This time, the Red Sox actually went after Aaron Judge.
In three feisty at-bats, Rich Hill pumped the zone with strikes and challenged the Yankees’ great to beat him. With high-80s cutters and big, loopy curveballs, the 42-year-old Hill found a way to stall the 30-year-old Judge and keep him at bay.
Judge never got his historic hit and will remain stuck at 60 home runs, one shy of Roger Maris for the American League record, for at least one more day.
Despite holding Judge in the park once again, the Red Sox were outlasted by the Yankees in a 5-4 loss in the Bronx.
From the first pitch of the night, Hill looked locked in on a plan to attack Judge on the upper-outside part of the plate, where Judge tends to make less contact than any of the other four quadrants. Hill attacked him over and over in that spot to lead off the bottom of the first inning, throwing five of six pitches in the upper-outer quadrant. The final two, a pair of cutters spotted on the corner, struck him out swinging.
Working with a 1-0 lead thanks to a first-inning home run by Tommy Pham, Hill was out-dueling Gerrit Cole until the third inning, when Aaron Hicks got a hanging curve over the center of the plate and shattered it for a solo shot.
It was 1-1 until the fifth, when Hicks hit an RBI single to put the Yankees ahead. That brought up Judge with two men on and a chance at history.
Hill once again attacked him, getting ahead quickly with a changeup high, cutter low and then struck him out on a curveball in the dirt that made Judge look silly.
But for as good as Hill looked against the best hitter on the planet, he got handled by Gleyber Torres for a two-run double later in the inning. A cutter got smoked down the left-field line and was mishandled by Pham, allowing two runs to score easily.
The Sox jumped back into it on a big swing by Alex Verdugo in the sixth. Kiké Hernandez was on second after a double and Rafael Devers drew a walk to bring up Verdugo, who got a 2-2 fastball right over the plate and launched it for a three-run shot that tied the game, 4-4.
It was Verdugo’s 10th home run of the year, just shy of the 12 home runs he hit last year, as the Red Sox continue to wonder how impactful the 26-year-old corner outfielder will be. He’s posted a .765 OPS in parts of three years since being acquired from the Dodgers in the Mookie Betts trade. And he’s under team control for two more years, making him a potential cornerstone piece if the Sox choose to keep him around.
Verdugo’s homer was so upsetting to Cole that the pitcher got himself thrown out of the game at the end of the inning while arguing with home plate umpire Brian Knight over a previous pitch to Verdugo, a 1-2 fastball just beneath the zone. Cole was certain it was a strike, though the MLB Statcast data revealed that it was indeed a ball, and Knight immediately tossed him when Cole walked towards him to argue. Yankees manager Aaron Boone was also ejected while trying to protect Cole.
Judge got another chance to make history in the seventh, when the Sox turned to hard-throwing right-hander Kaleb Ort. Ort came right after him with a 100-mph fastball down and inside, a sweet spot for Judge, and the slugger hit a missile up the middle at 113 mph off the bat for a single.
Ort escaped the jam and the game stayed tied until the eighth, when Matt Strahm made a crucial mistake.
With two outs, Strahm walked the speedy Harrison Bader on four pitches. Expecting Bader to take off, Strahm attempted a pickoff at first base at the same time Bader was trying to steal second. It might’ve worked had Strahm not made an errant throw towards Triston Casas, allowing Bader to get all the way to third on the error.
The very next batter, Jose Trevino, is one of the game’s best with runners in scoring position. He smoked a single up the middle and Bader scored the eventual game-winning run.
The Red Sox threatened in the ninth inning when J.D. Martinez and Casas hit back-to-back singles, but pinch-hitter Abraham Almonte was called out on a terrible strike-three call by Knight, then Reese McGuire grounded out to first to end the game.
The Sox are now just 6-11 against the Yankees this year, although 10 of the 17 games have been decided by just one run.
Judge will get another chance at history on Saturday afternoon, when Nick Pivetta takes the mound against Domingo German for a 1:05 p.m. start at Yankee Stadium.
