Aaron Judge hits 53rd homer as Yankees win to avoid sweep by Rays

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The offensively challenged (and increasingly desperate) Yankees tried to light a spark under themselves Sunday.

Josh Donaldson created a benches-clearing incident in the second inning, vehemently objecting to an up-and-in fastball thrown by Shawn Armstrong that wasn’t all that close to hitting him.

Aaron Boone was ejected for an MLB-leading seventh time while objecting to a catcher’s interference call in the fifth.

None of it had any tangible effect — it certainly didn’t result in an eruption by the bats — but most important to Boone and the players on his foundering club, they got to “shake hands” at day’s end. That’s a go-to phrase for Boone, and it’s been in short supply of late.

Aaron Judge gave the Yankees the lead for good on the second pitch of the game with his 53rd home run, a 450-foot shot off a catwalk in the area of the top deck in leftfield near the foul pole. With Frankie Montas allowing one hit in five scoreless innings and the bullpen holding on, the Yankees avoided a three-game sweep by the second-place Rays with a 2-1 victory in front of 25,025 at Tropicana Field.

The Yankees (80-54) — who have scored five runs in their last 41 innings — finished this 10-game trip at 4-6. They had lost 31 of their previous 49 games and had seen a 15 1⁄2-game lead over the Rays cut to four, so moving five games ahead instead of dropping to three ahead was big.

“A win’s a win. We need ’em all,’’ Judge said. “We were focused on today, we weren’t focused on the past two days, and I think that’s what helped us go out there and get this win today.”

“Look, what we’re going through, to get a big win, a tough win, on the road, against a team that we’re fighting with and competing for this thing with, yeah, it’s huge at this time of year,’’ Boone said. “Hopefully that can be something a little settling for some guys and get on and start a big homestand tomorrow.”

With the Yankees leading 1-0, Judge led off the seventh with a bloop double to rightfield and got to third on DJ LeMahieu’s chopper to short, making up for a possible baserunning mistake with an excellent swim move that allowed him to beat the tag. Oswaldo Cabrera followed with a sacrifice fly to leftfield for his first career RBI.

Trying to protect the 2-0 lead in the ninth, Clay Holmes allowed a leadoff double by David Peralta and a one-out RBI single by pinch hitter Francisco Mejia. With two outs, Jonathan Aranda sliced a double to left to put the winning run at second, but Holmes struck out Yandy Diaz looking at a 101.7-mph sinker — a borderline 3-and-2 pitch that may have been low and left Diaz spiking his helmet — to allow the Yankees to exhale at last.

Judge, who fell a triple shy of the cycle, has hit four homers in his last six games and seven in his last 12. His pace projects to 64 for the season, which would be an American League record.

“My job at the top of the lineup is to try and get on base for the guys behind me,’’ he said. “That’s what I was trying to do in the first inning, especially with a guy like Armstrong who has a good sinker-cutter combo. Try to put something in play and got lucky one of the first two pitches, I was able to get something over the heart of the plate.”

Montas (5-11, 3.79), who had been 0-2 with a 7.01 ERA in five starts since being acquired by the Yankees, was terrific, striking out seven. “Splitter was really good today. I felt like I had all of my pitches,” he said.

Lou Trivino allowed a hit and struck out two in a scoreless sixth. Jonathan Loaisiga continued his strong showing of late in the seventh, taking over for Ron Marinaccio with two on and one out and striking out Taylor Walls. He walked Aranda to load the bases, but Diaz bounced out to short. Loaisiga struck out one in a perfect eighth.

The benches emptied in the second inning when Armstrong came in high and tight with a 3-and-0, 94-mph fastball to Donaldson, who yelled at him and took a step toward the mound as both teams poured from their respective dugouts and bullpens. It amounted to little more than yelling, though.

“You have a ball thrown up and in at you, [that’ll] get your attention,’’ Boone said. “He’s just saying, ‘Get it down.’ That’s just heat-of-the-moment competition. It’s nothing more than that.”

By Erik Boland

erik.boland@newsday.comeboland11

Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.