No home run for Aaron Judge, but Nestor Cortes dominates as Yankees rout Orioles
The Yankees' Aaron Judge is greeted in the dugout after he scored against the Orioles during the seventh inning of an MLB game at Yankee Stadium on Saturday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
On the 61st anniversary of Roger Maris hitting his 61st home run in 1961, Aaron Judge did not hit No. 62 in the Yankees’ 8-0 victory over the Orioles before 45,428 at Yankee Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
In five plate appearances, Judge went 0-for-2 with two strikeouts, two walks and a hit by pitch. He remained tied with Maris for the American League record with five regular-season games left.
Maris hit his 61st homer on Oct. 1, 1961, at 2:43 p.m. On Oct. 1, 2022, at 2:43 p.m., Judge had a chance to hit No. 62 . . . but struck out.
The Yankees will face the Orioles again on Sunday in their home finale and finish the regular season with four games in three days against the Rangers in Arlington, Texas, starting on Monday.
In the non-Judge portion of the afternoon, Nestor Cortes dominated the Orioles, striking out 12 and allowing one hit in 7 1/3 innings, and Giancarlo Stanton and Kyle Higashioka (3-for-4) homered for the Yankees, who outhit Baltimore 14-3.
Cortes (12-4, 2.44 ERA) matched his career high in strikeouts and cemented his status as one of the Yankees’ top three starters in the playoffs.
“He’s been huge for us all year,” Stanton said. “Today was another testament to that. Just crushing the strike zone, making tough at-bats . . . It’s fun to watch.”
Did the Orioles pitch around Judge too much for the slugger’s liking? It’s unknown how he felt about it because he was not available to the media after the game for the second straight day. Since hitting No. 60 on Sept. 20, Judge has gone 7-for-27 with 17 walks and a hit-by-pitch in 10 games.
Manager Aaron Boone said he was “a little surprised” that righthander Spenser Watkins didn’t go after Judge in the seventh inning of a game that meant nothing to either the Yankees or Orioles.
Judge led off the seventh with the Yankees leading 4-0. Watkins’ first pitch was in the dirt (cue the boos). He fell behind 3-and-0 (cue a lot more boos) before Judge took a mighty hack at an 87-mph cutter and fouled it back. Judge walked on the next pitch (boos, and some epithets directed at Watkins), leading to a four-run inning.
“Leading off the inning there, I thought that was one where they might go after him a little bit more,” Boone said. “It seemed like he ran away from it a little bit. I totally respect that it’s a tough situation to be in as an opponent.”
The Yankees’ eight-batter seventh allowed Judge to get another time up in the eighth. Even though it was cold and it was a blowout, the fans stuck around, hoping to see history.
Facing Watkins again, Judge again took three balls before fouling off a pair of fastballs down the rightfield line. Finally, on 3-and-2, Judge struck out on a 90-mph changeup. Some fans streamed for the exits. Many more started to head home once Judge was replaced in rightfield in the ninth by Marwin Gonzalez.
Sunday is the last chance for Judge to do it at home. With rain in the forecast, Boone said he is concerned that the game might be canceled (if it's rained out, it will not be made up). Saturday’s game was delayed by rain for 27 minutes before the start.
In his first plate appearance, Judge didn’t see a strike. Righthander Austin Voth grazed his left elbow with an 87-mph cutter on 2-and-0. Voth may have intended to pitch around Judge, but he came right after the other Yankees hitters, and that didn’t work out too well for the former Washington National.
After Judge was forced out at second on a grounder to first, Gleyber Torres gave the Yankees a 1-0 lead with an RBI double to left-center. Torres moved to third on the throw home and scored on Josh Donaldson’s long sacrifice fly to right.
Stanton followed with a first-pitch, 447-foot home run into the left-centerfield bleachers to make it 3-0. It was his 29th of the season. He had been 1-for-21 with 13 strikeouts in his previous five games and was 14-for-111 dating to July 16.
Higashioka hit his ninth home run in the second to make it 4-0. Oswald Peraza singled to bring up Judge, who again didn’t swing the bat. Voth fell behind 2-and-0 before throwing an 82-mph slider for a called strike. The next two offerings were sliders off the plate and Judge walked.
Judge faced Voth again in the fourth and saw six consecutive off-speed pitches. Judge swung through a first-pitch, 76-mph curveball and a high, outside 81-mph slider to make it 1-and-2 before striking out on another 76-mph curve on 3-and-2.
Baltimore’s only hit off Cortes was Jorge Mateo’s line single over the glove of shortstop Peraza with two outs in the fifth. Cortes departed to a standing ovation after striking out Cedric Mullins for the first out in the eighth.
“There’s still more work to be done,” Cortes said. “Happy it [the regular season] ended this way.”
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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