New York’s Aaron Judge celebrates after hitting his 54th home run of the season on Sunday in the Yankees’ 2-1 against the Rays in St. Petersburg, Florida. Scott Audette/Associated Press
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Aaron Judge led off the game with his major league-leading 53rd homer and the New York Yankees stopped the Tampa Bay Rays 2-1 Sunday to avoid a three-game sweep.
Judge set a career high for homers, topping the 52 he hit as a rookie in 2017. He also doubled, singled and scored both New York runs.
Frankie Montas (5-11) allowed one hit over five shutout innings as the AL East-leading Yankees increased their lead to five games over Tampa Bay. The Rays trailed by 15 1/2 games on July 10.
Down 2-0, Tampa Bay tried to rally in the ninth against Clay Holmes, the fourth Yankees reliever. David Peralta led off with his second double of the game and scored on a one-out single by pinch-hitter Francisco Mejia.
Jonathan Aranda doubled with two outs before Holmes struck out Yandy Díaz looking at a 3-2 pitch for his 18th save. Díaz had already tossed his bat aside and was headed toward first base when plate umpire Vic Carapazza called strike three. Díaz slammed his batting helmet to the ground.
Yankees Manager Aaron Boone was ejected in the fifth inning by Carapazza for arguing after Tampa Bay’s Taylor Walls reached on catcher’s interference.
The benches briefly emptied when Josh Donaldson took issue after a 3-0 pitch from Rays opener Shawn Armstrong was up-and-in leading off the second. Donaldson barked at the right-hander, but there were no significant incidents.
Judge connected on the second pitch of the game from Armstrong (2-2), sending a drive into the left-field stands. The slugger, who had a ninth-inning homer in Saturday’s 2-1 loss to the Rays, flied out to the edge of the warning track in center with two on to end the eighth.
ASTROS 9, ANGELS 1: Jose Altuve had three hits and drove in three runs and José Urquidy pitched four-hit ball over seven innings as Houston won in Anaheim, California.
Mike Trout helped the Angels avert a shutout with his 29th home run, a solo shot to center in the eighth inning off Astros’ reliever Brandon Bielak.
Reigning AL MVP Shohei Ohtani was given the day off by Angels interim manager Phil Nevin. The Japanese two-way phenom allowed only one run in eight innings during Saturday’s 2-1 victory over the Astros in 12 innings, but had gone 2 for 12 at the plate in his last three games.
ATHLETICS 5, ORIOLES 0: Seth Brown hit a pair of solo homers, rookie Adrián Martínez threw six innings of three-hit ball and Oakland stalled Baltimore playoff surge with a win in Baltimore.
The Orioles, who snapped a four-game winning streak, fell 2 1/2 games behind Toronto in the race for the American League’s third wild-card spot and play a four-game series with the Blue Jays beginning Monday.
TWINS 5, WHITE SOX 1: Carlos Correa homered for Minnesota and Dylan Bundy shut down Chicago once again, helping the Twins beat the White Sox in Chicago.
Jose Miranda added a two-run double in the ninth inning as Minnesota salvaged the finale of the weekend series. Max Kepler scored on Kendall Graveman’s wild pitch in the eighth, and Jhoan Duran turned in some impressive relief work.
ROYALS 3, TIGERS 2: Bobby Witt Jr.’s eighth-inning double drove in the go-ahead run and Kansas City won in Detroit.
MJ Melendez scored a run and drove in another while Michael A. Taylor had three hits and scored a run. Witt reached base three times.
Winning pitcher Dylan Coleman (4-1) pitched 1 1/3 innings of scoreless relief. Scott Barlow collected his 21st save.
NATIONAL LEAGUE
CARDINALS 2, CUBS 0: Albert Pujols collected home run No. 695 in the eighth inning and Miles Mikolas tossed eight shutout innings to lead St. Louis to a win at home.
Pujols drilled the two-run pinch-hit shot off of reliever Brandon Hughes (2-2).
A future Hall of Famer, Pujols trails only Barry Bonds (762), Hank Aaron (755), Babe Ruth (714) and Alex Rodriguez (696) on the all-time list.
Puols has seven pinch-hit homers in his career, and two this season. He has homered against 451 different pitcher, an all-time record.
BRAVES 7, MARLINS 1: Max Fried allowed no hits in five scoreless innings, Marcell Ozuna homered and Atlanta won its fifth straight in a rain-delayed game, beating Miami in Atlanta.
The defending World Series champion Braves have taken five in a row and 20 of 25 to move a season-high 33 games over .500. They are within one game of first place in the NL East after the New York Mets lost their second straight to Washington.
Atlanta is 61-24 since June 1, best in the majors over that span.
Fried (13-5) didn’t allow a baserunner, retiring 12 in a row, until Nick Fortes walked to begin the fifth. Fortes was erased as a double play ended the inning before a rain delay of 1 hour, 51 minutes.
NATIONALS 7, METS 1: César Hernández hit his first homer in more than a year Sunday, delivering the exclamation point on Washington’s win in New York.
The last-place Nationals also beat the NL East leaders 7-1 on Saturday night, and took two of three in the series.
Luis García had an RBI single in the first inning, then the Nationals scored four unearned runs against Carlos Carrasco (13-6) in the third after second baseman Jeff McNeil’s error led to two-run singles by Keibert Ruiz and Ildemaro Vargas.
REDS, ROCKIES SPLIT: Aristides Aquino hit his first career grand slam an inning after entering as an injury replacement and host Cincinnati beat Colorado 10-0 to split a doubleheader.
The Rockies won the opener 8-4. Charlie Blackmon’s pinch-hit, two-run single highlighted a four-run seventh and C.J. Cron hit his 25th homer.
DIAMONDBACKS 5, BREWERS 1: Zac Gallen tied the major-league record with his sixth consecutive scoreless start, leading Arizona to a victory in Phoenix.
Gallen (11-2) extended his scoreless streak to 41 1/3 innings. He allowed only two singles and a walk in seven innings. He struck out seven and retired the last 11 batters he faced.
Gallen tied Don Drysdale (1968), Orel Hershiser (1988) and Zack Greinke (2015), all with the Los Angeles Dodgers, by not allowing a run in his sixth straight start. Hershiser set the MLB record with 59 consecutive scoreless innings.
GIANTS 5, PHILLIES 3: Wilmer Flores hit a two-run homer with two outs in the ninth inning and San Francisco won at home for a three-game sweep of Philadelphia.
The wild card-contending Phillies lost for the sixth time in seven games, wrapping up their weeklong trip to Arizona and San Francisco. Monday will mark the club’s first Labor Day off in 24 years, since 1998.
Rookie Bryce Johnson, who got his first major league hit and RBI earlier in the game, drew a leadoff walk in the Giants ninth. David Robertson (3-2) struck out the next two batters before Flores hit his 17th home run.
INTERLEAGUE
BLUE JAYS 4, PIRATES 3: Teoscar Hernandez delivered the go-ahead RBI single in the seventh inning and Toronto on in Pittsburgh to complete a three-game sweep.
Hernandez lined a shot up the middle against Duane Underwood Jr. (1-5) with two outs to push Toronto in front and the bullpen did the rest. The Blue Jays improved to a season-best 14 games over .500 (73-59) to maintain their hold on the third and final wild-card spot in the American League.
NOTES
YANKEES: Outfielder Andrew Benintendi has a broken bone in his right wrist that will need surgery, but Manager Aaron Boone said he didn’t know whether it was a season-ending injury.
Boone revealed the diagnosis of a broken hook hamate bone after the AL East leaders beat Tampa Bay 2-1 on Sunday. Benintendi will be further examined by doctors Monday back in New York.
TWINS: Minnesota put right-hander Tyler Mahle back on the 15-day injured list, raising questions about their rotation during a difficult stretch.
Mahle left Saturday night’s 13-0 loss at the Chicago White Sox because of shoulder inflammation. He was charged with four runs and five hits in two innings in his fourth start since he was acquired in an Aug. 2 trade with Cincinnati.
METS: Ace Max Scherzer said he was feeling fine, a day after he exited after a start after five innings because of fatigue on his left side.
The three-time Cy Young Award winner remained on schedule to start Friday night for NL East-leading New York at Miami.
Scherzer missed almost seven weeks earlier this season with a left oblique injury.
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