Aaron Judge homered in consecutive at-bats as the New York Yankees beat the visiting Cleveland Guardians 4-1 on Friday night.
Judge dominated the opener of a three-game series, helping New York win for the third time in four games.
He recorded his 17th career multi-homer game and also made a key defensive play in center field. Judge hit a two-run homer with two outs in the third inning off Cleveland starter Eli Morgan (1-1) and a solo drive with one out in the fifth off Tanner Tully.
Isiah Kiner-Falefa added an RBI single for the Yankees.
Franmil Reyes homered for Cleveland, which scored 19 runs in a three-game sweep of the visiting Chicago White Sox before coming to New York. Jose Ramirez went 0-for-4 to end his season-opening, 12-game hitting streak.
New York’s Jameson Taillon (1-1) allowed one run and seven hits in five innings. The right-hander struck out five, walked none and threw 84 pitches.
Michael King followed Taillon and fanned eight in three scoreless innings. He struck out seven straight hitters to end his outing and whiffed Ramirez and Reyes to end the eighth.
Aroldis Chapman fanned two in a scoreless ninth to record his fourth save.
Morgan, who beat Yankee ace Gerrit Cole on Sept. 19 in New York, gave up two runs on one hit in three innings. He walked two and struck out five.
Judge gave the Yankees a 2-0 lead when he followed a two-out walk to DJ LeMahieu by hitting a 3-1 fastball into the New York bullpen beyond the right-center-field fence.
Cleveland scored when Reyes drilled a first-pitch fastball into the right field seats in the fourth.
New York opened a 3-1 lead in the bottom of the fourth. With runners at first and third, Kiner-Falefa lined a single to left.
Cleveland threatened in the fifth when Andres Gimenez opened the inning by diving into first base for an infield single. Two batters later, Gimenez hesitated at second and got thrown out at third by Judge on Steven Kwan’s single, and Taillon then retired Ramirez on a fly ball.
Judge made it 4-1 when he lifted a full-count fastball from Tully into the right field seats for his third homer of the season.
–Field Level Media
