Yankees' Aaron Judge hits 53rd homer, Carlos Rodon and bullpen do the job in series win over Red Sox
Yankees' Aaron Judge watches his two-run home run during the third inning of a baseball game against the Boston Red Sox, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024. Credit: AP/Adam Hunger
Boston manager Alex Cora opened Sunday by revealing that the Red Sox might have purposely thrown at Aaron Judge on Saturday.
Judge got his revenge on Sunday with a mammoth 445-foot two-run home run off the facing of the Pepsi Lounge above Monument Park to power the Yankees to a 5-2 victory before 45,552 at the Stadium.
Judge carried his bat almost all the way to first base before tossing it in the direction of the Yankees’ dugout.
“I thought I did that every time, no?” he said with a smile. “It’s a big homer. We’re playing the Red Sox. This is a big rival, big games, big moment. I’m just having fun with it there.”
The Yankees took three of four in the series against their ancient rival and gained a game on Baltimore, which lost to Detroit, 4-2. The AL East-leading Yankees are three games ahead of the Orioles with 12 games left in the regular season.
Judge’s major league-leading 53rd home run — off a 92-mph fastball from Red Sox starter Kutter Crawford — came in the Yankees’ three-run third inning and gave Carlos Rodon a 4-0 lead. Judge also has an MLB-best and career-high 132 RBIs.
Gleyber Torres led off the inning with a home run that just cleared the rightfield wall. Juan Soto singled before Judge hit his second home run in three games after a career-high 16-game homerless streak.
The home run came in the aftermath of what appeared to be an admission by Cora that the Red Sox tried — and failed — to plunk Judge on Saturday in retaliation for Gerrit Cole hitting Rafael Devers earlier in the game.
Before Cole’s odd and infinitely dissected intentional walk of Devers in the fourth inning, he hit Devers with a pitch in the first. Cora said after Saturday’s game that he thought Cole threw at Devers intentionally because he has had major trouble getting the Red Sox third baseman out over the years.
Cole and Yankees manager Aaron Boone denied there was any intent.
But Cora, in saying before Sunday’s series finale that he considered the matter closed, added: “It was closed [Saturday] like around the sixth inning. We had our chance. Didn’t happen. And we have to move on.”
By “had our chance,” Cora apparently was referring to the first pitch to Judge in the sixth from Brayan Bello, which went behind the Yankees captain’s backside.
Said Judge: “It’s baseball. He missed . . . You play this game for a while, things like that happen. I know they were upset that, I think, three of their guys got hit that day. I think they’re just protecting their players. Something’s got to happen and that’s the way this game gets policed and it’s been policed for over 100 years. I think the biggest thing is just don’t miss when you do it.”
Cora indicated that he had spoken with Judge about the incident while answering a question that actually was about whether he had spoken with “Aaron.” The reporter was asking about Boone, but Cora answered about Judge.
“[The conversation was] professional,” Cora said. “He’s one of the best players in the game and he’s the captain of the Yankees. That means a lot.”
Judge confirmed the conversation, saying “it was a good convo.”
Cora and Boone, who are friends, both said they talked about the incident. But Boone didn’t seem amused after Sunday’s game when informed of Cora’s comments about throwing at Judge.
“Yeah, that’s not allowed,” Boone said, perhaps thinking of an MLB suspension for purposely throwing at a batter and then seeming to admit it. “That’s for somebody else to deal with. We’re finished playing with them for now. We’re on to Seattle now. Obviously, [they] can’t do that.”
The Red Sox, who won Saturday’s game, 7-1, scored three runs in the fourth after Cole put up four fingers and waved Devers to first in a move the pitcher later said “was a mistake.”
Said Cora: “We’re probably going to thank Gerrit Cole [for getting] us going, to be honest with you. Hopefully it happens. And hopefully we can face them in the playoffs because he will have to pitch. But we still have a long ways. I’m not promising we’re going to make the playoffs, but if we do, I think everybody’s going to look back at Saturday.”
The Yankees did their best to make sure the Red Sox, who fell 4 1⁄2 games out of the final AL wild-card spot, don’t make it to October. Rodon (15-9, 4.12 ERA) allowed Tyler O’Neill’s 31st homer, a two-run shot in the fourth, in 5 1⁄3 innings. The lefthander’s 15 wins are his most in a season during his 10-year career.
The Yankees took a 1-0 lead in the first on an RBI double by Giancarlo Stanton, who lined a sacrifice fly to leftfield in the seventh that increased the Yankees’ lead to 5-2.
The Yankees’ relief corps of Ian Hamilton, Tim Hill, Clay Holmes, Jake Cousins and Tommy Kahnle held the Red Sox scoreless in the final 3 2⁄3 innings, with Kahnle retiring potential tying run Jarren Duran on a 6-6-3 double play to end it for his first save of the season.
Notes & quotes: On Roberto Clemente Day, six Yankees (Judge, Stanton, Soto, Marcus Stroman, Jose Trevino and Anthony Rizzo) wore No. 21 to honor the late Hall of Famer. The rest of the club wore “21” patches on their uniforms.
With David Lennon
Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.
