Yanks ride Soto again as Judge drought continues

NEW YORK — Juan Soto, one half of the New York Yankees‘ historic offensive tandem, added another memorable highlight to his 2024 reel Thursday night, delivering a walk-off single in a crucial 2-1, 10-inning win over the Boston Red Sox one night after blasting an electrifying home run on a throbbing foot.

The other half, meanwhile, is mired in an unusually long home run drought.

After nearly four months of mashing home runs at an unreal clip, Aaron Judge was held inside the ballpark for a 16th straight game. Judge has been stuck on a major league-leading 51 home runs since launching two against the Colorado Rockies on Aug. 25.

The American League MVP frontrunner extended his career-long homerless streak by going 1-for-4 with a single and some bad luck. Judge hit two flyouts at 99.9 mph — one traveled 381 feet to center field at Yankee Stadium — and smashed a 104.7 mph one-hopper that Red Sox third baseman Rafael Devers snagged to initiate a double play. Judge’s single — at 88.1 mph — was his weakest-hit ball of the night.

“He’s got 51 homers,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “And tonight, just missed one. Pummeled a ball that Devers made an unbelievable play on. Turning that ball into a double play was about as good a play as you’ll see. So, I mean, look, homers, even for guys like that, they still come in bunches and you’re going to have those stretches. I guess it’s amazing that he has avoided those, but that’s just testament to how good of a hitter and how much power he has.”

Since Aug. 26, Judge has posted a slash line of .207/.352/.259. The 16-game sample resembles Judge’s slow start to the season; the 32-year-old center fielder was slashing .200/.336/.392 with six home runs in 34 games through May 3.

Then Judge was tossed from a game two days later for the first time in his career. In the 94 games after the ejection, through Aug. 25, Judge’s stat line was obscene. He batted .382 with 45 home runs, 103 RBI and a 1.379 OPS in 420 plate appearances.

Teams went from pitching around him to avoiding him entirely with treatment not seen since Barry Bonds’ heyday. And yet he still compiled nine home runs in the 10 games before Aug. 26, putting him on pace to break his own AL home run record (62).

Since then, nothing.

“You guys saw what happened in April. He struggled a little bit and then he went on a tear. He probably needs to get thrown out again,” Nestor Cortes said jokingly. “On a serious note, Judge is going to come out again and then he’s going to be the guy for us.”

Soto has been the guy for the Yankees the past two nights.

On Wednesday, the right fielder belted a go-ahead, two-run home run against the Kansas City Royals two pitches after fouling a ball off the top of his right foot that dropped him down to his knees. The Yankees eventually won the game 4-3 in 11 innings on a walk-off hit from Jazz Chisholm Jr.

It was Soto’s turn for the walk-off heroics Thursday after the Yankees bullpen held the Red Sox scoreless over five innings. Leading off the 10th inning with a designated runner at second base, Soto, who later admitted that his right foot tightened up throughout the game, cracked a 2-2 sinker from Josh Winckowski through the infield to score Jon Berti and finish off a rivalry game with an October vibe.

“We all know how fun October is,” Soto said. “I think we’re carrying that in the last month of the season and try to take it all the way to November.”

It was Soto’s first walk-off hit in pinstripes as the Yankees (85-62) doubled their lead on the Baltimore Orioles in the AL East standings to two games and moved ahead of the Cleveland Guardians for the best record in the AL.

For more than two weeks, they’ve managed to position themselves ahead of their competition without a home run from their captain. History suggests it’s only a matter of time before that changes.