THE CRACK OF BRAWN
Judge, Soto, Stanton go deep to power Yanks to 5th straight win
By now, the Yankees have become accustomed to Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton crushing home runs in the same game, and it has almost always led to a win.
When Judge and Juan Soto first homered in the same game last month, Aaron Boone said it made him feel “warm and fuzzy.”
On Wednesday, Judge, Soto and Stanton all went deep in the same game for the first time and, not surprisingly, good things happened for the Yankees.
On a warm night in The Bronx, in what the Yankees can only hope was a preview of the summer to come, the trio combined for 1,291 feet of home runs to power a fifth straight win, 9-4 over the Astros.
“All those [were] put into orbit,” Boone said. “You feed off of those a little bit.”
Soto clobbered a two-run, oppositefield, 440-foot home run in the first inning — part of his three-hit, five-RBI night — before Judge and Stanton both belted solo shots in the third, all off Astros right-hander Spencer Arrighetti. Judge’s came as part of his own threehit, three-RBI night as he continues to break out of a slow start while Stanton’s came off the bat at
119.9 mph, good for the hardest-hit ball in MLB this season.
“They’re pretty good, huh?” said Carlos Rodon, who struck out seven over 6 ¹/₃ innings of two-run ball. “It’s hard to pitch against a lineup like we got when you got those three guys clicking like that with the long ball. You see the rest of the lineup working at-bats, getting on base and just setting the table for our big boppers. It’s impressive to watch.”
In the process, the Yankees (25-13) improved to 6-0 against the Astros (12-24) this season and have now won nine straight games against them dating back to last year.
Before Wednesday, Judge and Stanton had homered in the same game twice this season, both wins, and 37 games all time in which the Yankees were 33-4. Judge and Soto had homered in the same game once and Soto and Stanton had homered in the same game once, both wins.
And while this was the first time all three homered in the same game, it may not be the last.
“I hope [there’s more],” Judge said. “It means good things are happening and the Yankees are winning.”
For Judge, it marked the latest encouraging sign that he is leaving his early-season slump behind him. Besides his second home run in his last three games and fifth in his last 14, Judge added a pair of doubles, the second driving in a pair of runs to break the game open at 8-1 in the sixth inning.
Over his last 15 games, Judge is batting .333 (18for-54) with a 1.158 OPS.
“Judge has been locked in the last couple days,”
Soto said. “Really excited for that. I can’t wait to see him going crazy like today. It’s going to be great.”
A night after drilling a home run that came off the bat at 118.8 mph — which marked the hardest-hit home run in the majors this season — Stanton oneupped himself. On a 1-2 count, he got a 79 mph curveball over the middle of the plate and obliterated it at 119.9 mph off the bat, surpassing Shohei Ohtani (119.2 mph) for the hardest-hit ball in the majors this season.
“I think if you hit one 120 [mph], you win,” Boone said when asked which of Wednesday’s home runs were most impressive.
And then there was Soto. After Boone described his atbats before the game as “theatrical,” Soto jumped on the first pitch he saw for his ninth home run of the year, which “got the party started,” Judge said. He went on to add a pair of RBI singles and an RBI groundout.
“When you see nights like that, it’s great,” Soto said. “I know it’s not gonna be easy to do that every night, but definitely we’re really capable of that and more.”