Bronx, NY— Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, and Anthony Rizzo powered the New York Yankees to a 9-8 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays on Saturday night with their impressive home runs in the Bronx.
“Obviously hasn’t got a lot of results before tonight but he’s been in his at-bats,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said of Stanton’s performance. “There’s been some swing and miss in there but there’s been really competitive at-bats. Again, sometimes you’ve got to roll with that with G a little bit.”
Stanton needed a big game, who raised his batting average to .214 with three hits, commented, “Just stay in my lanes a little bit more. I felt like I was coming up out of them on some swings.”
Luke Weaver (3-0) secured the win despite a 6.35 ERA over 5 2/3 innings in three relief outings.
Before a vibrant crowd of 42,250, the Bronx Bombers improved their record to 7-2 and extended their dominance to 32-4 when Judge and Stanton homer in the same game.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. attempted to rally the Blue Jays with a homer in the seventh, but Clay Holmes shut the door for his fourth save.
Kevin Gausman struggled with his fastball velocity, averaging 91.4 mph on a chilly night, down from 94.7 mph in his first start.
“I really don’t look at my velo,” Gausman said. “That’s kind of the running joke: I’m 88 to 98 (mph), so they don’t know what they’re going to get. I don’t know what I’m going to get, either.”
Gausman’s shaky performance allowed the Bombers to take an early lead, with Judge and Stanton capitalizing on his pitches right down the heart of the plate.
New York’s lead extended to 6-0 in the second inning, aided by a video review that reversed what initially seemed like a strikeout into a catcher’s interference call against the Blue Jays.
Yankees right hander Clarke Schmidt held the Blue Jays to two runs in 4 1/3 innings, he didn’t have his best stuff today but had enough stuff to keep the Blue Jays off balance.
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Yankees RHP Luis Gil (0-0, 1.93 ERA) will take on Blue Jays RHP Bowden Francis (0-1, 11.81) in Sunday’s series final game..
