Aaron Judge hit his 61st home run of the season to tie the American League record and the visiting New York Yankees defeated the Toronto Blue Jays 8-3 on Wednesday night.
Judge’s blast to left came on a full count against Tim Mayza (8-1) with no outs in the seventh inning and Aaron Hicks on first after a single.
Judge, whose homer snapped a 3-3 tie, matched the AL mark set by Roger Maris as a Yankee in 1961. He finished the night 1-for-4 with a walk, ending a seven-game stretch in which he went homerless after hitting No. 60.
Danny Jansen hit a solo home run for Toronto.
Yankees right-hander Gerrit Cole (13-7) allowed three runs, three hits and one walk with four strikeouts in 6 1/3 innings.
Blue Jays right-hander Mitch White gave up three runs, five hits and three walks with one strikeout in 3 2/3 innings.
The Yankees (96-59) had clinched the American League East with their win on Tuesday night. The latest loss prevented Toronto (87-69) from clinching a wild-card spot.
Judge and Oswaldo Cabrera led off the first with walks. Josh Donaldson and Oswald Peraza hit RBI singles and Marwin Gonzalez added a sacrifice fly to put New York in front 3-0.
Toronto reliever Trevor Richards struck out the side in the fifth and was perfect in the sixth.
Cole retired his first 15 batters he faced before allowing Jansen’s 14th home run of the season to lead off the bottom of the sixth.
Whit Merrifield followed with a single and Jackie Bradley Jr. walked. Merrifield took third on George Springer’s flyout and scored on Bo Bichette’s infield single. A balk put runners at second and third, and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit a sacrifice fly to tie the game 3-3.
Hicks led off the seventh with a single and Judge followed with a blast to left field on a 3-2 sinker for his record-tying homer.
One out later, Yimi Garcia replaced Mayza on the mound. Peraza hit an infield single to shortstop with two outs, took second on a wild pitch and scored on Harrison Bader’s single.
Clarke Schmidt pitched around a walk and an infield single in the home eighth.
Cabrera led off the ninth with a double and Donaldson was hit by a pitch. The runners advanced on a groundout and scored on pitcher Adam Cimber’s throwing error to home on Bader’s grounder.
Aroldis Chapman pitched a perfect bottom of the ninth.
–Field Level Media
