Aaron Judge blasted his major league-leading 49th home run, connecting for the fourth straight game as the host New York Yankees beat the Colorado Rockies 3-0 on Friday night.
Judge reached 49 homers in New York’s 129th game. When he broke Roger Maris’ single-season AL record by hitting 62 in 2022, he had 50 through the Yankees’ first 129 contests.
Judge opened the sixth by launching a 1-1 fastball from Colorado starter Kyle Freeland (3-6) into the left-center field seats adjacent to the Rockies’ bullpen, giving the Yankees a 3-0 lead.
The captain notched his second four-game homer streak of the season. Judge homered for the fifth time in his past four games, the seventh time in eight games and eighth time in 11 contests. He also has 45 home runs in his past 100 games and extended his hitting streak to a season-high 11 games.
Giancarlo Stanton also homered, marking the 11th time he and Judge connected in the same game this season. Anthony Volpe scored on a fielding error by Colorado third baseman Ryan McMahon in the fifth in between the homers by Stanton and Judge.
New York starter Carlos Rodon (14-8) followed scoreless outings by Nestor Cortes and Gerrit Cole with six shutout innings. Rodon allowed four hits, struck out five and walked one to equal his career high of 14 wins set two seasons ago with the San Francisco Giants.
Stanton opened the scoring with his 22nd homer, sending a 2-0 sinker into the right field seats. It was his 424th career homer, tying him with Edwin Encarnacion for 53rd on the all-time list.
The Yankees had runners on second and third with two outs in the fifth when Gleyber Torres hit a ground ball that caromed off McMahon for a 2-0 lead.
Rodon stranded two in the third when he whiffed Brendan Rodgers, who also grounded out with two on to end the fifth. After Rodon breezed through the sixth, Luke Weaver and Jake Cousins handled the next two innings and Clay Holmes pitched the ninth for 27th save to complete New York’s second straight shutout and 11th of the year.
Freeland allowed three runs (two earned) on five hits in 6 2/3 innings and became the 232nd different pitcher to allow a homer to Judge. The lefty struck out three and walked two.
The Rockies lost their third straight and dropped to 18-49 on the road. At 47-82, Colorado clinched its sixth straight losing season since its last playoff appearance in 2018.
–Field Level Media