Aaron Judge will get one more set of at-bats in his attempt at hitting his 62nd homer in front of his home fans Sunday afternoon when the New York Yankees host the Baltimore Orioles. Rain is forecasted, however, and the game will not be made up if there is a rainout.
Judge tied Roger Maris for the AL record Wednesday night in Toronto and in his first two games since matching the record, he is 1-for-4 with four walks.
After walking twice and being hit by a pitch on Saturday, Judge has been on base in 29 straight games. It is the second-longest on-base streak of his career.
Judge is batting .411 (39-for-95) during that streak. Since getting his 60th homer on Sept. 20 against Pittsburgh, Judge has reached in 25 of 45 plate appearances (seven hits, 17 walks and one hit by pitch), including a leadoff free pass in the seventh on Saturday.
While the Orioles seemed to pitch carefully to Judge, the Yankees (97-60) cruised to an 8-0 win Saturday. Giancarlo Stanton and Kyle Higashioka homered, while Gleyber Torres and Josh Donaldson drove in two runs apiece as the Yankees totaled 14 hits.
“There’s no bigger stage and there’s no tougher place to do it,” Stanton said. “He’s at the top of the top and he’s made it look easy.”
The next time Judge and the Yankees will appear in front of their fans will be for Game 1 of the American League Division Series on Oct. 11.
Baltimore (81-77) is 6-12 against the Yankees this year and needs one win to clinch its first winning season since 2016.
After going from 110 losses to being eliminated from the AL wild-card race late Friday night, the Orioles mustered three hits, were blanked for the 11th time this season and struck out 14 times.
“It was very disappointing, but I’m proud of the way our team has played this year, how we exceeded expectations. We stayed in it until October 1,” Baltimore manager Brandon Hyde said. “I wanted to be in the playoffs and I wanted our guys to experience those things, too. But we gave it a good run.”
Kyle Bradish (4-7, 5.11 ERA) concludes his rookie season for Baltimore and attempts to rebound from one of his shortest starts. After allowing two hits and striking out 10 in 8 2/3 innings Sept. 22 against Houston, Bradish was tagged for seven runs on four hits in 2 1/3 innings Tuesday in Boston for his second-shortest career start.
Bradish’s only previous start against the Yankees was May 16 in Baltimore when he took the loss and allowed four runs on eight hits in 4 1/3 innings. Judge did not face Bradish or play in that game when the right-hander allowed a homer to Jose Trevino.
The Yankees announced after Saturday’s game that Chi Chi Gonzalez will make the start in place of Luis Severino, who will start in Texas.
Gonzalez (0-1, 6.87) signed a minor league deal with the Yankees on Aug. 30, and he posted a 3.63 ERA in five starts for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes Barre. Before joining the Yankees, Gonzalez made four appearances with Milwaukee and two with Minnesota this season.
Gonzalez, who owns a 9-24 lifetime record, is making his 52nd career start and 68th career appearance. He has never faced the Orioles.
–Field Level Media
