Aaron Judge hit his major league-leading 55th home run of the season, while Gleyber Torres and Jasson Domínguez also homered, leading the Yankees to a 7-4 victory over the Oakland Athletics on Sunday.
This win completed a three-game sweep and brought New York closer to an AL East title.
The Yankees (92-64) are already guaranteed a playoff spot and can clinch the division with just one win against second-place Baltimore (86-70) in a three-game series that starts Tuesday night in the Bronx.
New York now holds a two-game lead over Cleveland for home-field advantage throughout the AL playoffs.
“Hopefully it’s rocking,” manager Aaron Boone said about the expected atmosphere at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday.
Judge, who was drafted by the A’s in 2010 and comes from the California Central Valley, homered in both of his last games at the Coliseum. He received a warm welcome from the large group of Yankees fans present when he took the field and again when he rounded the bases after his solo home run to center in the third inning.
The A’s will be moving to Sacramento next season before planning to relocate to Las Vegas in 2028. They have one more series at the Coliseum against the Texas Rangers starting on Tuesday, drawing 24,663 fans for the final game against the Yankees on Sunday.
Boone gave the game ball to Judge, who reached base four times and scored two runs. Judge expressed sadness about the A’s leaving Oakland, sharing memories from his time as a player and as a child visiting the Coliseum.
“There’s a lot of history in this building,” Judge said. “You can go back to the ‘70s, what they were able to do here three years in a row. A lot of special players played here, and just getting a chance to be on that same field and do some things — it’s definitely something I won’t forget.”
Judge already holds the AL single-season home run record with 62, set in 2022, and has now surpassed Babe Ruth (1920, 1928), Mickey Mantle (1961), and Alex Rodriguez (2007) for the fifth-most home runs in Yankees franchise history. He has given the Yankees a lead with a home run 23 times this season.
