Yankees Highlights: Aaron Judge Saves the Day With Game-Winning HR in 9th

Aaron Judge cranked a homer in the top of the ninth to get the Yankees a win over the Orioles.

That was a close one, wasn’t it? With so many opportunities to score and break the game open, the New York Yankees managed to keep this within reach for the Baltimore Orioles after the rain delay was lifted.

They were stymied by the O’s bullpen, but we all know that can only happen for so long — even when you’re facing the bottom of the order.

Gio Urshela led things off in he top of the ninth with the Yankees down 6-5 and got on base, and then Mike Tauchman flied out. But The Machine DJ LeMahieu came up next and ripped a single into right. That brought Aaron Judge, who wasn’t particularly looking good with the bat tonight, to the plate. He did this for the folks watching at home:

GOODBYE. Absolutely smoked. You need to pick up these wins against the Orioles, and Judge’s bat coming alive in the ninth helped the Yanks keep the morale high going into their weekend series against the Red Sox.

Zack Britton came on to close this one out in the ninth and put the finishing touches on an 8-6 win for the Bombers.

That’s absolutely huge, especially since Jonathan Loaisiga probably shouldn’t have come out for the eighth inning after twirling two spotless frames. Manager Aaron Boone opted to stick with the young righty to preserve the pen and it came back to bite him when Loaisiga hit Anthony Santander with a pitch before giving up a two-run blast to Pedro Severino, which put the O’s in front, 6-5.

The Yankees can thank Judge from bailing them out from some ugly headlines. A rollercoaster game that began with a fast 5-0 start, went sour with JA Happ’s poor outing before the rain threw everything off. Johnny Lasagna looked good, but two mistakes turned it into a stinker before Judge’s three-run homer ruined Cole Sulser and downed the O’s.

A win is a win. Now bring on Boston.