Aaron Judge hit a go-ahead grand slam in the seventh inning to snap a career-high 16-game homerless drought as the host New York Yankees rallied for a 5-4 victory over the Boston Red Sox on Friday night.
Judge hit his major league-leading 52nd homer when he lifted a 2-0 fastball from Cam Booser (2-3) into the left field seats to give the Yankees a 5-4 lead. It was Judge’s first homer since he hit two Aug. 25. He leads the majors with 130 RBIs.
Judge’s eighth career grand slam propelled the Yankees (86-62) three games ahead of Baltimore atop the American League East after the Orioles lost 1-0 at the Detroit Tigers earlier Friday.
Before Judge homered, the Yankees crept to within 4-1 on a base hit by Gleyber Torres off Zack Kelly, who started the inning by walking Anthony Volpe and Alex Verdugo.
New York reliever Luke Weaver fanned five over the final two innings for his second save.
Mark Leiter Jr. (4-5) allowed a two-run homer to Trevor Story that put the Yankees in a 4-0 hole in the top of the seventh. He retired Rafael Devers to end the frame before New York surged back for its 11th win this season when trailing after six innings.
Masataka Yoshida hit a two-run homer in the sixth inning off Clarke Schmidt to give the Red Sox a 2-0 lead, but Boston saw its road losing streak reach seven games.
Schmidt allowed two runs on five hits in his second game back from a lat strain that sidelined him over three months. The right-hander struck out five and walked one.
Boston rookie Richard Fitts was pressed into his second career start when originally scheduled starter Tanner Houck was scratched because of right shoulder fatigue shortly before first pitch.
Houck has not pitched since facing the New York Mets on Sept. 4.
After allowing two unearned runs in 5 2/3 innings in his major league debut Sunday against the Chicago White Sox, Fitts surrendered two hits to Anthony Rizzo and in five innings on Friday. Fitts walked three and struck out two.
The Yankees drafted Fitts in 2021 before trading him and reliever Greg Weissert to Boston for Verdugo last December.
–Field Level Media
