Yankees’ Aaron Judge smacks historic moon-shot homer

Coming into the game his 52.2% first pitch strike rate ranked 166th among the 186 pitchers to throw at least ten innings this season.

Yankees fourth. Aaron Hicks singles to center field.

The New York Yankees scored seven times in the bottom of the sixth off Jays starter Marcus Stroman and reliever John Axford, turning a close game into a 9-1 blowout. He walked Randal Grichuk to lead off the inning, and allowed back-to-back singles to Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and Steve Pearce, to plate Grichuk, cutting the Yankees’ lead to 2-1. Robertson struck out two and got a flyout from Luke Maile to hold a one-run lead. “But I’m going to figure this out soon and get back to being dominate and going deep in games”, Stroman said.

Not that Robertson wasn’t feeling some stress. I’m going to do everything in my power … The offence and four scoreless innings from the bullpen also clearly aided his cause in a big way.

Compared to his overall season slash line of.284/.422/.627, Judge enjoyed batting against righties at home in 2017, hitting.318/.424/.771 across 257 plate appearances. Yankees 4, Blue Jays 2. So effective for almost five seasons in Oakland, he has been largely unrecognizable since he joined the Yankees at the trade deadline last season.

Judge wasn’t a one-man wrecking crew in Saturday’s win, which pushed the Yankees’ record back over.500 again at 10-9 and positioned them to win the four-game series on Sunday with ace Luis Severino pitching.

As a unit, New York’s pitchers have allowed 5.4 runs per game overall this season. He already provided that in his Major League Baseball debut, picking up two hits (already one more than Ngoepe had in 18 at bats), after getting the start at second base. “But for a tough lineup to face, I thought he was pretty good”.

Yankees slugger Giancarlo Stanton broke a 50 at-bat homerless slump with his fourth shot of the season, a drive that put NY ahead 4-2 in the third. He smoked the pitch down the left-field line, tucking it inside the foul pole and into the second deck for his sixth homer of the season and third in his last five games.

Stanton followed with an infield single to snap an 0-for-15 skid. On Saturday, Pillar whiffed 0-for-4.

Adam Warren and Chasen Shreve mostly settled things down over the final four innings, though by then the damage had already been done.

Because he has struggled defensively at third at times the Yanks may also opt to keep the more sure-handed Ronald Torreyes at the hot corner, especially with how well Toe has been swinging the bat. I like Toronto as a big underdog against a NY team that has struggled to string together wins. C Gary Sanchez was given the day off after catching Friday night’s game. This is a big drop from a year ago when the Yanks finished third in the league and fifth in baseball with a 3.72 ERA. “We’re constantly on it, staying on it, and he’s doing his due diligence with his work”. Tyler Austin grounds out to third base.

Before the game, Boone said NY was planning a defensive practice session Friday, something that’s been in the works for about a week.

“I’m frustrated, obviously, I expect a lot more from myself”, Gray said.