Giancarlo & Judge (& Gallo & Donaldson) HR’s Crush ChiSox. NY 10 Chicago 4

This is how the Yankees planned it 4 years ago when they acquired the NL MVP and 6’7 monster Homerun leader Giancarlo Stanton and paired him with their own AL MVP* and 6’7 monster Homerun leader Aaron Judge.

Both hit homers again to lead the Yanks to a second straight bashing of the White Sox in Chicago. Judge leads the major leagues in homeruns with 12 and Giancarlo Stanton is now 3rd with 10.

And in the last year the Yanks have added to their secondary artillery — Joey Gallo and Josh Donaldson and Anthony Rizzo: last night Gallo and Donaldson also hit homers.

“It’s Brutal,” said Gerrit Cole afterwards when asked how tough the Yankee lineup is to face when Judge and Stanton are locked in. “There’s obviously a lot of power. There’s different types of hitters — and Judge and Stanton are obviously kinda unicorns. We’re running out different looks. Every guy works the count and doesn’t take a pitch off, and so we keep that focus and just let our talents and individual strengths shine —  it’s really diverse and really difficult to get through.”

NY led 5-0 after 2 innings and Gerrit Cole dominated. It was 7-1 thru 5 innings. The game was never close.

NY improved to 24-8 — on pace for 120 wins. Owners of the best record in baseball, the Yanks are now 4.5 games ahead of Tampa for 1st place in the AL East. They have won 17 of their last 19 games.

1. Giancarlo ANOTHER 2-Run Homer

Fresh off hitting 2 (two) 2-run homers in the previous game, Giancarlo Stanton came up in the top of the 1st in this one with Aaron Judge on 1st (courtesy a walk) and hit a BOMB to centerfield for ANOTHER 2-run homer — Yanks 2 Chisox 0.

“I think Big G is enjoying himself,” said Aaron Judge afterwards. “He’s having a special series so far. You just sit back and stand out of his way. Like I said yesterday, he’s a guy who can take over a game; take over a series. He’s just a game changer to have that in the middle of your lineup. It doesn’t matter if there’s a man on, nobody on, he just goes out and does his job.”

2. Judge ANOTHER Blast

The Yankees’ light and heavy infantry continued to fire away at ChiSox starter Vince Velasquez — in the 2nd Isiah Kiner-Falefa singled, Jose Trevino singled and Aaron Hicks ripped a double down the right-field line for a 3-0 lead. DJ LeMahieu hit a fielder’s choice for a run and Josh Donaldson ripped a double to deep left and it was 5-0. Second inning still.

In the 4th, Aaron Judge hit an opposite-field homer to right to make it 6-0.

3. Cole Dominates

Meanwhile Gerrit Cole was dominating — throwing his 95-98 fastball with movement, 85-MPH slider, and 88-MPH changeup to shut down Chicago.

Cole had a shutout into the 4th when he allowed a run on a balk — with 2 outs, 1st and 3rd, he tried to check the runner on 1st but LeMahieu had moved off the bag to play the field as NY had the big 6-0 lead — so there was no one to throw the ball to. After that he struck out rightfielder Leury Garcia to end the inning.

Cole cruised into the 6th with a 7-1 lead when he allowed a 2-run homer to DH Gavin Sheets to make it 7-3. Cole’s final line: 6.1 innings, 6 hits, 3 runs, 9 K’s.

Cole gets the win to go 3-1 2.95 on the season. It was his 4th straight terrific start.

4. Gallo Heating Up

Joey Gallo hit a homer to right in the 5th to make it 7-1 — Gallo got 2 hits to raise his average to .202 with a .302 OBP. Very quietly he has been hitting well the last 2 weeks.

5. Donaldson Heating Up

And Josh Donaldson hit a 2-run rainmaker in the 9th to make it 9-3.

“They’re patient and they’re waiting for pitches to do damage on, and right now when they’re getting their pitch they’re not missing it,” said Josh Donaldson about Stanton and Judge. “And they’re big boys so when they touch it it gets loud.”

Donaldson went 2-5 with 3 RBI’s to raise his average to .233 (.347 OBP).

And for that matter Gleyber Torres went 2-4 to raise his average to .240 (.279 OBP).

6. King On Top

Any worries about Michael King‘s getting touched for a game-lowing homer Mother’s Day and a poor outing the next game were thankfully erased as he was in top form again.

King relieved Cole in the 7th and got the last 2 outs of that inning, pitched a 1-2-3 8th inning, and then in the 9th allowed 3 straight singles for a run but then got a double play for the old ballgame.

The Boxscore

https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore/_/gameId/401354728

*Judge won the 2017 MVP of the American League if Jose Altuve didn’t cheat.

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