Tyler Austin and Aaron Judge wasted no time in making an impact on the New York Yankees on Saturday, becoming the first teammates to hit home runs in the first at-bats of their major league debuts in the same game.
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The two newcomers joined 23-year-old catcher Gary Sanchez, hitting.313 (10 for 32) with three doubles, a home run and four RBIs since he was brought up August 3.
Both Judge and Tyler Austin will make their respective major league debuts Saturday, with Judge getting the nod in right field and batting eighth. It was the second straight game with a home run for Hicks, who has shown signs of life recently after appearing to be mostly dead for large swaths of the season. The Yankees are hoping they can see more of the same in the final weeks of the season as they look to hang around in the playoff picture in the American League. The right-hander struck out six.
DODGERS 8, PIRATES 4: Joc Pederson homered and Los Angeles had 17 hits and a pair of successful challenges in victory over Pittsburgh. Grossman homered in the fifth as Minnesota snapped a four-game losing streak.
The Boston Red Sox are two games back after a 6-3 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks that saw home runs from Sandy Leon and Brock Holt.
Alex Reyes (1-0) pitched three scoreless innings of relief to get the win. After falling behind 0-2 in the count, he drew two balls and fouled off a pitch, before crushing a fastball to rightfield.
Judge stepped up next on a 1-2, he crushed the ball of Rays starter Matt Andriese to deep center, landing over monument park. He has spent most of this season playing first base but also has outfield experience. Ben Revere had the other two and drove in a run for the NL East leaders. His three-run homer in the fourth and solo shot in the sixth gave him 52 RBIs, second on the Rays behind Evan Longoria.
After a walk by Navarro, pinch-hitter Justin Morneau, facing reliever Kyle Barraclough (6-3), doubled off the fence in right to tie the score 7-7. Yankees LF Brett Gardner (ankle) missed a second straight game and manager Joe Girardi said he still is sore.
Clippard and Warren combined for one run in their last 16 innings, which makes the trades of Miller and Chapman nearly an afterthought.
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Longoria continued to have his way against Yankee pitching as he had an RBI double in the first off Luis Severino (1-8) and then added a bases-loaded double when the Rays matched their most productive inning of the season. So far over his minor league career he has slashed.279/.373/.471, while he’s also clubbed 60 home runs between five levels in the minor leagues. The 22-year-old righthander was lifted for a pinch hitter after four innings and 85 pitches. For the first time since perhaps the 1990s, the Yankees have a very young team.
