Aaron Judge ties Yankees legend but can’t save the day
Even on a day Aaron Judge strikes out to end the game with the tying run on base, he manages to make history.
The right fielder went deep in the fourth inning of the Yankees’ 7-6 loss to the Blue Jays on Wednesday for his league-leading 29th homer of the season.
The blast to right-center tied him with Joe DiMaggio for the franchise rookie record, set in 1936.
“Any time you’re in the same sentence as Joe DiMaggio, it’s incredible,” Judge said.
The homer helped get the Yankees back into the game after Michael Pineda put them in a 5-0 deficit. Judge also singled in the Yankees’ four-run fifth when they took the lead.
But Judge didn’t have the same results later in the game.
After Tyler Wade led off the seventh with a walk, Brett Gardner bunted. Wade advanced to second, but Toronto intentionally walked Judge.
Manager Joe Girardi said Gardner was trying to bunt for a hit, but he had already fouled off a bunt attempt before he laid one down successfully. Wade was stranded at second — and Judge at first — when Gary Sanchez struck out and Didi Gregorius flied to right.
Then in the ninth, Judge came up with Gardner at first and two outs.
Toronto’s 22-year-old closer, Roberto Osuna, got Judge on a check swing on a 2-2 slider for the last out.
“That’s the moment you want to be up: runner on, chance to win the ballgame,’’ Judge said. “That’s what you dream of, to come up and get job the done.’’
But while Judge has dominated most of the rest of the sport this season, Osuna has been his kryptonite.
The two have faced off four times this season and each time has ended with the same result: a Judge swinging strikeout in the ninth.
“I try to focus on throwing strikes,” Osuna said after converting his 20th consecutive save opportunity. He blew three in April and none since.
“He’s one of the best, so you’ve got to pitch him really careful,” Osuna said. “For me, he’s a low-ball hitter, so I try to throw up [to him].”
It likely won’t be long before the two young stars face off again.
By then, Judge may have rewritten the record book some more.
“He’s a big baseball history fan, so he knows what this means,” minor league and current teammate Rob Refsnyder said of Judge’s milestone. “In half a season, he’s tied one of the greatest Yankees of all time. It’s incredible.
“But he stays in the present. I don’t know when he’ll be able sit back and think about it. He’s worked so hard, and right now all of us get to enjoy all the records he’s broken. I feel like he’s not even thinking about it.”