Aaron Judge hits home run No. 51 as Yankees beat Angels and end three-game skid

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Aaron Judge is riding another hot streak, and there’s no telling what that will mean for his final 2022 home run total.

But 60, and perhaps beyond, continues to not only seem realistic but probable.

As Giancarlo Stanton, who hit 59 homers in 2017, put it Monday night after watching Judge hit No. 50: “I think he’s going to do something incredible. He already has. We’ve got a month more to watch.”

Judge, who became just the 10th player in league history to reach the 50-homer mark twice in his career with Monday’s blast, hit No. 51 on Tuesday night in a 7-4 victory over the Angels in front of 42,684 at Angel Stadium that ended a three-game Yankees losing streak.

“Never seen anything like it,” said Jameson Taillon, who left the game after two innings with a right forearm contusion (X-rays were negative). “Feels like any time he’s up there, he has a chance to do something special. It doesn’t matter what scouting report you have or whether you execute your pitch or not, he’s just so good that you can make a good pitch and he can still hit it out all over the park. It’s fun to watch.”

The Yankees (79-51), also getting homers from Andrew Benintendi (No. 5) and Anthony Rizzo (No. 30) en route to outhitting the Angels 9-7, did suffer a loss Tuesday, though how significant cannot yet be determined.

Taillon departed after taking a liner off his right wrist area off the bat of Magneuris Sierra (it went as an inning-ending 1-4-3 putout). Taillon allowed two runs — coming on a Max Stassi homer  in the second that tied it at 2-2 — and two hits over his two innings.

“Not sure,” Taillon said when asked if he’ll be able to make his next start. “I’m definitely going to try to. Going to treat it again tomorrow and then I might try to play catch on the off day in Tampa [Thursday] and see where we’re at.”

Bay Shore’s Greg Weissert, called up late last week, was terrific in two innings of relief. Weissert had a big-league debut to forget Thursday in Oakland when he hit two batters, committed a balk and walked two, but rebounded Sunday with two scoreless innings. On Tuesday, he struck out one in a 1-2-3, 10-pitch third and struck out one in a perfect, 11-pitch fourth.

Weissert was part of a sterling night by the bullpen as he, followed by Lucas Luetge, Lou Trivino, Ron Marinaccio, Jonathan Loaisiga and Wandy Peralta, combined to allow two runs, one of them a garbage-time run in the ninth, and five hits the rest of the way.

“They were great,” Aaron Boone said. “All kind of guys doing their part, picking each other up. Once J-Mo’s out of there after two, we knew it was going to have to be a shared load, and everyone kind of did their part and got us to the finish line.”

The top of the fourth was when Judge struck again.

DJ LeMahieu started a two-out rally against Angels righthander Mike Mayers with a single. Benintendi, who homered in the first off Mayers for an early 1-0 lead, singled, as well. Up stepped Judge, who launched a 1-and-2, 95-mph fastball to right for a 7-2 lead. The blast gave Judge, the big leagues' home run leader by a mile, an MLB-leading 113 RBIs and improved him to 11 for his last 33 (.333). He has five homers in his last eight games.

Mayers, 1-0 with a 4.46 ERA in 19 games (one start) coming in, allowed seven runs (five earned) and eight hits over four innings for the Angels (56-74).

“I just think the process he takes every single day is the most special part about him,” Rizzo said of Judge. “His routine, getting to watch him every day, talk to him, it’s so fundamentally sound. That’s the most enjoyable part. The results are amazing but just the way he goes about it is even better.”

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.