Aaron Judge’s league-leading 31st home run helps power Yankees over Blue Jays to earn series split
New York Yankees’ Aaron Judge celebrates as he rounds the bases after his two-run home run during the first inning of a baseball game against the Toronto Blue Jays in Toronto, Sunday, June 30, 2024. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)
Whatever anxiety the Yankees and their fans may have felt heading into Sunday’s series finale with the Toronto Blue Jays quickly dissolved with the swing of Aaron Judge’s mighty bat.
Judge hit his major league-leading 31st home run in the first off Jays hurler Kevin Gausman, plating both himself and Juan Soto, who returned to the lineup after sitting out Saturday’s loss with a bruised right hand.
Soto had singled off Gausman in the first before Judge sent a 423-foot drive over the Rogers Center centerfield wall. It was Judge’s fifth career homer off Gausman, the most he’s hit off any opposing pitcher.
Soto’s return, and Judge’s dinger, gave Yankees fans one sigh of relief. The other would come later in the game with Gerrit Cole, who finally pitched more like his Cy Young Award-winning self, hurling five innings in helping the Yankees best the Blue Jays 8-1 and split the four-game set.
Cole rebounded from a terrible loss earlier in the week against the Mets, giving up just one run on three hits, and throwing a season-high 90 pitches — 61 for strikes. Still, Cole is working to get the rust off his right arm; he struck out one Blue Jay, but walked six on the day.
The Yankees’ bats took them the rest of the way. Soto went 1 for 3 with an RBI and two walks, while DJ LeMahieu and Trent Grisham each had two hits and two RBIs for the Yankees. Ben Rice scored twice and drove in a run.
Gleyber Torres went 2 for 5, his third straight multihit game since a two-game benching last week.
On the mound in relief of Cole, Michael Tonkin got five outs, Tim Hill retired all four batters he faced and Josh Maciejewski — called up that morning from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre in place of the designated-for-assignment Phil Bickford — wrapped up the victory for New York.
The Yankees will return to the Bronx Tuesday night to begin a three-game series against the Cincinnati Reds. Luis Gil will take the mound in search of his 10th win on the year.
