Austin, wearing No. 26, also swiped a base. It is quite exciting as we get to see some of these young players that we have heard about for some time.
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The Seattle Mariners made the most of Texas’ loss as they edged out the Oakland Athletics 4-3 to close the gap in the AL West to 6.5 games. On Friday night, his final game in pinstripes, he went 1-4 with a RBI double as the Yankees beat the Rays 6-3, bringing the end of a marvelous, yet controversial 22-year major league career. Austin and Judge became the first Yankees tandem to make their Major League Baseball debut in the same lineup since May 17, 1969 – six months before Rivera was born.
“Some people think that I wanted to make negative decisions, but that’s not the case”.
Judge’s shot was particularly impressive, travelling an estimated 446 feet. And just like that the Baby Bombers have started writing history on the first page of this new chapter of Yankee baseball.
The highly regarded duo electrified the crowd in the second inning by blasting back-to-back home runs in their first professional at-bats in the majors. Just like Austin, Judge would hit a home run.
It’s pretty easy to find the big hitters in the Rays lineup. Standing at first base after his single he towered over Rays first baseman Brad Miller.
More to come, one assumes.
And New York’s 24-year-old newbies did it back-to-back in a five-pitch span during the second inning.
As debuts go, it was something, and it made it easy to dream about a future podium setup, where maybe Judge and Austin are talking about a memorable championship and joking that another teammate is the old man in the bunch, like the 96ers were kidding Williams Saturday.
Receiving their first recognition from the Bleacher Creatures in the game-opening roll call, they joined 23-year-old catcher Gary Sanchez, who entered the game hitting.357 (10 for 28) with three doubles, a home run and four RBIs since he was brought up August 3. For the first time this season, every player in the starting lineup scored. But this is a team to stick with and root for.
In 1968, comedian Dewey “Pigmeat” Markham, who may have played Harlem’s Apollo Theater more than any other performer, became famous in white America when Sammy Davis Jr. performed his “Here Come Da Judge” routine on NBC’s Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In. They are our guys who our favorite teams develop. And, while it is also true that the Boston Red Sox, Detroit Tigers, Seattle Mariners and Houston Astros are ahead of them in the race for the second American League Wild Card (Yankees now sit 3.5 GB of Boston), the NY Yankees are still very much in the thick of yet another play off race. I don’t know if the Yankees can make a serious run at a postseason spot, but I’m looking forward to watching them try. It had the good sound off the bat and landed in the second deck in right field. A new core of homegrown talent could be emerging – and the excitement level in NY is growing, as the Yankees remain in the hunt for a potential playoff berth (three games back of the second wild card).
For the past couple weeks, the tides were changing with regard to the Yankees as a franchise.
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Rodriguez thanked Girardi for moving him to third in the ninth inning, giving Yankees fans an opportunity to cheer A-Rod when he ran onto the field and again when he was replaced one batter later by rookie Ronald Torreyes.
