LOS ANGELES — Aaron Judge delivered with his bat and his glove Saturday to help propel the New York Yankees, hitting his 19th homer and later making a spectacular running catch at the fence in a 6-3 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Judge, the reigning AL MVP, put a line drive into the short left-field porch in the sixth inning for the Yankees, who rebounded from an 8-4 loss Friday night in the opener of the high-profile interleague series.
The homer, off Dodgers reliever Shelby Miller, traveled only 360 feet, but Judge’s 113.7 mph line drive got into the low stands before left fielder David Peralta could attempt to make a play on it.
Then in the eighth, Judge might have saved a run for the Yankees with his sprinting catch on J.D. Martinez‘s liner into the right field corner with Max Muncy on first base and nobody out. Judge made the catch an instant before running into the bullpen door, which came partly open when he hit it.
Judge hung onto the ball and stayed upright while putting one foot in the bullpen, but Muncy was allowed to advance to second apparently because Judge technically left the field of play. Yankees manager Aaron Boone briefly argued the umpires’ decision to send Muncy to second.
The Yankees led 5-3 at the time of Judge’s catch, and reliever Michael King retired the Dodgers’ next two batters to send this high-profile interleague matchup to the ninth inning.
Yankees right-hander Gerrit Cole (7-0) was sharp back in his native Southern California, striking out five with two walks and only allowing a run on David Peralta’s bloop RBI single. He was pulled after a season-low 80 pitches, apparently due to cramping.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.