Aaron Judge hit his major-league-leading 48th home run, and Gerrit Cole allowed just one hit in six innings to become the fourth active pitcher to reach 150 career wins as the New York Yankees defeated the Cleveland Guardians 6-0 on Thursday.
Judge homered for the third consecutive game and is on track to finish with 61 home runs, just two years after hitting 62 to break Roger Maris’ single-season American League record. He has homered six times in his last seven games, seven times in his last 10 games, and 13 times in his last 23 games.
“I guess we’re on the pace portion of the season,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “Look, anything’s possible with him. I think he just wants to be great every day and help us win. So nothing would surprise me.”
Judge hit 49 home runs in his first 128 games in 2022 and is the only Yankee to have at least 48 home runs through that point in multiple seasons. He joins Sammy Sosa (1998, 1999, 2001) and Mark McGwire (1998, 1999) as the third player in baseball history with at least 48 home runs through 128 games in multiple seasons.
He also has 44 home runs in his last 90 games since April 27, when he batted .197 in the first month. Two years ago, Judge hit just one home run in his first 13 games.
“If it comes with a ring and a lot of fun in the playoffs, then definitely that’d be cool,” Judge said about the possibility of reaching 60 home runs for the second time.
Judge hit his latest home run on a 2-1 changeup from Cleveland starter Gavin Williams (2-6), sending it to the right-field seats. The 360-foot drive marked the fourth time this season Judge has homered in three straight games and the 14th time in his career.
“What a wonderful experience to have him on my team and be around him,” Cole said.
Cole (5-2) allowed a single to Steven Kwan on his second pitch and struggled with command at times. He tied a career worst by issuing five walks, struck out two, and got eight outs on the ground, including a double play by rookie Jhonkensy Noel to end the sixth inning.
Cole reached 150 career wins in his 311th start, joining Justin Verlander (260), Max Scherzer (216), and Clayton Kershaw (212) as the only active pitchers with this milestone.
“I grew up when they were important and widely viewed as important by everybody I would say,” Cole said. “To me it’s one of the stats that everybody has a hand in. So it’s really about your teammates and how often you take the field and play well together.”
The Yankees scored four runs in the fifth inning after Judge received his 16th intentional walk of the season. After seeing two sliders well outside the strike zone from Nick Sandlin, Judge took his ninth intentional walk in 18 games this month, which loaded the bases.
Austin Wells then hit a sacrifice fly, and Giancarlo Stanton followed with a three-run homer that just cleared the center-field fence. It was the 10th time this season that Judge and Stanton homered in the same game and the 41st time in the regular season.
Tim Hill, Luke Weaver, and Michael Tonkin combined for three innings of perfect pitching, helping the Yankees achieve their 10th shutout of the season.
According to the Elias Sports Bureau, this was the first time in team history that the Yankees allowed a hit to the first batter but no more hits for the rest of the game.
Williams gave up three runs and four hits in 4 1/3 innings and became the 231st different pitcher to allow a home run to Judge. “You can’t make bad pitches to them,” Williams said. “They hit your mistakes.”
Cleveland lost for the fifth time in six games. The Guardians scored once and had five hits in the final two games of the series after scoring six runs in the 12th inning for a 9-5 win on Tuesday.
“It was just a tough week,” Cleveland manager Stephen Vogt said. “We had a tough road trip offensively.” The Guardians were one-hit for the second time this season and shut out for the 13th time.
José Ramírez drew two of his three walks against Cole and stole his 30th base, becoming the first Guardian with multiple 30-30 seasons.
