Judge homers again to lift Yankees over Padres

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Aaron Judge hit another long home run at Petco Park, Marcus Stroman pitched six strong innings to keep the Yankees' pitching hot streak going and New York won its second straight against the San Diego Padres, 4-1 on Saturday night.

Judge's two-run shot off Dylan Cease (5-4) with one out in the first went 429 feet into the second deck in left-center. It was the Yankees' fifth home run this series, for a total of 2,089 feet.

Judge has homered in four straight games and has 17 this season to tie Baltimore's Gunnar Henderson and Houston's Kyle Tucker for the major league lead. Anthony Volpe was aboard on a leadoff single.

“That ball was absolutely hammered,” manager Aaron Boone said. "I thought Cease was really good for them. You felt like he was on and Judgey just drops the hammer there in the first inning to give us a lead.

“What Aaron's doing is what the greats do from time to time.”

The Yankees hit four home runs in an 8-0 win Friday night, including consecutive shots by Juan Soto — in his first game in San Diego since the Padres traded him to New York on Dec. 7 — and Judge.

“This is impressive what this lineup is doing and what this pitching staff is doing,” Judge said. “I think it all comes down to trying to make sure I do my job, getting on base for the guys behind me and when guys are on base try to drive them in, because what Volpe's been doing in the leadoff spot has been incredible. It's fun to watch.”

Asked about Judge, Stroman said it's "watching greatness, you know. Sometimes you can kind of take it for granted, to be honest. But this is something I'll be sitting with my grandkids at some point, saying I got the opportunity to play with Aaron Judge and Juan Soto and Gerrit Cole, because those are going to be three of the best players, I think, to ever play this game.

"Just very thankful and grateful to be a part of this team.”

The AL East-leading Yankees have won four straight and 11 of 13.

The Padres were in danger of being shut out for the third straight home game and for the fourth time in six games overall until Fernando Tatis Jr. homered to center field with one out in the eighth off Luke Weaver. It was his ninth.

The Padres had won six of seven series coming in, but have now lost two straight home series. They were swept by the Colorado Rockies on May 13-15.

Stroman (4-2) won his fifth straight start against San Diego dating to 2019. He held the Padres to three hits in six scoreless innings, struck out five and walked one.

For the first time in franchise history, Yankees starters have thrown at least five innings and allowed two or fewer runs in 13 straight games.

“It's been fun. The other starters have been incredible. It creates this flow of energy,” Stroman said. “Each guy kind of hands it off to the next guy and we're all expecting each other to be great. We're all doing this without having the best pitcher in baseball, Cole, who we're all dying to get back.”

Until Tatis' homer, the Padres' best scoring chance came when Jake Cronenworth hit a leadoff triple to right in the fourth. Stroman got Manny Machado to fly out to left, too shallow to bring in Cronenworth. David Peralta flied out to shallow left and rookie Jackson Merrill struck out to end the threat.

Clay Holmes pitched a perfect ninth for his 15th save.

Anthony Rizzo, who began his big league career with the Padres in 2011, hit an RBI single in the fourth and Gleyber Torres followed with a sacrifice fly.

Cease allowed four runs and eight hits in 6 2/3 innings, struck out nine and walked none.

TRAINER'S ROOM

Yankees: Placed INF Jon Berti on the 10-day injured list with a left calf strain a day after he collapsed in pain just a few steps out of the batter’s box. Selected INF Kevin Smith from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. Transferred INF DJ LeMahieu to the 60-day injured list.

UP NEXT

Yankees RHP Clarke Schmidt (5-2, 2.59 ERA) and Padres RHP Joe Musgrove (3-4, 5.93 ERA) are scheduled to start the series finale on Sunday.

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB