Aaron Judge walked three times, flew out to the warning track in center field and remained stuck at 60 homers before Josh Donaldson hit a game-ending single in the 10th inning as the host New York Yankees beat the Boston Red Sox 5-4 Thursday night after blowing a three-run lead.
The win clinched a playoff berth for the Yankees (91-58).
Judge walked in his first two plate appearances and then struck out in the fifth with two on to drop to 0-for-15 lifetime against Boston starter Michael Wacha. He drew his third walk of the game in the seventh against John Schreiber before being erased on a double play.
In the ninth, he came up against Matt Barnes and hit a 404-foot fly ball in front of Monument Park in center that Kike Hernandez caught a step in front of the wall.
An inning later, the Yankees picked up their 16th walk-off win of the season when Donaldson slapped an 0-1 pitch to left field did off Kaleb Ort (1-2) to score Gleyber Torres.
Judge reached base for the 21st straight game. His AL-best average remained .316 — two points ahead of Boston shortstop Xander Bogaerts, who was 0-for-5. Boston fell to 72-77.
After Clarke Schmidt allowed a homer to Tristan Casas to open the seventh and a go-ahead three-run homer to Reese McGuire three batters later, Lou Trivino struck out McGuire with the bases loaded in the eighth and Clay Holmes (7-4) pitched two perfect innings to set it up for Donaldson.
Pinch runner Tim Locastro scored the tying run in the eighth on Harrison Bader’s sacrifice fly after Giancarlo Stanton hit an infield single. Kyle Higashioka hit a sacrifice fly in the to open the scoring in the fifth and Stanton hit a two-run homer to give the Yankees a 3-0 lead in the sixth.
New York’s Jameson Taillon allowed four hits in six shutout innings before Schmidt faltered. Taillon struck out eight and walked one.
Wacha allowed three runs on six hits in six innings. The right-hander struck out five and walked four.
After hitting into three double plays through the first four innings, New York loaded the bases on two singles and a walk before Higashioka’s fly ball. After Judge struck out, Anthony Rizzo walked to reload the bases but Wacha fanned Torres to end the fifth.
–Field Level Media