Judge Walks Yanks to Win. Take AL East Title. NY 5 Toronto 2

September 28, 2022 paperbacklou 2022 0

Aaron Judge hit a bullet down 3rd that was caught by Matt Chapman in the 1st, after which Toronto walked him the rest of the night — 4 straight times.

Judge scored twice, and his walks helped produce 4 Yankee runs to carry NY to the 5-2 victory. On the hill for NY was Jameson Taillon, pitching a masterful game into the 8th.

The Yankees clinched the American League East title in Vladimir Guerrero Jr’s house.

NY is now 95-59 with 8 games left in the season.

By going 0-1 with 4 walks, Judge remains in the lead for the AL batting title.

  1. Aaron Judge .314
  2. Luis Arraez .313
  3. Xander Bogaerts .310
  4. Andres Gimenez .305
  5. Nathaniel Lowe .304

1. Judge Walked Yanks to Win

Judge’s walks:

  • The Yanks were down 1-0 off a George Springer homer in the 1st, when Kyle Higashioka led off the 3rd inning with a single. After getting Aaron Hicks on a fly, Jose Berrios walked Judge to move Higgy to 2nd — where he scored on an Anthony Rizzo single. Without Judge’s walk, Higgy is not in scoring position. It became mute when Gleyber Torres then singled in Judge and the Yanks had a 2-1 lead.

  • In the 5th, Berrios walked Judge to lead off the inning. Rizzo singled moving Judge to 2nd, and Gleyber Torres singled in Judge again for a 3-1 NY lead.

  • In the 6th, back-to-back doubles with 1 out by Higgy and Aaron Hicks scored a run. With Hicks on 2nd and 1 out, Toronto reliever Zach Pop walked Judge. With 2 outs, Gleyber Torres singled in another run and it was 5-1 NY. Judge’s walk had extended the inning and indirectly accounted for the 5th run.

  • In the 8th, with Higgy on 2nd (after another single) and 1 out, NY up 5-2 in a game Toronto had to win, old friend David Phelps walked Judge to put 1st and 2nd, 1 out — but NY didn’t score.

2. Taillon Terrific

Jameson Taillon was terrific all night — filling up the zone with strikes and cruising through the tough Toronto lineup with a low pitch count.

He got help in the 6th with some nifty Yankee defense: a 1-out single by George Springer, then a double by Bo Bichette put runners on 2nd and 3rd — but Isiah Kiner-Falefa applied and held a tag to Bichette as he was getting up from his slide into 2nd. Bichette momentarily came off the base by a hair as he was standing up — the ump saw it and called Bichette out!

On the very next play Vladimir Guerrero Jr ripped a single down the line in left to score Springer — but Aaron Hicks RIFLED a throw to 2nd to nail Guerrero by several feet. Guerrero was out, in his own house it was pointed out by Yankee Twitter.

3. Trivino Terrific Too

Taillon pitched into the 8th to rest a weary Yankee bullpen that had been taxed the night before. But in the 8th, a leadoff single, then lineout, then bloop single by Cavan Biggio put 1st and 2nd and only 1 out in the 5-2 game.

Lou Trivino came in and got Springer to hit first pitch into an inning-ending double play to end the threat. PHEW.

Trivino pitched to the heart of the Blue Jays order in the 9th — and yielded a 2-out single before getting a groundout for the old ballgame, and division title.

4. Yanks Celebrate in Vlad’s “House”

Guerrero had won the game the night before with a walk-off hit in the 10th, and was seen celebrating on the field, pointing down and yelling ‘this is my house”. It became a meme and theme and a lesson learned: don’t ever call your house “my house” until the 3-game series is over.

Etcetera

  • Gleyber Torres went 3 for 5 with 3 RBI’s. He’s been Red Hot in September, and is now slashing 24-74-.257 (.311 OBP).
  • Kyle Higashioka went 3 for 4 to raise his average to .214.
  • The Yankees had a modest celebration on the field of the AL East title, but had a fun celebration in the lockerroom.

The Boxscore

https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore/_/gameId/401356507

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