Aaron Judge’s rally came at the absolute perfect time for the New York Yankees.
It may be too late to save their season, but it ended their worst losing streak in more than four decades.
Judge hit three home runs to lead the Yankees to a 9-1 win over the Washington Nationals on Wednesday night. It marked the first three-home run game of his career, and he matched his career-high of six RBI in the win.
The victory, and the end of the losing streak, is almost entirely because of him.
Judge got the night started early. He hit a solo shot right away off Nationals starter MacKenzie Gore to get them on the board.
Then just an inning later, Judge cleared the bases with his fifth career grand slam. He hit a deep ball out through center field to hit in Everson Pereira, Kyle Higashioka and Oswald Peraza. That put the Yankees up 6-0.
Then in the seventh, Judge got his third and final home run — this time with a shot out over the right field wall.
Judge now has 32 multi-home run games in his career. He is hitting .279 with 27 home runs and 54 RBI in 72 games this season. He missed about eight weeks due to a sprained right toe he first , though he returned to the lineup late last month.
Yankees pitcher Luis Severino allowed just a single hit in nearly seven innings on the mound on Wednesday night, and picked up his first win after dropping four straight. The Nationals’ lone run of the night came in the ninth when Dominic Smith hit a solo home run of his own.
Judge’s home run flurry came just a few hours after longtime general manager Brian Cashman called the season a “disaster.”
“It’s been a disaster this season. It’s definitely a shock,” he said. “I don’t think anybody on our side of the fence, from our player group, from our coaches, our manager or even outside of the organization would’ve predicted this.”
The Yankees entered Wednesday’s game with a 60-65 record, which had them in last in the AL East. They’re 9.5 games back from the last AL Wild Card spot, too. They had lost nine straight games before Wednesday’s win, which was the franchise’s longest losing streak since 1982. The Yankees haven’t finished below .500 since 1992, and haven’t missed the playoffs since 2016.
While Judge’s outing was incredible, and ended their historic losing skid, it’s probably not enough to turn the Yankees’ season around at this point. They’re likely too far gone.