Aaron Judge of the Yankees ends home run drought with grand slam against the Red Sox

NEW YORK – Aaron Judge ended the longest home run drought of his major league career in the loudest way possible on Friday night.

With the New York Yankees trailing by three runs in the seventh inning against the Boston Red Sox, Judge hit a grand slam that gave them the lead and his 52nd home run of the season, giving him the major league lead. The hit set off a roar of cheers at Yankee Stadium. MVP chants prompted Judge, the American League favorite, to emerge from the dugout to announce the curtain call.

The hit was Judge's eighth career grand slam and his first home run since hitting two home runs against the Colorado Rockies on Aug. 25. He had gone 16 games, 60 at-bats and 75 plate appearances without hitting a single home run.

After the game, which New York won 5-4, Judge claimed that the length of the losing streak was new to him.

“Was it 16 games? I didn't really know,” Judge said. “It's just another day. I'm really not focused on hitting home runs. I'm not focused on any of that. I've got a job to do.”

“Sixteen games, is that a lot or not? I don’t know.”

Judge was then informed that these were the most games without a home run in his career as a major league player.

“Is that the most?” Judge asked. “At some point in my career, it'll probably be longer. So we'll definitely break that.”

Yankees starter Clarke Schmidt was not convinced by Judge’s ignorance.

“We try not to get caught up in the details and focus on what we can control,” Schmidt said. “But Judge – I think he's very aware of that kind of thing. So it's hard to ignore that. If he doesn't hit a home run two games in a row, something seems to be wrong.”

Most importantly for the Yankees, they held on to their 5-4 lead for their third dramatic win in a row. The result, coupled with a loss by the Orioles, put the Yankees three games ahead of Baltimore for first place in the American League East with 14 games remaining. The three-game lead in the division is their largest since June 7.

October brings a lot of attention to the scoreboard, but Judge believes the Yankees' worries about other teams' results hurt them during their deficits against inferior opponents in late August and September.

“I think we looked at the standings a couple of weeks ago, and I think we just kept going back and forth and giving up the lead, so to speak,” Judge said. “We all talked in this room and said, 'Hey, if we just focus on ourselves and what we need to do, we'll be where we want to be.' So hopefully nobody's looking at the standings. I certainly am not.”

The Orioles had already lost to the Detroit Tigers when Anthony Volpe stepped into the batter's box to start the bottom of the seventh inning with New York trailing 4-0. The Red Sox were in control. Then they collapsed.

Red Sox right-hander Zack Kelly began the inning with a full-count walk to Volpe. Alex Verdugo then fell behind 2-0, but fought back and got another walk. Gleyber Torres followed with a single, getting Volpe from second base for the Yankees' first run of the night.

Red Sox manager Alex Cora then replaced Clark with left-hander Cam Booser to face Juan Soto while Judge was on the way. Booser added fuel to the fire by running Soto four pitches well outside the strike zone to load the bases. With each pitch, the decibel level in the building reached a new high. By the fourth pitch, Yankee Stadium was in an uproar. Soto threw his bat. Judge strolled to the plate. Booser was in trouble.

He made matters worse by falling behind Judge with a cutter in the dirt. The next pitch was a fastball that appeared to be in the strike zone but was ruled a ball. Booser was forced to attack the strike zone and hit a 96 mph fastball up the middle. Judge pounced on it and didn't miss.

“Everything was perfect,” said Schmidt. “It was a perfect moment.”

“Jazz came up to me after Judge hit the home run, and when he saw our dugout erupting, Yankee Stadium erupting, he thought, 'That's pretty awesome.' That was one of those really cool regular-season moments that you experience at Yankee Stadium.”

Yankees coach Aaron Boone

With Judge's breakthrough, the Yankees' streak of exciting victories in a playoff-like atmosphere extended to three.

On Wednesday, Soto hit a game-winning two-run homer despite his right foot still hurting after he caught a pitch and scared the Yankees. New York beat the Kansas City Royals 4-3 in 11 innings on Jazz Chisholm Jr.'s first career walk-off hit. On Thursday, Soto had his first walk-off hit in a pinstripe uniform in a 2-1 win in 10 innings over the Red Sox to open the four-game series against the Yankees' rivals.

On Friday it was Judge's turn to delight the home audience with more theater.

“Jazz came up to me after Judge hit the home run, and when he saw our dugout erupting, Yankee Stadium erupting, he thought, 'That's pretty awesome,'” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “It was one of those really cool regular-season moments you get at Yankee Stadium.”