Aaron Judge hits 3 HRs, Yankees' slide ends at 9
Aaron Judge of the Yankees celebrates his second-inning grand slam against the Nationals at Yankee Stadium on Wednesday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
Aaron Judge had his first career three-run home run game and Luis Severino allowed one hit in 6 2⁄3 shutout innings in his best outing of the season as the Yankees snapped a nine-game losing streak on Wednesday with a 9-1 victory over Washington before 37,266 at Yankee Stadium.
Judge (27 home runs) hit a solo homer in the first, a grand slam in the second and a solo shot to right in the seventh for six RBIs.
In the eighth, Judge — who was still in the game as the designated hitter — was on deck when Jake Bauers grounded out to end the inning.
Did Judge want a shot to join Hall of Famer Lou Gehrig as the only Yankees to hit four in a game? Nah,” Judge said. “I wanted to get the game over with. It would have been nice, but we were in a great position there. Sevy had a great game, guys up and down the lineup had great at-bats.”
Judge said the best part of finally having a three-homer game was not having to hear it anymore from light-hitting catcher Kyle Higashioka, who hit three against Toronto on Sept. 16, 2020.
“He would always remind me every game I had two and I couldn’t get the third one that, ‘Hey, one of these days, you’ll join my exclusive club,’ “ Judge said. “That was the first person I was looking forward to seeing when I got back to the dugout.”
Judge gave the Yankees their first lead in 61 innings when he hit a 431-foot solo home run into the stands over the bullpen in right-center off lefthander MacKenzie Gore in the first.
Everson Pereira, in his second game since getting called up on Tuesday, picked up his first big-league RBI when Harrison Bader scored on a fielder’s choice grounder to short to make it 2-0 in the second. Bader would have been out, but catcher Keibert Ruiz dropped the ball. No error was charged.
Later in the inning, Judge launched his fifth career grand slam 437 feet onto the netting over Monument Park for a 6-0 lead.
Judge is playing through a painful toe injury. The Yankees are 9½ games back in the AL wild-card race, but Judge said he has no plans to shut it down. “You still got a chance? I’ve got to be out there,” Judge told Newsday before the game. “If I can play, I’ve got to be out there. We really haven’t discussed much about any further plans. It got to a point where I can play. Now, let’s play and hopefully have a late push here and see what happens.”
DJ LeMahieu hit a solo homer in the seventh to make it 7-0. Garrett had to be helped off the field after he appeared to injure his ankle trying to make a catch at the wall on LeMahieu’s ninth home run.
After a delay to tend to Garrett, Judge followed with a 352-foot home run inside the rightfield foul pole off lefthander Jose A. Ferrer.
Severino, who came in with a 7.98 ERA, allowed a two-out single to Ruiz in the fourth. Severino walked two and struck out six. He left with a 6-0 lead to cheers. “It was great,” he said. “I’ve been hearing a lot of boos, so it’s a good thing to have those fans cheering for me.”
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.
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