After a nine-game hiatus, the Yankees are back in the win column. They can thank their captain for that.
The Bombers defeated a sloppy Nationals team, 9-1, on Wednesday night after enduring the franchise’s worst losing streak since 1982. Aaron Judge homered three times in the victory, while Luis Severino shined on the mound.
“I don’t play this game to hit homers,” Judge, always understated after a big game, said of his evening. “I play to put my team in a good position to win every ballgame.
“Just another day.”
Judge’s 25th dinger of the season came in the first inning when he belted a MacKenzie Gore pitch to the Toyota Terrace, which lies beyond the Yankees’ bullpen in right-centerfield at Yankee Stadium. The home run traveled 431 feet and 111.3 miles per hour, but it was hardly Judge’s biggest blast of the night.
That came in the second inning when he clubbed a grand slam off of Gore. Judge’s 26th home run went 437 feet at 112.8 mph and all but assured the end of the Yankees’ losing streak.
But the slugger wasn’t done yet, as Judge took Jose A. Ferrer over the right field wall in the seventh inning for his 27th home run of the season. In doing so, No. 99 logged the 34th three-homer game in Yankees history and the first of his career.
“I joked with him. I said, ‘I remember my first time,’” said the light-hitting Kyle Higashioka, who had a three-homer game in 2020. “But no, it was fantastic. We’ve kind of been waiting for that for a long time. Me and [Anthony] Rizzo have been joking with him a lot, and now we have nothing to hold over his head.”
Rizzo also has a three-homer game to his name.
“He would always remind me every game I’d have two and I couldn’t get the third one that, ‘Hey, one of these days kid, you’ll join my club and be in an exclusive club,’” Judge said of Higashioka, his long-time teammate. “So that was the first person I was looking forward to seeing once I got back in the dugout, that’s for sure.”
Judge also became just the second Yankee ever with at least 25 home runs in six of his first eight seasons. Joe DiMaggio, who accomplished the feat in seven of his first eight campaigns, is the other member of the exclusive club.
Judge is now fifth in the American League in home runs despite missing nearly two months with a torn ligament in his right big toe. That injury hasn’t fully healed yet, but that hasn’t stopped Judge from looking like the player who made history with 62 home runs last season.
“He’s basically doing the same thing,” Aaron Boone said. “It’s just he missed a big chunk [this year]. So he’s just a special player. It’s pretty remarkable what he does under any circumstance.”
The Yankees scored an additional run in the second on a fielder’s choice and another in the seventh on a solo home run from DJ LeMahieu, which immediately preceded Judge’s last longball. Anthony Volpe added an RBI single before the seventh inning ended.
Nationals right fielder Stone Garrett hurt himself crashing into the wall on LeMahieu’s home run and had to leave the game on a cart. Garrett, a second-year pro, was in tears as he departed with what appeared to be a serious lower-leg injury.
“He’s a special talent they got over there with the Nationals, so to see him go down like that is tough,” Judge said. “We’re wishing him the best.”
While Gore surrendered two of Judge’s homers, he only earned two runs on the night thanks to the Nationals’ poor defense. The team made two errors in the game.
Gore, 24, finished the night after four innings, four hits, six runs, two earned, one walk, four strikeouts and 80 pitches.
Severino, meanwhile, needed a strong start as badly as his team needed a win. He delivered and then some.
Severino, who entered the day with a 7.98 ERA, threw one of his best games of the year, holding the Nats to just one hit over 6.2 scoreless frames. The righty, who had not recorded an out in the seventh inning since May 27, also walked and struck out two over 97 pitches before exiting to a loud ovation.
Severino, who has called himself baseball’s worst pitcher this season, tipped his cap in gratitude.
“It was great,” he said of the cheers. “I’ve been hearing a lot of boos, so it’s a good thing to have those fans cheering for me.”
Added Boone: “Happy for him in that moment. Obviously, it’s been tough for him. This has been a tough year, but he’s never not just kind of kept fighting and kept working. So it’s nice when you’ve been taking it on the chin and you’ve been facing some adversity to get a moment to be appreciated. It’s not easy. And now, after an outing like this, hopefully he can start to build and now start to put some of these together and finish the season strong.”
Washington’s Dominic Smith hit a solo homer off Wandy Peralta in the ninth to get the Nats on the board, but that hardly effected the final result.
With Judge’s power display and Severino’s gem in the rearview, the Yankees will look to start a new streak on Thursday. A victory would give them their second series win since July began.
The Yankees, now 61-65, began Wednesday 10 games out of the final wild card spot. Michael King will open for them on Thursday, while Patrick Corbin will start the series finale for Washington.
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