Aaron Judge, Didi Gregorius power into franchise record book
Aaron Judge of the Yankees follows through on a home run against the Twins at Yankee Stadium on Sept. 20, 2017. Credit: Jim McIsaac
Aaron Judge and Didi Gregorius reached offensive milestones Wednesday in the Yankees’ 11-3 victory over the Twins.
Judge’s two-run home run in the third inning was his 45th homer of the season and gave him 100 RBIs. Judge, who is closing in on Mark McGwire’s rookie homer record of 49 from 1987, is the fourth Yankees rookie to reach 100 RBIs. The others were Joe DiMaggio (125, 1936), Tony Lazzeri (114, 1926) and Hideki Matsui (106, 2003).
It was Judge’s eighth home run in September. He also had a sacrifice fly in the fifth for RBI No. 101.
Gregorius’ 25th homer, a three-run shot, surpassed Derek Jeter’s 1999 season record for a Yankees shortstop.
“It really is pretty impressive considering the great players that they’ve had here,” Joe Girardi said. “Didi, again, has had a great year. He’s had a really special September and it’s been important to us.”
Gregorius homered in four of his last six games and has 22 RBIs in 19 games in September.
Both players said they weren’t looking at their numbers and were just focused on helping the team win.
Gardner plunked
Brett Gardner was removed for a pinch hitter in the seventh after getting hit in the right shoulder by a pitch in the fifth. Girardi said there was “concern” about Gardner’s ability to swing the bat, which made it easy to remove him with the Yankees holding an eight-run lead.
Gardner said he hoped to play Friday night at Toronto. The Yankees are off Thursday.
Pitching in
Yankees starters for the series at Toronto that begins Friday: Masahiro Tanaka, Sonny Gray and Jordan Montgomery. The Blue Jays will counter with righthanders Marco Estrada, Joe Biagini and Marcus Stroman.
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.
