CINCINNATI (AP) — Aaron Judge hit his seventh home run in seven games and the New York Yankees beat the Cincinnati Reds 6-2 on Friday night.
Anthony Rizzo also homered for the surging Yankees, who improved to 9-3 in their last 12 games.
Judge, who received a standing ovation from the many Yankees fans in attendance following his pregame batting session, wasted little time making his presence felt in the teams’ first meeting in Cincinnati since 2017. The reigning AL MVP took the fifth pitch he saw from Reds starter Ben Lively (1-2) 431 feet to center field for his 13th home run of the season.
It was Judge’s only hit of the night, but he has homered in five of the last seven games — including hitting two in two games during that stretch.
With New York still leading 1-0 lead before the bottom half of the fifth inning, all four umpires administered a foreign substance check on Yankees starter Clarke Schmidt (2-4). The umpires allowed Schmidt to stay on the mound after he appeared to clean off his glove hand.
But Reds manager David Bell was ejected while disputing the umpires’ decision to allow Schmidt to continue his scoreless outing. Cincinnati had just three hits off Schmidt at that point.
Yankees pitcher Domingo Germán was suspended for 10 games Wednesday by Major League Baseball and fined for violating the sport’s prohibition of foreign substances on the mound.
RAYS 1, BREWERS 0
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Francisco Mejía had an eighth-inning sacrifice fly and major league-leading Tampa Bay beat Milwaukee.
Luke Raley was hit by a pitch from Peter Strzelecki (2-3) leading off the eighth. Raley stole second, went to third on catcher William Contreras’ throwing error and came home on Mejía’s fly to left.
Jason Adam (1-1) struck out Willy Adames to end the eighth with Owen Miller on third. Peter Fairbanks worked the ninth for his fourth save, stranding a runner at third. Tampa Bay (33-13), coming off a 4-6 trip, improved to 20-3 at home.
Rays ace Shane McClanahan failed in his bid to become the majors' first eight-game winner despite seven shutout innings. He had seven strikeouts and dropped his ERA from 2.34 to 2.05.
PIRATES 13, DIAMONDBACKS 3
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Ke’Bryan Hayes had three hits and three RBIs, Bryan Reynolds homered for the first time in six weeks and drove in four runs and Pittsburgh rolled over Arizona ace Zac Gallen.
Gallen (6-2) lasted just 3 2/3 innings and allowed a career-high eight runs – five earned – and eight hits as his six-game winning streak ended. He walked four and struck out two. Gallen had given up a total of six runs in his previous seven starts.
Andrew McCutchen, Ji Hwan Bae and Josh Palacios also had three hits apiece as part of the Pirates’ 17-hit outburst. Johan Oviedo (3-3) won for the first time in five starts.
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