Gleyber Torres hit a leadoff home run, and Aaron Judge made a great defensive play as the New York Yankees defeated the Washington Nationals 5-2 on Monday night, marking the major league debut of highly regarded Nationals prospect Dylan Crews.
Judge also got his 1,000th career hit as the Yankees won for the fifth time in their last six games, moving two games ahead of idle Baltimore in the AL East. Austin Wells and Jazz Chisholm Jr. also hit home runs for the Yankees, supporting Nestor Cortes (8-10).
Anthony Volpe had a double and two singles, scoring twice on sacrifice flies by DJ LeMahieu. Alex Verdugo also had three hits.
“Coming out of the homestand, starting the road trip, throwing an early punch there right away, that was big,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said about Torres’ home run.
“He’s obviously doing a great job in the leadoff spot. I feel like that first at-bat, he’s not sacrificing aggression, but he’s also having a lot of long, patient at-bats. That was a good strike there to grab us a lead.”
Crews, the third-ranked prospect in baseball, batted second for Washington and went 0 for 3 with a walk. He struck out with two runners in scoring position in the sixth.
The highly touted outfielder was drafted second overall last year out of LSU.
“It was an awesome feeling to go out there for the first time and compete with the guys,” Crews said. “Obviously, we didn’t end up winning today, but tomorrow we’re going to come out swinging.”
Torres hit his second home run in two games — his first two in August — to start the first inning. His 12th home run of the year was a 366-foot line drive down the left-field line off Mitchell Parker, marking his second leadoff home run this season.
Torres has reached base safely in 21 straight games, just one game short of his longest streak, which he set in 2019.
Wells hit his 10th home run off reliever Tanner Rainey in the sixth inning. Chisholm added his 21st of the season in the eighth.
Clay Holmes pitched a perfect ninth inning for his 28th save. The Yankees have won 42 road games this year, the most in the majors.
Judge singled to right field in the ninth inning for his 1,000th career hit, becoming the 42nd Yankees player to reach this milestone and the first since Brett Gardner in 2017.
“It’s a great accomplishment,” Judge said. “It’s a blessing to play in this game long enough to get that milestone — but more work to be done.”
The star slugger also made an impressive catch against the left-center wall to rob cleanup hitter Andrés Chaparro of a home run. Judge and Torres then completed a double play, getting James Wood out at first base with a great relay to end the fourth inning.
“Judge, we’ll call it his 52nd homer of the year,” Boone said. “He’s really good at this stuff. The night they keep him in the ballpark, he takes one back from the other side. Just a little reminder of how many other things he does well.”
Cortes (8-10) gave up one run on four hits with five strikeouts and two walks over 6 2/3 innings on 91 pitches. He stopped the Nationals’ best chance to get back in the game by striking out the side in the sixth inning, including Chaparro to end the inning.
“Was able to execute down and away real well for that at-bat,” Cortes said. “I don’t think I go as long in the game as I did if it wasn’t for those amazing catches that were made out there.”
Parker (7-8) allowed two runs and five hits in four innings, with five strikeouts.
Juan Yepez and Jacob Young homered for the Nationals, who have lost eight of their last 12 games.
