Judge's 2nd-chance blast sets tone on big night for Yanks' bats

NEW YORK -- Whenever Aaron Judge and Juan Soto hit home runs in a game, good things happen for the Yankees. That was the case Wednesday night in a 7-3 victory over the Athletics at Yankee Stadium.

With the victory, the Yankees are 8-1 when either Judge or Soto hits a home run. It also marked the first time Judge and Soto hit a home run in the same game for the Bronx Bombers.

How does manager Aaron Boone feel when Judge and Soto are firing on all cylinders -- and in the same game?

“I feel warm and fuzzy inside. Kind of like some hot chocolate on a cold day,” Boone joked after the game. “It was great. I don’t think it will be the last time those two will homer together.”

Judge, who was hitting .180 before the game, smoked the ball starting in the first inning. With Soto on first base, it looked like A’s right-hander Joe Boyle struck Judge out looking, but third-base umpire John Tumpane called a balk on Boyle, which gave Judge another chance in the batter’s box.

Judge was on his way to the dugout when Soto told Judge to get back in the batter’s box.

“It was a quick pitch,” Judge said. “I didn’t know what was going on. It was more Soto waving, 'Hey, go back. Go back.' The rules are the rules.”

Judge swung at the next pitch and hit a two-run homer over the right-field wall to give New York a 2-0 lead. The blast was No. 261 of his career, passing Derek Jeter for ninth place on the Yankees' all-time home run list.

“[The home run] is special," Judge said. "Derek had an amazing career. He has done so many great things for this organization. I hope I can do the same.”

As for Boyle, it was an outing to forget. He lasted just three innings and threw 85 pitches.

“Poor pitch selection [to Judge]. He kind of just got a free pitch that he got to see. It is what it is. You learn from it and move on,” Boyle said. “The pitch clock was running down. I probably should have stepped off. I tried to squeeze a pitch in and felt like I stopped. Obviously, [the umpire] saw differently. I haven’t watched the video yet, so I don’t really know what it looks like.”

Judge ended up going 2-for-5 in the game. But he said his swing is not back to where it should be.

“It’s always a work in progress,” Judge said. "I was happy to add two [runs] in the first. The boys took care of the rest. It was a great swing from everybody all night.”

In the fourth inning, Soto had a hand in the Yankees scoring two runs. After reaching base on a bunt single, Austin Wells scored all the way from first on a triple by Anthony Volpe. Soto followed and drove in Volpe with a sacrifice fly to center fielder JJ Bleday.

By the fifth inning, the Yankees had a 5-0 lead, thanks to a solo shot by Anthony Rizzo.

But Oakland made it a game in the sixth inning when Brent Rooker hit a three-run homer off right-hander Clarke Schmidt.

The Yankees added to the lead in the bottom of the sixth, when Soto hit a solo shot over the center-field wall off A’s right-hander Dany Jiménez.

“Judge got us going tonight. Juan had a good answer back after the Rooker three-run homer to give us some breathing room there,” Boone said.

In the seventh inning, with left-hander Kyle Muller on the mound, Giancarlo Stanton scored on a sacrifice fly by Alex Verdugo.

Schmidt won his second game of the year, and he is pleased to have Judge and Soto on his side.

“When those two are going like that, it’s obviously a special lineup,” Schmidt said. “We’ve seen it from Soto, and now Judge is getting going. … He has had a lot of good ABs recently. You can see he is starting to get going a little bit. It's going to be a lot of fun watching them both go like this.”