The Bombers move to 32-4 all-time in games in which both Judge and Stanton homer.
Perhaps the shutout in yesterday’s contest — the first in a Yankees home opener in 57 years — was a wakeup call to the offense, because they came out with a renewed focus against one of their most feared divisional foes in Kevin Gausman. They drove him from the contest after recording just four outs, ultimately tagging the Cy Young finalist for six runs as Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton both homered, the latter also chipping in just his second three-hit game since September 2022. Things got a hairy in the later innings, but the Yankees would go on to win the middle game of the series, 9-8.
Entering the contest, New York had a tall task ahead of them facing Gausman. He had given up just three runs to the Yankees in four starts, totaling 27 innings in 2023 striking out 36 in the process. His splitter in particular has always given them fits and is already at a healthy 30-percent whiff rate on the season.
However, this Yankees offense has an obvious new mentality in the box, one-through-nine intent on grinding out long, arduous at-bats, and that’s exactly the approach they took against the Blue Jays’ ace. Even though Gausman was able to reach two-strike counts with ease, the Yankees hitters found an extra gear of discipline, spitting on splitters below the zone to work three full-counts the first time through the order. Most importantly, Gausman’s velocity was way down, and the Bombers took advantage.
Juan Soto fell behind 0-2 with one out in the first but took four-straight balls to draw the walk, after which Aaron Judge pummeled a knee-high splitter into the visitor’s bullpen in left-center for a two-run blast. A Soto walk followed by a Judge tank, just how the Yankees drew it up
After an Anthony Rizzo pop out, Giancarlo Stanton lifted an opposite-field fly ball that just barely scraped over George Springer’s glove at the wall, and indeed Yankee Stadium is the only ballpark in MLB in which it would’ve been a homer. That makes this the 36th game in which both Judge and Stanton have homered, moving to sixth on the list of duos to homer in the same game in franchise history.
The following frame, the Yankees got lucky, with Anthony Volpe finagling a leadoff catcher’s interference that even Jacoby Ellsbury would be proud of on what was originally a called strike three.
That started a rally that would ultimately end Gausman’s night, Austin Wells walking and Oswaldo Cabrera singling to load the bases with no outs.
Gleyber Torres barreled up a ball to deep center that off the bat sounded like a sure grand slam, but Daulton Varsho caught it at the wall for a sacrifice fly.* Wells would scamper home on a passed ball to Soto, who then singled Cabrera home for the Yankees’ sixth run and to knock Gausman from the contest.
Clarke Schmidt looked decent early, navigating round doubles by Springer in the first and Ernie Clement in the second to hold the Blue Jays scoreless their first time through the order. However, his effectiveness fell off a cliff with the start of the third inning, beginning with a leadoff Kevin Kiermaier single, Springer walk, and Bichette single to load the bases with one out. Schmidt did well enough to limit the damage to one run in the frame on a Justin Turner sac fly, but more of the same would be soon to follow.
Clement led off the fourth with a double and scored on a Kiermaier force out to cut the Yankees’ lead to 6-2. Far too many of Schmidt’s cutters and sinkers were finding the heart of the plate, and to avoid further damage, Boone ended his night with one out in the fifth, the righty giving up two runs on six hits and three walks with four strikeouts on 91 pitches.
New York responded in the bottom-half, Judge drawing a lead-off walk to set up a two-run Anthony Rizzo bomb off the facing of the second deck in right.
The next inning, Torres led off with a walk and stole second to set the table for Soto’s second RBI single of the night, extending the Yankees’ lead to 9-2.
Luke Weaver was the long man on in relief of Schmidt, and he made this one a bit more tense than it needed to be. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. clubbed a leadoff home run in the seventh, followed by a Bichette double and Turner walk. Weaver’s pitches either found the meat of the zone or were uncompetitively out of it, and Daniel Vogelbach punished him by smacking a shoulder-high fastball to the wall in right, plating Bichette and putting runners on second and third, still with no outs. A Clement sac fly drove in Turner and Weaver from the contest with three runs in two innings to his name. Thankfully, Victor González came in to stop the bleeding, assisted by a base running blunder by Vogelbach.
With a four-run lead heading for the ninth, Boone opted to use Ian Hamilton, who had been dominant in allowing just one baserunner while striking out seven in his first 5.2 innings of work. He didn’t have it today, issuing a Turner single and Vogelbach walk to open the ninth. A Davis Schneider double drove Turner in and led to a heart-stopping moment where Soto came up clutching his arm after colliding with the chain-link fence that guards the advertising board in right, though Boone reassured that Soto was fine after the game. It put runners on second and third for a Kirk groundout to cut the lead to 9-7 and force Boone to go to his closer. Clay Holmes served up a single to Cavan Biggio to cut the lead to one, but struck out Springer on a nasty sweeper to seal the victory, 9-8.
The Yankees go for the series win and an 8-2 start tomorrow with Luis Gil set to face Bowden Francis. First pitch is scheduled for 1:35pm ET and we hope you’ll join us in the game thread.
