Not long after a pregame ceremony to honor the late John Sterling, Aaron Judge delivered another tribute: a Judgian blast.
By the end of the night, with some late piling on — including a six-run eighth inning — and an effective-enough Cam Schlittler, the Yankees were able to reprise Sterling’s most iconic line over the Stadium’s speakers:
Ballgame over! Yankees win! Thuuuuuuh Yankees win!
Judge’s two-run shot in the first inning set the tone for the night as the Yankees went on to finish a four-game sweep of the Orioles with a 12-1 win Monday night in front of 36,802 in The Bronx.
On a day that began with news of Sterling’s death at the age of 87, the Yankees (24-11) paid homage to their longtime legendary radio voice — who was well known for his home run calls — as Judge immediately launched his 14th homer of the season off right-hander Shane Baz. And it was high, it was far, it was gone.
Trent Grisham also drilled a pair of doubles and came around to score both times while Schlittler limited the Orioles (15-20) to just one run across 5 ²/₃ innings as the Yankees won for the 14th time in their past 16 games. Across the four-game sweep, the Yankees outscored the Orioles 39-10.
The Yankees blew the doors off the game in the eighth inning against Lou Trivino, including a two-run single from Judge and a two-run triple from Cody Bellinger to turn it into a laugher.
Judge finished the night 2-for-4 with an intentional walk and four RBIs. While the captain had not exactly gotten red-hot through the first month of the season, he continued to supply the power, and now may be doing both. Judge has homered in back-to-back games, five of his past eight and 11 of his past 21 — now on pace for 65 home runs through 35 games — while batting 11-for-25 (.440) with a 1.563 OPS over his past seven games.
Schlittler issued a season-high three walks, including to the final two batters he faced — the last one forcing in a run with the bases loaded and two outs in the sixth inning, making it a 3-1 game.
But Jake Bird came in from the bullpen and — after being hit for a pitch clock violation before he threw a pitch — struck out Jeremiah Jackson to leave the bases loaded.
Grisham, whose underlying metrics have suggested he has been better than his surface numbers would indicate, was rewarded Monday and sparked a pair of early rallies. He doubled into the gap before Judge homered in the first, then doubled into the gap again with one out in the third, took third base on a bad throw and scored on Bellinger’s sacrifice fly to make it 3-0.
The center fielder also added a strong catch to start the sixth inning —just before Schlittler got into trouble — tracking down a fly ball on the warning track before banging into the wall.
