

Ben Rice, getting the start at first as Goldschmidt was the DH, again looked at home in the leadoff spot, going 1-for-3 with two walks, two runs and an RBI.

Rice, Judge and Goldschmidt, who batted cleanup, combined to go 6-for-12 with three walks.

“More excellence,” Aaron Boone said. “Those three guys are playing so well. Just giving quality at-bat after quality at-bat.”

Rice walked to start the game against righthander Luis Ortiz and Judge followed, swinging at a first-pitch 92-mph fastball, with his sixth career triple and first of the season. Goldschmidt’s RBI double made it 2-0.

After forcing Ortiz to throw 34 pitches in the first, the Yankees made him throw 30 more in a two-run second, highlighted by a Rice RBI single and Goldschmidt RBI single. The Yankees outhit Cleveland, 11-5.

Rodon (3-3, 3.50), meanwhile, piggybacked a terrific outing last Friday in Tampa when he threw six scoreless innings and allowed just two hits. On Wednesday he dominated a team he’s long dominated, allowing an unearned run, four hits and two walks over seven innings in which he struck out eight. Rodon, a longtime member of the White Sox, an AL Central rival of Cleveland, came into the day 8-5 with a 2.81 ERA in 21 games (19 starts) against the Guardians. That includes the no-hitter Rodon threw against them April 14, 2021, in Chicago.

“I felt like defensively the boys picked me up,” Rodon said. “We made a lot of plays that helped me go deep (into the game). I just kind of found a rhythm there in the second, Austin (Wells) was calling pitches and I felt like I was already gripping that pitch before he called it so we were on the same page the whole game. And obviously offensively … we were great.”

Vivas sent down. The Yankees optioned infielder Jorbit Vivas to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre after the game.

By Erik Boland

erik.boland@newsday.comeboland11

Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.