NEW YORK — The crowd packed Yankee Stadium to see home runs Friday night. With Aaron Judge one homer away from tying the 61-year-old American League and Yankees record of 61, the ballpark saw homers, but not the ones they wanted. An eighth-inning RBI-single from Jose Trevino rallied the Yankees for a 5-4 win after Gerrit Cole gave up two more homers to the Red Sox.
The Yankees (92-58) have won each of their last five games, nine of their last 11 games and 13 of their last 17.
The Yankees scored on a home run and single by Aaron Hicks and Gleyber Torres’ double. In the eighth, Harrison Bader drew a pinch hit walk, stole a base and took third on a pitcher’s throwing error and scored on a Trevino single.
It was the third game that Judge remained one home run away. He last homered on Tuesday night.
Judge struck out on six pitches in the first inning, Hill getting him to swing over an 85-mph curveball. In the third inning, Judge got under an 84-mph cutter, sending it high to the left-field warning track for an out. In the fifth, Hill beat Judge again, needing just four pitches to strike him out swinging on a 73-mph curveball.
In the seventh, with the game tied, Judge lined a single into left field and was greeted with some groans and polite applause.
Judge’s at-bats have been interesting. Everyone in the ballpark stands and most start recording on their phones. The Yankees bullpen pitchers come out to watch and as the pitch is delivered it’s quiet as if everyone is holding their breath.
“The moment is huge. I think the baseball world and certainly the people in attendance, understand what they’re potentially witnessing and watching,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “I think it’s simply that it’s everyone on the edge of their seat and all their focus and energy on it. And that’s shown up in silence from 40,000-plus people in that moment because you don’t want to miss something or you’re completely locked in and concentrating. It’s interesting to witness and I think it’s something that will be very memorable for a lot of people. Like how it showed up in a sporting arena. This noise of anticipation as he walks up the excitement to it’s pretty interesting.”
Instead, Friday night, the real Yankees fireworks the 47,346 in the ballpark saw all came via Cole.
The 32-year-old right hander’s frustration boiled over in the sixth. The Yankees ace was peeved that he did not get a called strike on a 1-2 pitch to Alex Verdugo. Angry, Cole threw a 100-mph pitch next and Verdugo crushed it 396 feet into the Yankees bullpen. The three-run shot tied the game and was the 31st homer Cole has allowed this season. The 30th came after Cole struck out Kike Hernandez and Rafael Devers to start the game. Tommy Pham crushed a 96-mph fastball to the short porch in right field.
After the Verdugo homer, Cole struck out J.D. Martinez and started yelling at home plate umpire Brian Knight, who ejected him. Cole doubled back and yelled at Knight as catcher Trevino was trying to stay between them. Boone came out of the dugout to try and keep control of the situation. The manager was tossed as well.
That was the ninth home run that Cole has given up to the Red Sox this season.
Cole allowed four earned runs for his fourth straight start. The Red Sox got five hits off him, he walked two and struck out eight for 244 this season, four shy of the franchise record set by Ron Guidry.
Torres doubled on a ground ball to left field, scoring Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Marwin Gonzalez and Hicks to give the Yankees a 4-1 lead in the fifth inning. He advanced to third on Pham’s sloppy throw. Torres has a 16-game on-base streak, the second longest of his career. He is 21 for 66 in that span with 13 runs scored, five homers, 19 RBIs and 10 walks.
Hicks, whose playing time has dwindled over the past month, hit his 100th career home run in the bottom of the third inning to tie it at 1. It was Hicks’ eighth of the season and went 405 feet to left-center field. He had not played since Sunday in Milwaukee, having lost playing time around the trade deadline when the Yankees acquired Andrew Benintendi, who is now injured, and Bader, who returned from the injured list on Tuesday.
