Judge & Torres Lead Way at Fenway

The Yankees began a short trip to Boston last night. The Yankees are hanging on to 1st place in the American League Eastern Division. The Red Sox are almost eliminated from postseason eligibility.

Cliché Alert: In this game, you can throw out the records. Or, as Keith Jackson, the greatest of all college football broadcaster, put it: "These two teams just don't like each other."

Gerrit Cole started for the Yankees, and he went 6 innings. The bad news: He keeps allowing home runs, in this case to 22-year-old rookie Triston Casas in the 2nd inning, Reese McGuire in the 3rd, and Xander Bogaerts in the 6th. That accounted for 4 runs, and at the rate the Yankees have been going in the 2nd half of the season, that seemed like it might be too many to overcome, even at Fenway Park.

The good news: He only walked 2 batters, and struck out 10. He now has 228 on the season, 20 short of Ron Guidry's single-season team record. He should get 3 more starts in the regular season, so if he averages 7 K's in those starts, he'll break the record.

Marwin González hit a home run in the 3rd inning, to tie the game at 2-2. Aaron Judge hit his 56th home run of the season, to the opposite field, in the 6th, to tie it at 3-3. Judge blasted one over the Green Monster in the 8th, his 57th, to tie it at 4-4. So he did his job.

All-time single-season home run leaders, among those who were clean as far as we know:

61 Roger Maris, 1961 New York Yankees

60 Babe Ruth, 1927 New York Yankees

59 Babe Ruth, 1921 New York Yankees

59 Giancarlo Stanton, 2019 Miami Marlins

58 Jimmie Foxx, 1932 Philadelphia Athletics

58 Hank Greenberg, 1938 Detroit Tigers

57 Aaron Judge, 2022 New York Yankees

56 Hack Wilson, 1930 Chicago Cubs

56 Ken Griffey Jr., 1997 Seattle Mariners

56 Ken Griffey Jr., 1998 Seattle Mariners

Mickey Mantle's peak was 54, in 1961; Lou Gehrig's, 47, in 1927; Reggie Jackson's, also 47, in 1969, when he was with the Oakland Athletics; and Joe DiMaggio's, 46, in 1937. Don't ask me about Alex Rodriguez: I said, "clean, as far as we know."

Lucas Luetge and Lou Trivino combined for a scoreless 7th inning. Jonathan Loáisiga pitched a perfect 8th. Clay Holmes pitched a scoreless 9th. Extra innings.

The 10th inning felt like the whole season thus far, compressed into 1 inning. Isiah Kiner-Falefa was the ghost runner, and former Met Jeurys Familia was pitching for the Sox. He walked Aaron Hicks, but got González to ground into a double play. With 1st base open, Aaron Judge was walked: The Red Sox are evil, but they're not stupid. But Giancarlo Stanton drew an unintentional walk, to load the bases. And Gleyber Torres, a guy who really, really needed a big hit, got one, driving it into right-center, and it rolled all the way to the wall, clearing the bases. It was 7-4 Bronx Bombers.

Bottom of the 10th. Kyle Higashioka was now catching, as Hicks had batted for Jose Trevino. This very nearly became a problem. Holmes came out for his 2nd inning of work, but was already out of gas. He hit McGuire with a pitch, and Connor Wong went in to pinch-run for him. Holmes struck Tommy Pham out.

Then Aaron Boone took Holmes out, for Wandy Peralta. Cue the Star Wars fans: "I've got a bad feeling about this!" He gave up a single to Alex Verdugo. 7-5. He got Bogaerts to fly to left. One out to go. Then he threw a wild pitch, and that scored Wong, and put Verdugo, the tying run, on 2nd. The batter, the winning run, was Rafael Devers.

Peralta struck him out. Ballgame over! Yankees win! Theeeeeeee Yankees win!

Yankees 7, Red Sox 6. WP: Holmes (6-3). SV: Peralta (4). LP: Familia (2-3).

The Yankees now lead the AL East by 6 games over the Toronto Blue Jays, and 6 1/2 over the Tampa Bay Rays. The Magic Number to clinch the Division is 15.

The series concludes tonight. Nestor Corts starts against Brian Bello. Come on you Bombers, beat The Scum again!