BRONX, N.Y. – Aaron Judge mashed his first career grand slam and tied Mike Trout for the league lead in home runs (16) in the New York Yankees second straight victory over the Oakland Athletics.
Judge’s mammoth season continues to get better as he improved his batting average to .321 on his 2-for-4 day at the plate. The Yankees’ offense erupted in a big way after scoring two or fewer runs in their previous four games. The Yankees’ 9-5 victory marked the 11th time this season that they have scored nine runs, a league best.
“I was just thinking about picking up my teammate (Starlin Castro),” Aaron Judge on his 1st career MLB grand slam & NYY win.#YANKSonYES pic.twitter.com/fy0boxsvoG
— YES Network (@YESNetwork) May 28, 2017
Yankees’ starter Michael Pineda pitched another quality start (his sixth this season) on Sunday afternoon and held the Athletics to only two earned runs. Pineda went six innings, struck out five and walked three over his 101 pitches thrown.
Prior to Judge’s mammoth homer, the Yankees trailed the A’s 2-0 going into the bottom of the second inning. Ryon Healy drove in two runs on his single to left field but was thrown out trying to stretch a single into a double.
The Yankees struck back when Aaron Hicks hit a sacrifice fly to center field off of Athletics starter Andrew Triggs. Then, Judge put the Yankees ahead 5-2 in the bottom of the fourth inning with his opposite field grand slam. The Bronx Bombers added to their lead with doubles by Gary Sanchez and Brett Gardner.
Triggs threw six innings, allowed six hits and six unearned runs (one earned) because of his team’s sloppy play. The Athletics made two errors on the game which resulted in all of the unearned runs for Triggs.
An error leads to bases loaded for the Yankees.
⚾ Stream LIVE: https://t.co/AEmLc1M70C ⚾#YANKSonYES pic.twitter.com/CKPh4wsZ3t
— YES Network (@YESNetwork) May 28, 2017
It didn’t look promising for the A’s as they trailed by four runs going into the top of the eighth inning, however, Khris Davis hit a two-run home run off of Chad Green to bring his team within two.
Both Tommy Layne and Adam Warren worked a scoreless 1.2 innings combined to close out the game for the Yankees.
Sunday’s victory marked the Yankees’ second in a row and another series victory for the Bronx Bombers. The Yankees have won 11 out of their 17 series this season and continue to push ahead of the pack in the American League East. The Red Sox six game win-streak was snapped which moved the Yankees three games ahead of their division rivals with their victory today.
UP NEXT: The Yankees will head to Baltimore to take on the Orioles, who are the midst of a seven game losing streak, on Monday afternoon. Jordan Montgomery (2-3) will take on Dylan Bundy (5-3).
Win- Michael Pineda
Loss- Andrew Triggs
Save- Adam Warren
