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Though New York Yankees legend Alex Rodriguez gushed about being in awe of Aaron Judge, the Colorado Rockies temporarily stopped the slugger from reaching a major milestone.

After failing to go deep in a fifth straight game, Judge gets his second attempt at reaching 50 homers in a single season for the third time in his nine-year major league career when New York hosts Colorado in the finale of a three-game series on Sunday afternoon.

Judge hit his 49th homer of the year in the sixth inning on Friday. After Rodriguez referred to him as a “unicorn,” Judge grounded into a forceout and flied out before reaching base in his final two plate appearances in the Yankees’ 9-2 loss on Saturday, when New York finished with five hits.

“Aaron is such a unicorn,” Rodriguez said. “I love the game of baseball so much, and I’ve never seen a player quite like him, that looks like an NFL tight end: 6-foot-7, 282 pounds, under 10 percent body fat. The guy is just a specimen.”

Judge is on pace for 61 home runs and had eight homers during an 11-game hitting streak that ended on Saturday. During that stretch, he hit .439 (18-for-41).

Colorado finished with 13 hits on Saturday and is in position to win a road series for just the third time this season. The Rockies are 19-49 away from home in 2024. Their only road series victories occurred May 13-15, when they swept a three-game set against the San Diego Padres, and July 30-Aug. 1, when they took two of three games from the Los Angeles Angels.

Jake Cave, a minor league teammate of Judge’s with the Yankees, had his first career four-hit game on Saturday. In his first action in a week, the veteran outfielder fell a triple shy of the cycle and drove in three runs.

“It’s really cool,” said Cave, who was traded by the Yankees in March 2018, going to the Minnesota Twins for Luis Gil. “Obviously with a little bit of history there, I used to be a Yankee and everything, but anytime you can come into one of these big venues and have a game in front of these types of crowds, that’s what you got to do if you want to play in games in the playoffs, you got to be able to perform in these types of places. It’s definitely special to me.”

Nolan Jones also drove in three runs for Colorado, while Michael Toglia homered, reached base four times and scored four runs.

Austin Gomber (4-8, 4.64 ERA) will get the first crack at Judge and has allowed 28 runs in the first inning this season.

Gomber is attempting to win consecutive starts for the first time this year after allowing one run on three hits in seven innings of a 3-1 win against the Washington Nationals on Tuesday.

The left-hander’s only previous start against the Yankees came on July 14, 2023, when he allowed two runs in six innings to earn a win.

New York will start Marcus Stroman (8-6, 3.82) on extended rest for the third straight time. After a six-start winless skid, Stroman allowed one run on eight hits over 11 innings combined in outings against the Texas Rangers and Detroit Tigers in his past two starts.

The veteran right-hander is 4-2 with a 2.79 ERA in seven career starts against Colorado.

–Field Level Media