Aaron Judge hits 3 home runs, Yankees snap 9-game losing skid hours after GM called season a ‘disaster’

Ryan Young

Aaron Judge’s rally came at the perfect time for the New York Yankees.

Granted, it's too late to save their season, but it ended their worst losing streak in more than four decades.

Judge hit three home runs to lead the Yankees to a 9-1 win over the Washington Nationals on Wednesday. It marked the first three-homer game of his career, and he matched his career high of six RBI in the win.

Judge got the night started early. He hit a solo shot right away off Nationals starter MacKenzie Gore to get New York on the board in the first inning.

Just an inning later, he cleared the bases with his fifth career grand slam.

He hit a deep ball out through center field to score Everson Pereira, Kyle Higashioka and Oswald Peraza. That put the Yankees up 6-0.

In the seventh, Judge got his third and final home run — this time with a shot over the right-field wall.

Judge now has 32 multi-home-run games in his career. He is hitting .279 with 27 home runs and 54 RBI in 72 games this season. He missed about eight weeks due to a sprained right toe sustained by running into a fence at Dodger Stadium, though he returned to the lineup late last month.

Aaron Judge lifted the Yankees to a 9-1 win over the Washington Nationals on Wednesday night.
Aaron Judge lifted the Yankees to a 9-1 win over the Washington Nationals on Wednesday. (Mike Stobe/Getty Images) (Mike Stobe via Getty Images)

Yankees pitcher Luis Severino allowed a single hit in nearly seven innings on the mound Wednesday and picked up his first win after dropping four straight. The Nationals’ lone run came in the ninth, when Dominic Smith hit a solo home run of his own.

The Yankees had lost nine straight games before Wednesday’s win, marking the franchise’s longest losing streak since 1982.

Judge’s home run flurry came just a few hours after longtime general manager Brian Cashman called the season a “disaster.”

“It’s been a disaster this season. It’s definitely a shock,” he said. “I don’t think anybody on our side of the fence, from our player group, from our coaches, our manager or even outside of the organization would’ve predicted this.”

The Yankees entered Wednesday with a 60-65 record, which had them last in the AL East. They’re 9.5 games back of the last AL wild-card spot. They haven’t finished below .500 since 1992 and haven’t missed the playoffs since 2016.

While Judge’s outing was incredible and ended a historic losing skid, at this point, it’s probably not enough to turn the Yankees’ season around.

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