NEW YORK — Aaron Judge added to his MLB-leading home run total for the third time in the past six games, his team added to the best record in the majors for the first time in four days, and the New York Yankees beat the Atlanta Braves 8-3 on Saturday night to end a three-game losing streak.
Judge hit his 28th homer of 2024, and he totaled three RBIs to push his season total in that category to 70, which also leads Major League Baseball.
In addition, Juan Soto reached base four times on a single and three walks, and pitcher Marcus Stroman won for the fifth time in six decisions to help pick up the Yankees (52-27), who had lost five of their previous six games while being outscored a combined 51-23 during that stretch.
“It’s just one game, but that’s what we’ve got to do,” Judge said. “Any time you hit a couple tough skids right there, you’ve got to understand it’s a long season but every game matters.”
The Yankees pushed their lead in the American League East Division to 1 1/2 games over the second-place Baltimore Orioles (49-27).
Atlanta (42-32) had won seven of its previous eight games, including an 8-1 victory Friday night to open the three-game interleague series in New York, which was both the Braves’ fourth straight victory this season and their fourth straight victory in meetings with the Yankees. The Braves are second in the National League East standings, now seven games behind the Philadelphia Phillies (50-26), with Atlanta seeking its seventh straight division title.
Meanwhile, New York’s Giancarlo Stanton doubled off the center-field wall in the fourth inning Saturday but later winced when he rounded third base on Gleyber Torres’ double, which gave the Yankees a 4-1 lead. Trent Grisham pinch hit for Stanton in the sixth, and the Yankees said the oft-injured 34-year-old slugger had tightness in his left hamstring and will have medical imaging on Sunday.
Stanton appeared to be walking gingerly as he left the clubhouse.
“He’s in pretty good spirits,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “Obviously he’s dealt with these kind of things in the past. So hopefully it’s not something that keeps him down too long.”
Stanton arrived in spring training slimmer after missing 266 games the previous five seasons due to biceps, knee, hamstring, quadriceps, ankle and Achilles’ tendon injuries. He played in 69 of the Yankees’ first 79 games this season and is hitting .246 with 18 homers and 45 RBIs.
“He’s been having an incredible year. I think he’s been very consistent,” Stroman said.
Boone was ejected by Derek Thomas after Stroman started yelling at the plate umpire about a ball-four call with Atlanta designated hitter Marcell Ozuna leading off the seventh. Boone screamed at Thomas from the dugout and was ejected for the fourth time this season and for the 37th time in seven seasons as Yankees manager.
“I get it, I carried on a little bit,” Boone said. “But it just felt like there was some pitches at the top of the zone that we should have had.”
Ozuna homered in the first off Stroman (7-3), who allowed three runs, three hits and two walks in 6 2/3 innings. Atlanta batters were 0-for-9 on Stroman’s slider, and he got all six of his strikeouts on the pinch.
Ozuna’s homer was his 21st of the season.
Judge followed Soto’s walk in the bottom half by homering off Charlie Morton (4-4) for a 2-1 lead. It was Judge’s 22nd homer in the past 42 games, and he has 11 first-inning homers this season for the Yankees, who lead the majors with 63 first-inning runs.
“He works the count, did a great job getting on first,” Judge said of Soto, “and then my job is to try to keep the line moving. Getting the chance to get those two runs and give us back the lead, that’s the game plan right there.”
Judge’s 28 homers in his first 77 games leaves him just one homer behind his 77-game pace in 2022, when he set an AL record with 62 round-trippers.
“He’s on another historic run,” Stroman said.
Judge hit into a run-scoring double play in the third and drew a bases-loaded walk from Aaron Bummer in New York’s three-run sixth. Oswaldo Cabrera had a two-run single and Grisham had an opposite-field homer to left in the seventh against Atlanta’s Jesse Chavez.
Travis d’Arnaud chased Stroman with a two-run shot, the Braves catcher’s seventh home run of the season, but the Atlanta lineup totaled just four hits.
Braves pitchers walked eight batters, matching their season high. Morton gave up five runs, five hits and five walks in 5 2/3 innings.
“Even when he left the game, we were only down three,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “Felt pretty good right there. Just couldn’t stop the bleeding in the sixth.”
The series wraps up Sunday afternoon with both teams starting left-handed pitchers. It’s Nestor Cortes (4-5, 3.36 ERA) for the Yankees and Max Fried (6-3, 3.11 ERA) for the Braves.