TORONTO — The Yankees go into the Rogers Centre Monday night time with two numbers hanging over their heads. The first and most evident, was 61. Aaron Judge is one dwelling run away from reaching the single-season American League and Yankee file set 61 years in the past by Roger Maris. The different was two. The Bombers want any mixture of two Yankees’ wins or Blue Jays’ losses to clinch their first American League East title since 2019.
“We’re obviously excited for that win, to clinch but I think the ultimate goal is not clinching the division,” Nestor Cortes stated Sunday night time. “The ultimate goal obviously is going to be the World Series so the guys are excited. Obviously we’re looking forward to that game and we’re looking forward to that moment. But there’s a lot of work to do. We just can’t stay back and be complacent right by winning the division. I think we need to keep going out there and keep making that statement.”
For Judge, the plan to win the division, advance within the playoffs and attain the house run file seems to be the identical.
“Stay focused, don’t try to do too much, keep doing what we’ve been doing the past couple days staying aggressive,” Judge stated after Sunday night time’s rain-shortened win over the the Red Sox. “Have quality at-bats, pass a baton the stuff we’ve been doing, you know, all year so, you know, especially when it comes down to crunch time like this, don’t overthink it won’t be where we want to be.”
A win over the Blue Jays provides the Yankees a division title and secures the No. 2 seed within the American League playoffs. That comes with a first-round bye and residential subject benefit within the division sequence. Considering the Yankees brutal August, it’s a aid they’re at this level. It took successful 15 of their final 19 video games to get right here.
“I think as a team, we never panicked,” Cortes Jr. stated. “We never thought that there was a sense of urgency. Even though we were in a tough stretch. But we relied on the guys that were in there. We were obviously the best team the first half, hit a rough patch and obviously I think that when we were in there we said you know the weather will pass and we were just helping out each other and not blaming each other and I think these past 10 or 20 days have been different for us and we’re playing great baseball now and hopefully we’ll continue.”
The Bombers hit 35 homers to energy that run, together with 9 from Judge.
He leads the majors — by a large margin with Kyle Schwarber second with 42 — with 60 homers, however he’s going by a drought. After hitting No. 60 on Tuesday night time, Judge has gone 5 video games with out a dwelling run. He’s solely had a house run drought that lengthy 4 occasions this season.
Every time he got here to bat over the past 5 nights, the sold-out crowd on the Yankees Stadium rose and held up their digital camera telephones, hoping to file historical past. There was an eerie quiet of expectation as every pitch was thrown after which — even for doubles — a groan of disappointment. His household has been within the ballpark because the workforce returned from a street journey to Milwaukee on Tuesday night time and Maris’ household has additionally been there to attend and congratulate Judge if he breaks their father’s file.
It’s been lots, however Judge has continued to downplay it.
“I’ve played in New York for six years now, this is par for the course, especially the playoff games we’ve had, opening days are hectic,” Judge stated. “It’s just it’s just another game to me.”
Judge is 4-for-15 with six walks since his final dwelling run. Monday night time, he faces Blue Jays’ Kevin Gausman, who he has gone 8-for-22 towards with three homers. All of these, nevertheless, got here again in 2017. Judge has solely hit one dwelling run within the Rogers Centre this season. He can be simply 0-for-5 with a stroll towards Gausman this season.
The 30-year outdated who’s enjoying for lots greater than historical past this season goes into Monday’s recreation slashing .238/.314/.444 with three homers and 21 strikeouts towards the Blue Jays this season.
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Source: www.bostonherald.com