Bryce Harper and Aaron Judge recently reached 350 career homers, not that the impressive milestones have kept their respective teams in first place of their divisions.
While Harper and the Philadelphia Phillies are in striking distance of first place in the National League East, Judge and the New York Yankees have some work to do in their quest at returning to the top of the American League East.
The teams clash Friday night when the Phillies visit the Yankees for the opener of a three-game series.
Since June 18, the Phillies have lost their grip only briefly, with the most recent happening Wednesday when they fell a half-game back of the New York Mets.
After the Mets beat the Los Angeles Angels on Wednesday afternoon, the Phillies were unable to complete a three-game sweep of the visiting Boston Red Sox and fell 9-8 in 11 innings.
Harper hit back-to-back home runs with Kyle Schwarber in the first inning to become the youngest active player to reach 350. He is hitting .323 (20-for-62) with five home runs and eight RBIs in 16 games this month.
The Phillies squandered a five-run lead when the Red Sox scored six in the fifth inning. The Red Sox had just three total runs over the first two contests of the three-game series.
“The offense was good tonight,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said after his team took its second loss in 18 games this season when scoring at least eight runs. “The bullpen was good. That fifth inning was just a killer, that’s all.”
The Yankees still are trying to regain the form that led them to a 16-4 run in May that gave them a 35-20 record and seven-game lead atop the AL East. Since May 30, they are 21-26.
New York is returning from a 3-3 road trip through Atlanta and Toronto after the break. After taking two of three from the Braves, the Yankees struggled defensively and lost twice to the Blue Jays. They trailed by four games in the AL East heading into MLB play Thursday.
On Wednesday, Judge hit his 37th homer and 352nd of his career, but the Yankees committed four errors in an 8-4 loss. The Yankees made seven errors in the series, including two by shortstop Anthony Volpe.
Jasson Dominguez, Jazz Chisholm Jr, Ben Rice and Max Fried committed errors resulting in a pair of unearned runs. It marked the third straight game the Yankees allowed at least two unearned runs and seventh time overall.
“We haven’t been playing that well on defense,” Judge said. “We’ve got a lot of things we’ve got to clean up.”
Said manager Aaron Boone: “Giving them extra outs, whether it’s through making an error or not making a play that we need to make, that’s cost us in these two series up here. We’ve got to obviously tighten it up.”
An improved defense would help Yankees rookie right-hander Will Warren (6-5, 4.91), who is coming off his shortest outing since May 31. Warren last pitched on Saturday when he allowed five runs in 3 2/3 innings before the Yankees rallied for a 12-9 win in Atlanta.
Warren’s lone previous start against the Phillies was his major league debut in 2024 when he allowed four runs on four hits in 5 1/3 innings at Philadelphia.
Right-hander Taijuan Walker (3-5, 3.75) will make his third start since rejoining Philadelphia’s rotation. He is 2-4 with a 3.77 ERA in his 10 starts this season.
After allowing one run in four innings July 8 at San Francisco, he allowed three runs on nine hits in four innings during a 9-5 win over the Angels on Saturday. Walker is 2-4 with a 4.47 ERA in nine career starts against the Yankees.
–Field Level Media
