


The only thing better than having a healthy Aaron Judge back is having the unsightly A’s in town.
Judge returned from a stint on the injured list and drove in a pair of runs in Tuesday’s 10-5 win over Oakland, and as Aaron Boone said before the game, just having the reigning American League MVP back would lengthen the lineup.
Against the historically bad A’s, though, the Yankees probably could have gotten by with whoever was in the dugout, as they scored seven or more runs for a third straight game.
It helped the Yankees overcome three homers from Oakland’s Jordan Diaz.
Clarke Schmidt was solid for six innings and Clay Holmes finished it, as the Yankees used a five-run third inning and two-run homers from Gleyber Torres and Jake Bauers to improve to 20-17.
It was their fifth win in their last seven games, while Oakland fell to an almost unfathomable 8-29.
The Yankees will try to finish the sweep Wednesday afternoon in The Bronx.
Coming off a game in which they’d hit a season-high four homers, the Yankees took control of this one with five runs in the third, despite not having an extra-base hit in the inning.
Jose Trevino and Aaron Hicks, at the bottom of the order, drew back-to-back four-pitch walks to lead off the third against right-hander Drew Rucinski.
Anthony Volpe flied out to deep left-center to move Trevino to third for Judge.
Jace Peterson then botched Judge’s grounder at third, allowing Hicks to get to second, as Trevino scored to tie the game.
Anthony Rizzo’s RBI single to right drove in Hicks to put the Yankees ahead, 2-1, and Torres’ base hit up the middle drove in another run.
A Harrison Bader single scored another run and Bauers followed with a sacrifice fly for a 5-1 lead.
Schmidt gave a run back on a solo homer to Diaz in the fourth before Torres provided some insurance with a two-run blast in the fifth.
Albert Abreu allowed a solo homer to Diaz in the seventh and the A’s loaded the bases with two outs in the inning on a liner by Brent Rooker off Wandy Peralta that drilled umpire Laz Diaz and went for a hit.
Peralta got pinch-hitter Jesus Aguilar to ground to third to end the threat.
Schmidt had been fairly ragged through his first six starts, with a 5.83 ERA. He was dominant early on, however, striking out a pair in a nine-pitch first inning.
The hapless A’s lived up to their reputation in the bottom of the inning, as Esteury Ruiz and JJ Bleday botched Rizzo’s routine fly ball to right-center, allowing Rizzo to get to second.
But Torres flied out to end the inning.
Schmidt walked Bleday on four pitches to lead off the second and Shea Langeliers singled through the right side of the infield.
With runners on the corners and two out, Peterson dunked a run-scoring single to right to give Oakland a 1-0 lead. The runners advanced to second and third on a wild pitch before Schmidt got Nick Allen to fly out to end the inning.
A two-out double to right by Bleday in the third sent Rooker to third. The A’s squandered the scoring chance, as Langeliers went down looking to strand two more.