Judge Provides the Power; Stroman Provides the Pitching. NY 4 San Diego 1

May 26, 2024 paperbacklou 2024 0

Aaron Judge hit a 2-run homer in the 1st, and doubled and scored in the 4th, and Marcus Stroman pitched 6 shutout innings to lead NY to a 4-1 win over the Padres in San Diego on a Saturday night.

The Yank bullpen of Luke Weaver and Clay Holmes shut the door.

NY beat Dylan Cease, the Padres’ ace, after knocking out Yu Darvish the night before.

“I mean that ball was absolutely hammered,” said manager Aaron Boone about Judge’s homer. “I thought Cease was really good for them. From the side you just felt like, ‘man this is a guy we’re facing with great stuff tonite’. It felt like he was on, and Judgy just drops the hammer there in the 1st inning to give us a lead. And then I thought the guys did a great job in that inning where we added a couple to push it to 4 — just good, quality, gritty at bats. But what Judge is doing is just… what the greats do from time to time.”

NY improves to 37-17, in front of Baltimore by 3 games in the East. San Diego falls to 27-28.

1. Volpe Single; Judge Bomb Starts the Scoring

Anthony Volpe has been red hot and looking like a tremendous leadoff batter for the Yanks and he did it again, hitting the first pitch of the ballgame from Dylan Cease — a 96-MPH four-seam fastball — for a single into center. It extended Volpe’s consecutive-game hitting streak to 17 games.

Juan Soto flied out but Aaron Judge — who has been red hotter than hot — stepped up and hit an 0-2 Knuckle Curve 429 feet to left center for a 2-0 Yankee lead.

2. Stroman Brilliant

That ended up being all Marcus Stroman and the Yankee bullpen needed. Stroman threw 6 shutout innings, allowing only 3 hits and a walk, and striking out 6.

Stroman pitched around a leadoff single in the 1st (getting the next 3 batters), and a leadoff single and 2-out walk in the 2nd. He threw a 1-2-3 inning in the 3rd.

In the 4th, leading 4-0, Stroman allowed a leadoff triple by Jake Cronenworth — but then got Manny Machado to line out to left, David Peralta to fly out to shallow left, and struck out lefty Jackson Merrill to end the threat.

Stroman pitched a 1-2-3 inning in the 5th, and hit a batter with 1 out in the 6th but got the next 2 batters to end his evening. Stroman — who got robbed of a win in his last start when he pitched a shutout into the 8th — wins this one to go 4-2 2.76.

“I thought he did a really good job of strike throwing tonite,” said manager Aaron Boone about Stroman. “A little bit of everything. Had a good cutter going; the sinker was good for him. I thought he was real sharp. Just more good — more tone setting; just outstanding pitching from our starters continuing to set the tone for us each and every day. It was Stro today; I thought he was really sharp.”

3. Judge Double, Yank Singles Make it 4-0 in 4th

The Yanks put 2 more on the board for Stroman in the 4th.

Aaron Judge led off with a double, Alex Verdugo singled him to 3rd, and Giancarlo Stanton hit a short stubber that the catcher fielded, moving Verdugo to 2nd, keeping Judge at 3rd.

Anthony Rizzo then singled in Judge, and Gleyber Torres hit a sac fly to plate Verdugo.

That would end the Yankee scoring — although they knocked out Dylan Cease in the 6th on consecutive 2-out singles by Oswaldo Cabrera and Anthony Volpe.

4. Weaver Good for 2

Luke Weaver pitched a shutout 7th, then allowed a 1-out homer to Fernando Tatis Jr.in the 8th, and a walk to Jurickson Profar — but got consecutive groundouts to end the inning — the last one a terrific play by Oswaldo Cabrera at 3rd. Yanks up 4-1.

5. Holmes the Save

The 9th was a filthy Clay Holmes: a 3-pitch strikeout of David Peralta, a groundout by Merrill on the 3rd pitch, and 1st pitch groundout by Luis Campusano for the old ballgame.

Etcetera

Judge is now slashing 17-39-.280 (.413 OPS) with a 1.050 OPS. He is now tied for the Major League lead in Homers (with Gunnar Henderson and Kyle Tucker) and vaults over Shohei Ohtani to take over the Major League lead in OPS.

Anthony Volpe is now slashing 6-23-.282 (.353 OBP).

The Boxscore

https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore/_/gameId/401569252

 

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