Aaron Judge hit his major league-best 48th homer and homered for the third straight game as the host New York Yankees recorded a 6-0 victory over the Cleveland Guardians on Thursday afternoon.
It was Judge’s sixth homer in his past seven games along with his 13th in his past 24 contests. It marked the third straight time Judge homered in three straight games this season.
The Yankees padded their lead in the fifth against Williams and reliever Nick Sandlin after Judge drew his 16th intentional walk of the season.
With runners at first and second after Juan Soto avoided hitting into a double play, Judge saw two pitches from Sandlin before getting put on to load the bases.
Austin Wells made it 2-0 by lining a sacrifice fly to center field to score rookie Ben Rice. Giancarlo Stanton extended the lead to 5-0 by lifting a full-count offering over the center-field fence for his 21st homer and 423rd career homer.
Gerrit Cole (5-2) allowed one hit in six innings and survived tying a career-worst by allowing five walks to become the fourth active pitcher to reach 150 career wins. Cole, who allowed a single to Steven Kwan on the game’s second pitch, joined Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer and Clayton Kershaw on the active pitcher list.
Cole stranded Kwan at third by retiring Josh Naylor to end the first, retired Naylor with two on to end the third and got a double play on rookie Jhonkensy Noel to end the sixth after issuing consecutive walks.
Rice added a sacrifice fly in the eighth as the Yankees won for the 15th time in their past 23 games following a 10-23 skid from June 15-July 26.
Cleveland fell to 6-12 in its past 18 games since holding a six-game lead atop the AL Central following its 8-4 win over the Baltimore Orioles on Aug. 2. The Guardians were one-hit for the second time this season and blanked for the 13th time.
Williams allowed three runs on four hits in 4 1/3 innings. Williams struck out five, walked four and was lifted after Soto hit into a forceout ahead of Judge’s latest homer.