Only minutes removed from the Yankees’ sixth consecutive loss and their 16th defeat in their last 22 games, Aaron Judge was asked if the sorry streak had begun to take a toll on the team on Saturday.
The Yankees’ captain only needed one word to answer the question.
“No,” Judge replied, sticking to the even-keel, everything will be fine approach that the Yankees, for better or worse, have publicly preached throughout yet another summer swoon.
Some of the Bombers’ issues continued on Sunday, but their losing streak did not. It wasn’t always pretty, but they beat the Mets, 6-4, in the regular season’s Subway Series finale.
Judge played a central role in snapping the losing streak, going 1-for-4 with three RBI and a web gem before finishing the day with a .360 average and a 1.202 OPS.
The slugger’s largest contribution came in the fifth inning. With the Yankees already up 3-0 thanks to an Austin Wells homer in the third and some station-to-station scoring in the fourth, Judge followed a leadoff double from Paul Goldschmidt with a home run to left-center field.
The blast off Brandon Waddell gave Judge 33 homers for the season and put him two behind Seattle catcher Cal Raleigh for the major league lead.
Judge’s latest longball also padded a lead that the Yankees nearly squandered, as the Mets totaled four runs between the fifth and sixth innings. Some porous defense from the Yankees — a common theme lately — assisted their crosstown rivals, but Judge paused that trend when he laid out to catch a Starling Marte line drive to end the sixth with the tying run on third.
The right fielder then drove a deep sac fly to left in the seventh. That gave the Yankees a much-needed insurance run with their bullpen struggling lately.
A highlight reel play from Cody Bellinger helped secure the win, as the left fielder started a double play with a shoestring catch in the bottom of the seventh.
With the Yankees having salvaged a sloppy Subway Series, the team will now head back to the Bronx for a six-game homestand before the All-Star break. That stretch will begin with Raleigh’s Mariners, though Judge will be more focused on chasing wins than the home run race with his club recently falling out of first place.
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