The only thing better than having a healthy Aaron Judge back is combining that with the unsightly A’s being in town.
Judge returned from a stint on the injured list and drove in a pair of runs in Tuesday’s 10-5 win over Oakland, and as Aaron Boone said before the game, just having the reigning American League MVP back would lengthen the lineup.
Against the historically bad A’s, though, the Yankees probably could have gotten by with whoever was in the dugout, as they scored seven or more runs for a third straight game.
The offensive output helped the Yankees overcome three homers from Oakland’s Jordan Diaz.
Clarke Schmidt pitched a career-high six innings and Clay Holmes finished it, as the Yankees used a five-run third inning and two-run homers from Gleyber Torres and Jake Bauers to improve to 20-17.
It was their fifth win in their last seven games, while Oakland fell to an almost unfathomable 8-29.
The Yankees will try to finish the sweep Wednesday afternoon in The Bronx.
Gleyber Torres accepts congratulations from teammates after belting a two-run homer in the fifth inning of the Yankees’ 10-5 win over the A’s in the return of Aaron Judge. Robert Sabo for NY Post“It’s definitely nice,’’ Boone said of securing a series win. “Every series is big and any time you can grab wins throughout a season, it’s important.”
This one should come with an asterisk.
Coming off a game in which they’d hit a season-high four homers, the Yankees took control of this one with five runs in the third, despite not having an extra-base hit in the inning.
Jose Trevino and Aaron Hicks, at the bottom of the order, drew back-to-back four-pitch walks to lead off the third against right-hander Drew Rucinski.
Jake Bauers hits a two-run homer in the seventh inning of the Yankees’ victory. Robert Sabo for NY Post
Jace Peterson then botched Judge’s grounder at third, allowing Hicks to get to second, as Trevino scored to tie the game.
Anthony Rizzo’s RBI single to right drove in Hicks to put the Yankees ahead, 2-1 and Torres’ base hit up the middle drove in another run.
A Harrison Bader single scored another run and Bauers followed with a sacrifice fly for a 5-1 lead.
“We got that big inning early and not necessarily with a lot of hard contact,’’ Boone said. “Guys put it in play and we manufactured some runs there.”
Schmidt had been fairly ragged through his first six starts, with a 5.83 ERA.
With Luis Severino’s return potentially on the horizon, Schmidt gave up just a pair of runs on five hits and two walks in what the right-hander and Boone considered to be an encouraging outing.
Albert Abreu tried to make things interesting by allowing Diaz’s second homer of the game to open the seventh.
The A’s loaded the bases with two outs in the inning on a liner by Brent Rooker off Wandy Peralta that drilled umpire Laz Diaz and went for a hit.
Clarke Schmidt, who allowed two runs in six innings, picked up his first win of the season. Robert Sabo for NY PostPeralta got pinch-hitter Jesus Aguilar to ground to third to end the threat, but the Yankee bullpen wasn’t done playing with fire, as Greg Weissert was unable to close out the game.
After giving up a two-run homer to Diaz in the eighth, Weissert allowed the first two batters to reach in the top of the ninth, forcing Boone to go to Holmes, who responded with strikeouts of Rooker and Aguilar.
He walked Shea Langeliers before getting Tony Kemp to end it.
Boone noted afterward that even without a hit, Judge impacted the game, just missing a homer to center in his first at-bat, driving in two and drawing a walk.
“He looked good,’’ Boone said. “He looked normal.”
On Tuesday, so did the Yankees, who are still trying to get out of last place.
