NEW YORK (AP) — Aaron Judge homered twice and drove in three runs and Juan Soto hit a two-run homer in the first inning and drove in five to power the New York Yankees to an 8-1 rout over the Cleveland Guardians on Wednesday night.
Judge hit a two-run homer in the third and added a solo shot in the seventh, upping his major league-leading total to 47. Judge has six homers in his last nine games, 12 in his last 23 games and is on pace to hit 60 home runs.
Judge had his fourth multi-homer game this season and it was the slugger’s 38th career multi-homer game.
Soto hit his career-high 36th homer on rookie Joey Cantillo’s sixth pitch, a 2-2 offering he sent onto the netting above Monument Park in center field. He eclipsed his career best set last season with San Diego.
Soto homered for the eighth time in nine games, a stretch that began with his three-homer game last week in Chicago against the White Sox.
Judge and Soto homered in the same game for the second straight game and 11th time overall. The Yankees improved to 9-2 this season when the powerful duo go deep in the same game.
Soto tied a season high with five RBIs for the second time and followed his homer with a bases-clearing double in the fourth.
Soto reached three times and walked ahead of Judge’s two-run shot in the third.
Nestor Cortes (7-10) pitched seven innings of four-hit ball and gave New York some much-needed length after the Yankees used every reliever Tuesday. The lefty won consecutive starts for the first time since May 17 and 22.
In his fourth career start, Cantillo (0-3) allowed seven runs and six hits in four innings. He was one strike away from getting out of the fourth before Soto doubled.
Rookie Jhonkensy Noel homered in the eighth off Tim Mazya as Cleveland lost for the 11th time in 17 games and pulled Steven Kwan and Jose Ramírez after batting in the seventh.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Yankees: RHP Luis Gil (strained lower back) was placed on the injured list after exiting in the fourth inning Tuesday. … RHP Clarke Schmidt (strained right lat), out since May 27, will begin a rehab assignment Friday for Double-A Somerset. … 3B Jazz Chisholm Jr. (sprained left elbow) took batting practice on the field for the first time since going on the IL a week ago. … 1B Anthony Rizzo (broken right forearm) took batting practice on the field.
UP NEXT
New York RHP Gerrit Cole (4-2, 4.15 ERA) makes his first attempt at becoming the fourth active pitcher to reach 150 career wins and opposes Cleveland RHP Gavin Williams (2-5, 5.02) on Thursday afternoon.
RANGERS 1,
PIRATES 0
ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Rookie Wyatt Langford’s single scored pinch-runner Ezequiel Duran with two out in the ninth inning, giving the Texas Rangers a 1-0 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Wednesday.
Jonah Heim and Adolis García singled off David Bednar (3-6) to open Texas’ half of the ninth. Duran, running for Heim, advanced to third on a flyout to deep right field by Nathaniel Lowe. Bednar struck out Josh Jung on a 3-2 fastball after García stole second base.
Langford then laced an RBI single to center field on a 2-1 curve.
The Rangers, who have dropped from third in the majors in runs last year en route to winning the World Series to 18th, had been 0 for 9 with runners in scoring position before Langford’s single.
“Anytime you’re in that situation you want to get a big hit,” Langford said. “It was cool to come through.”
The winning run ended a streak of 22 scoreless innings in the series for the Rangers, who claimed two of three games against the Pirates and ended a string of seven consecutive lost series.
Kirby Yates (5-2) pitched a perfect ninth inning for the Rangers, who have won three of their last four games.
Rangers starter Andrew Heaney worked five scoreless innings, allowing five hits and one walk while striking out eight. The 33-year-old left-hander entered the game with an MLB-leading 13 losses and the eighth-lowest run support among AL qualifiers at 3.84 per game. He received no run support Wednesday.
“Good stuff. Location. Poise, which he usually has with men on base,” Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said of Heaney. “The record’s not indicative of how he’s been throwing the ball.”
Pittsburgh’s Domingo Germán pitched six scoreless innings, giving up three singles and four walks in his first major league start this year. Germán, who pitched a perfect game for the New York Yankees in June 2023, made three relief appearances for Pittsburgh after being recalled on Aug. 9 from Triple-A Indianapolis.
“The last start he had was Aug. 3, so for him to give us six innings was outstanding,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “He really did a good job of keeping them off balance.”
The Pirates went 0 for 6 with runners in scoring position, left 10 runners on and struck out 16 times.
“Had some opportunities. Had the bases loaded twice,” Shelton said. “We just didn’t get a hit that we needed to break the game open.”
Pittsburgh put its first two hitters aboard in the seventh on singles by Yasmani Grandal and pinch-hitter Billy McKinney. With the infield in, Kiner-Falefa faked a bunt and lined to first baseman Lowe, who beat McKinney back to the bag for an unassisted double play. Bryan Reynolds struck out to end the threat.
“That ball’s one foot or six inches right or left and all of a sudden we have a double and we scored two runs,” Shelton said.
