Aaron Judge hit his major league-leading 58th home run, going deep for the fifth game in a row, helping the New York Yankees secure their second AL East title in three years with a 10-1 win over the Baltimore Orioles on Thursday night.
Giancarlo Stanton had four RBIs, including his 27th homer, while Alex Verdugo also homered. Gerrit Cole outperformed Corbin Burnes in what could be a preview of the postseason.
Judge and Stanton hit homers in the same game for the 14th time this year, tying Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris in 1961 for the most in Yankees history.
New York guaranteed itself a first-round bye and home-field advantage in the best-of-five AL Division Series starting on October 5.
“Coming up short last year, it stings,” Judge said. “It hurts just like any other year that you don’t win a World Series, but that one hurt a little bit more. So we wanted to make a statement, come back here and put ourselves in a good position going into the postseason.”
Baltimore secured a postseason spot by winning Tuesday night’s game in the three-game series and will play in a best-of-three Wild Card Series starting Tuesday.
“They played better than us in the second half and we’re excited to be in the playoffs,” said Orioles manager Brandon Hyde. “We still have some work to do, but give them credit for playing well.”
Stanton hit a homer in the second inning to give the Yankees the lead and added a three-run double during a six-run sixth inning.
Judge hit a two-run homer in the seventh inning against Bryan Baker and now has 144 RBIs, the most in the majors since Ryan Howard’s 146 in 2008. Judge matched his career high by homering in five straight games.
In his last start before the playoffs, Cole (8-5) allowed just two hits in 6 2/3 innings, striking out five and walking one, lowering his ERA to 3.41.
He struck out Anthony Santander with a 98.1 mph fastball to end the eighth inning after the plate umpire called a ball on a previous pitch that seemed to be just above the strike zone. Cole glared at the umpire as he walked back to the dugout.
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