Aaron Judge's infield single keys Yanks' 7-run 8th

CHICAGO — On this night, Aaron Judge got the job done first and foremost with his legs.

The 6-7, 282-pound outfielder beat out an infield single with the bases loaded and two outs in the eighth inning of a tie game, driving in two runs to spark a seven-run inning that sent the Yankees to a 15-7 victory over the White Sox Thursday night in front of 20,050 at Guaranteed Rate Field.

“I gave it all I got,” Judge said with a smile of his jaunt down the line. “I hope my speed rating or something goes up a little.”

The Yankees (23-8), who got two homers from Giancarlo Stanton and yet another one from Judge, won for the 18th time in their last 21 games in holding on to the best record in the majors.

Thursday was an odd night in a ballpark that has seen its fair share of them between these teams over the years.

On this night it was a game that took on appearances of a Yankees’ runaway – especially after Judge’s 456-foot homer to left, his MLB-leading 11th, in the top of the seventh made it 7-4 – only to see the White Sox (15-15) tie it in the bottom half on a home run that was a part of yet another Jonathan Loaisiga implosion. 

All of which preceded the seven-run eighth that ultimately made the game the laugher early on it projected to be. Stanton finished with six RBIs, Judge four. 

“We’ve talked about winning in different ways and finding ways to win and tonight was a little bit of different,” Aaron Boone said. “We gave up some runs and kept pouring it on, so just a great job by the offense tonight.”

Loaisiga has allowed three homers this season after giving up three all of last year. After he served up a tying three-run homer to Yoan Moncada in the seventh, White Sox righthander Joe Kelly retired the first two Yankees he faced in the eighth. But Marwin Gonzalez worked a walk, as did pinch-hitter Gleyber Torres and leadoff man DJ LeMahieu – who already had two doubles – which loaded the bases for none other than Judge.

The rightfielder hit a grounder to the hole in short and beat the throw to first, with both Gonzalez and Torres scoring to make it 9-7. 

Anthony Rizzo walked and Stanton, already having hit his eighth and ninth homers of the season earlier in the night, lined a two-run single to center to make it 11-7. Josh Donaldson’s three-run homer, his eighth blast of the year, made it 14-7.

“We were chilling,” Stanton said of the dugout vibe after the White Sox tied it. “We were like, ‘All right, we’ve got more work to do.’ Just keep pushing.”

Luis Gil, the 23-year-old righty brought up from the minors to make Thursday’s start, showed flashes of the promise that make him one of the organization’s top pitching prospects. But he also showed why he had a 9.53 ERA in five starts with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre when the Yankees brought him up.

After Stanton gave Gil a 2-0 lead with a homer in the first, the pitcher gave it back in the second as the White Sox scored three runs. Gil allowed four runs, five hits and two walks over four innings in which he struck out five.

White Sox righty Dylan Cease, who came in 3-1 with a 2.38 ERA in six starts, allowed six runs and six hits over four innings in which he walked two and struck out 11.

The Yankees retook the lead almost immediately after falling behind 3-2. Judge, who has 10 homers and 24 RBIs in his last 17 games, made it 27 of 29 starts in which he reached base at least once with a one-out walk in the third. With Judge running, Rizzo yanked one down the rightfield line and into the corner where it bounced around, allowing the former to score and the latter to pull into third with a stand-up triple.

Stanton then roped a 0-and-1, 96-mph fastball to right, the two-run shot giving the Yankees a 5-3 lead.

“Those are some pretty swings,” Judge said of Stanton’s homers, both opposite-field liners. “What that guy’s capable of doing every single night … he’s a game-changer. He can take over a game.”

As, of course, can Judge, of whom Stanton was equally complimentary.

“It’s awesome to watch,” Stanton said. “I get the second-best view of it, Rizzo [who typically bats third with Stanton fourth] gets the best. It’s fun to watch. It’s fun to watch them try to get him out as he wears them down.”

At the moment, the Yankees are doing that to pretty much the entire American League.