Yankees: Aaron Judge’s hot streak can’t help chase of home-field advantage

The Yankees failed to capture a win vs. the lowly Blue Jays in the chase against the Astros for home-field advantage in the first loss for reliever Tommy Kahnle.

Yankees Aaron Judge continued his recent hot streak of hits and home runs, and J.A. Happ fought through 5.1 innings of fair pitching, but it was not his best stuff by any means.

Judge hit homer No. 25 of the season, and we can only imagine what that number would have been with a completely healthy campaign.

After Happ left with a 3-2 lead, Adam Ottavino closed out the inning with a pair of strikeouts, easily lowering his ERA to 1.82, despite five losses on the season.

With the usual dependability of the Yankee bullpen, a one-run lead still seemed viable, especially with the traditional onslaught of late-inning antics by the Bombers.

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That destiny wasn’t to happen, as the hitters struggled all night to pick up on Blue Jays pitching, other than Judge’s homer and a swat from Taylor Wade, who has watched his batting average climb over the past month — maintaining over a .300 pace.

The Astros defeated the Angels 6-4 on Friday night, thus picking up another game in the race for home-field advantage, putting the Yankees closer to losing out on that powerful weapon, should both clubs make it to the ALCS.

History is filled with series’ where home-field advantage was lost in the first game and became the other team’s advantage.

Therefore, I don’t see this as a big issue — especially since the Yankees starting pitching has improved and strengthened with the return of Luis Severino to the playoff roster.

Certainly, New York has displayed plenty of consistency with hitting this season. The idea that their bats would go cold like last postseason, is futile. I feasibly can predict a shocking sweep of the Astros, but let’s cruise through our first series and focus on winning that one, first.

The Yanks sealed the advantage for the first round, and evidence of their dominance at The Stadium this season is undeniable.