From Bill Ladson:
Happy Birthday, Aaron Judge!
OK, so we are a day late, but it wasn’t a dollar short for the Yankees during the second game of a doubleheader at Yankee Stadium on Sunday. His solo homer in the sixth inning helped New York defeat the Blue Jays, 5-1, and sweep the doubleheader.
In the first game, New York made it a grind for right-hander Kevin Gausman in an 11-2 victory.
Judge turned 33 on Saturday, but he didn’t play that day because the game was called because of inclement weather. But it turned out to be a great Sunday for him, as he went 3-for-8 in the twin bill and extended his on-base streak to 24 games, dating back to April 2.
With the score tied at 1 and Blue Jays right-hander Chris Bassitt on the mound, Judge swung at the first pitch and hit the ball over the right-field wall to give New York a one-run lead. It was Judge’s eighth homer of the year and his first since April 16 against the Royals. He may have been homerless for a week — big deal — but he is still hitting .406 for the season.
I think Bill Ladson is usually pretty good, but “belated birthday blast?” Buddy, blech.
Anyone, great doubleheader sweep. The Yankees just seemed like they were in an entirely different LEAGUE than the Blue Jays on Sunday, and if it weren’t for Devin Williams, who is now no longer the closer (thank goodness), they would have swept these guys, just like how they would have swept the Rays had it not been for Williams there, as well.
Fried, Rodon, Warren, and Schmidt are now all pitching well at the same time, and even Cookie Carrasco isn’t looking godawful. The bullpen outside of Williams has been great, and the offense is doing well (so long as The Martian faces righties). Anthony Volpe was fixed during batting practice on Friday, so now he’ll be good, as well.
The Yankees have the second-best SRS in the Major Leagues right now behind the Cubs, and are only a game out of the best record in the American League.
The Yankees now head to Baltimore to take on the struggling Baltimore Orioles, but annoyingly the Yankees don’t get to face Charlie Morton, who is looking like he retired last season and just didn’t tell anyone.
The featured image is Max Fried getting congratulated after getting through six innings in Game 1. Neither he nor Schmidt were at their best on Sunday, so the fact that they both got through at least five innings and only allowing one run (6 innings for Fried, 5 for Schmidt) is really impressive.