A string of pulsating wins decided in the late innings might be starting to give the New York Yankees some momentum in their bid to win the American League East.
Following a third straight win decided in the seventh inning or beyond, the latest one courtesy of Aaron Judge’s first homer in more than two weeks, the Yankees will attempt to widen their division lead Saturday afternoon when they host the Boston Red Sox.
The Yankees (86-62) topped the Red Sox 5-4 win on Friday thanks to Judge’s go-ahead grand slam in the seventh.
Judge hit his major-league-leading 52nd homer and his first since belting two against the Colorado Rockies on Aug. 25, ending a career-high 16-game homerless drought.
“Kind of felt like a playoff atmosphere there in the seventh inning as we were kind of rallying,” Judge said. “So we’ve been kind of waiting for that, that’s for sure.”
The dramatic blast gave the Yankees six wins in eight games and a three-game lead over the second-place Baltimore Orioles. It is New York’s largest advantage since June 14.
“Hopefully nobody’s looking at the standings,” Judge said. “I’m certainly not.”
Boston (74-74) will try to avoid falling under .500 for the first time since June 11. The Red Sox are on a seven-game road losing streak, and they trail the Minnesota Twins by 4 1/2 games for the third AL wild-card spot.
“I hate to say it, but it’s still there for us,” Boston manager Alex Cora said. “We’ve just got to win a few games and make it interesting next week.”
Boston’s Masataka Yoshida and Trevor Story hit two-run homers on Friday before Zack Kelly did not retire a batter in the seventh, leading up to Cam Booser allowing Judge’s grand slam.
Red Sox third baseman Rafael Devers, who went 1-for-3, has not homered in his past 15 games. Devers is hitting .175 (10-for-57) since he last went deep on Aug. 25.
No batter has had more homers off the Yankees’ Saturday starter, Gerrit Cole, than Devers, who has taken the right-hander deep eight times. Devers is 13-for-39 (.333) with 18 RBIs off Cole.
In his latest outing, Cole (6-4, 3.36 ERA) took a 2-1 loss to the Chicago Cubs when he allowed two unearned runs in the first inning and three hits over six innings overall on Sunday. It marked the sixth time in his past seven starts that he allowed two runs or fewer.
Cole is 7-5 with a 4.84 ERA in 18 regular-season starts against the Red Sox. He got a no-decision against Boston on July 6 after permitting four runs on seven hits in 4 1/3 innings.
Boston’s Brayan Bello (13-7, 4.70 ERA) will attempt to win consecutive starts for the first time since winning his final three outings before the All-Star break. Since those victories, Bello is 3-2 with a 3.75 ERA in 10 starts.
Bello surpassed his win total from last season on Monday when he allowed two runs on three hits in 5 1/3 innings during a 12-3 win over the Baltimore Orioles.
The right-hander is 2-3 with a 2.66 ERA in seven career starts against the Yankees. However, this year, New York has tagged him for eight runs (seven earned) and 11 hits in 9 2/3 innings over a pair of starts in Boston.
–Field Level Media
