NEW YORK -- Even Mother Nature is making it harder for Aaron Judge these days. The Yankees slugger would have led off the bottom of the seventh inning Sunday night, but rain and lightning closed in on the Stadium and the game was delayed before Judge could get his fourth at-bat of the night. So Judge went homerless for the fifth straight game and remains one home run shy of tying the American League single-season record as the Yankees beat the Red Sox 2-0 in a weather-shortened game in front of a sold-out crowd of 46,707 at Yankee Stadium.
The Yankees (94-58) won their seventh straight game and dropped their magic number to clinch the American League East down to one. The Bombers headed north to take on the Blue Jays, who trail them by 8.5 games, on Monday.
Judge hit his 60th homer of the season on Tuesday, pulling within one of Roger Maris’ 61-year old record set in 1961. Maris’ children have been at Yankee Stadium waiting to congratulate Judge when he gets the record.
Looking ahead, that may give the home fans get a chance to see history. Judge is homerless in his last eight games against the Blue Jays and has just three homers in 16 games against them this season and just one at the Rogers Centre. The Bombers return to the Bronx for a three-game series against the Orioles on Friday, before a four-game series in Texas to end the regular season.
And there is the possibility that Judge could get a day off in Toronto—Yankees manager Aaron Boone left that open. Judge has played every game since Aug. 5, 46 in a row.
“I’ll work closely with him on what’s the best path forward for him and for us,” Boone said. “We have those conversations all the time.”
It is just the fourth time this season he has gone five straight games with a home run. During this streak, five Yankees have hit nine home runs. Gleyber Torres has hit three. Giancarlo Stanton and Oswaldo Cabrera have each hit two and Aaron Hicks and Anthony Rizzo have one.
Nestor Cortes pitched six scoreless innings, allowing one hit over six innings pitched. He walked two and struck out five.
The left-hander continues to be the Yankees’ most reliable pitcher. After a walk to Xander Bogaerts in the first inning, Cortes retired nine of the next 10 hitters he faced. He worked around a lead off walk to Tommy Pham and a two-out ground-rule double by Rob Refsnyder in the fourth.
Cortes has allowed 1 hit or fewer in four starts this season, the most such starts by a Yankees pitcher in a single season, excluding openers.
Oswaldo Cabrera lined a double into left field to start the fourth. He stole third and scored on Jose Trevino’s ground-ball single past a diving Bobby Dalbec at third base. In the sixth, the Yankees were gifted a run. With Aaron Hicks scoring from first on a high, routine fly ball that Red Sox right fielder Rob Refsnyder whiffed on.
In the first inning Judge doubled up the left-field line on a 97-mile per hour sinker. In the third, with Oswald Peraza on first, Brayan Bello had Judge 0-2, but the slugger showed discipline not swinging on pitches that were just low and worked a seven pitch walk. In the fifth, with Peraza on second, Judge jumped on the first pitch, an 89-mph slider that Bello tried to jam him with, only to fly out to center field.
It’s getting harder and harder for Judge to get something to drive into the seats. Of the 81 pitches he has seen since hitting No. 60 against the Pirates, there have been just 34 inside the strike zone. He has six walks and seven strikeout in that span.
