Aaron Judge carries Yankees to sweep of As with AL East magic number down to one
OAKLAND, Calif.— In his final game at the Coliseum, Aaron Judge played emperor, with the Yankees’ takeover of the East nearly complete.Taking the field for the last time at a stadium that holds special meaning for him — before the A’s bolt for Sacramento and eventually Las Vegas — the Northern California native added another chapter to his special season.Judge crushed a home run for the second straight day — extending his major league lead to 55 — added a double that keyed a rally, and scored another run to send the Yankees to a sweep of the A’s with a 7-4 win in front of 24,663 on Sunday afternoon.Jasson Dominguez and Gleyber Torres also homered as the Yankees (92-64) flew home on the verge of winning the division.
After an off day Monday, they will need just one win over the Orioles during their three-game series that begins Tuesday in The Bronx to clinch the AL East.The Yankees will enter the series leading the Orioles by a season-high six games with six games to play, their magic number to win the division down to one.Things got interesting late Sunday as Clay Holmes entered in the eighth inning to protect a 6-4 lead and put the first two runners on before recording an out.Aaron Boone then called on Luke Weaver, who struck out a pair to get out of the jam and finished off the five-out save in the ninth — his fourth of the season.The win capped off a 5-1 road trip as the Yankees went 12-3 across their two West Coast swings this season.Luis Gil was not his sharpest version Sunday, giving up four runs on five hits and three walks across 5 ¹/₃ innings.
He left with a pair of runners on in the sixth inning and a 5-2 lead, but both runs came around to score when Ian Hamilton gave up a double to pinch hitter Ryan Noda.But the Yankees gave Gil enough run support to record his 15th win, with Judge (2-for-3, two walks) having a lot to do with that.It was a 2-2 game in the third inning when Judge, a native of Linden, Calif.(roughly 80 miles from the...