Headlined by the arrival of top prospects Aaron Judge and Tyler Austin – both 24 years old and making their major-league debuts – the Yankees won their fourth straight with an 8-4 victory Saturday over the Rays.
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New reliever Blake Parker made his second career appearance with the Yankees and went 1.1 scoreless innings with two strikeouts.
On a 2-2 pitch, Austin smacked a home run off of Tampa Bay Rays’ starter Matt Andriese into right field. The arcing drive landed 331 feet from home plate in the first row over the short porch in right, about 3 feet fair, and rebounded onto the field.
Judge, wearing No. 99, drove a 1-and-2 changeup 446 feet off the railing above a sports bar in center field and into the netting above Monument Park. Designated hitter Corey Dickerson’s three-run home run off Severino and third baseman Evan Longoria’s bases-loaded double off Cessa punctuated Tampa Bay’s rally.
“That thing was a hit a ton”, an awe-struck Austin said Saturday after an 8-4 win over the Tampa Bay Rays. (Castro’s dinger was his career high tying 14th.) Austin and Hicks stole bases too. The Rays got two more hits before the second out was recorded and Severino was lifted after striking out Forsythe.
Odorizzi went six innings and allowed three earned runs. NY is 60-56 – matching a season-high at four games over.500 – and has won four straight for the second time since the All-Star break to remain on the periphery of the American League wild card race while Tampa Bay (46-69) continues to play out the string with five losses in its last six contests.
Judge’s home run, estimated at 457 feet long, was also the longest by a Yankee at home since Alex Rodriguez’ 460-foot bomb in June 2011. They are the first teammates ever to hit back to back home runs in their first big league at-bat.
“You can’t draw it up any better when you’re talking about two young players”, Yankees manager Joe Girardi said after the win.
But over the course of 67 pitches Sunday, Luis Severino demonstrated why the Yankees’ October aspirations still seem like nothing more than a fantasy: Their starting rotation simply won’t let them climb out of their hole.
In other words: There is nothing but good news about Judge at this point, and these results match the scouting reports from the minor leagues, but there’s a reason he’s hitting eighth.
“Gary’s pretty good at that”, Judge said. He also became the first Twins starter to complete seven innings since Ricky Nolasco did it on July 29; Nolasco now plays for the Los Angeles Angels.
Prior to the game, general manger Brian Cashman said the recent infusion of younger talent has made the team “looser” and “more exciting”.
Blue Jays 4, Astros 2 – Russell Martin hit a go-ahead, three-run home run in the sixth, Aaron Sanchez pitched seven innings to get his first win in three starts, and host Toronto stopped Houston’s winning streak at four. “We got it today”.
Before the start of the game, the Yankees had a special surprise for fans in the house, as the 1996 championship Yankees were honored and familiar faces like Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Bernie Williams, Paul O’Neill, Joe Torre, and so much more came to celebrate the honor. Didi Gregorius added a two-run homer in the seventh against Erasmo Ramirez.
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Yankees: OF Brett Gardner and 1B Mark Teixeira were out of the lineup for the second straight day.
