Aaron Judge hits moonshots quite often.
On Sunday, he turned to a wall scraper to stay red-hot.
Judge hit his 13th home run of the year into the short porch of the right field seats to cap off the Yankees’ 7-2 victory over the White Sox.
The two-run slice was a 339-foot shot that could only have come at Yankee Stadium, and was Judge’s seventh home run in his past 13 games, according to Statcast.
He scored an outside cutter from White Sox right-hander Chris Flexen to turn things around in the fifth inning.
“I told him after a few minutes, I was like, ‘I think you’re the only guy who can hit the ball like that,'” manager Aaron Boone said. “He held the ground very well, so he had some power behind it. But I thought it was going to be pretty impressive.”
Judge’s 13 home runs tie him with Shohei Ohtani for third in the majors, behind Gunnar Henderson and Kyle Tucker’s 15 each.
Eight of Judge’s last nine hits have been extra-base hits, all in the last five games.
After a quiet start to the season, Judge is currently hitting .389 with a 1.405 OPS over his past 21 games.
Tommy Kahnle pitched for Double-A Somerset on Sunday, but his next appearance should be with the Yankees.
The relief pitcher made his fifth and likely final rehab appearance Sunday, pitching another perfect inning with two strikeouts. Boone said Kahnle will likely be taken off injured reserve Wednesday as long as he stays healthy and recovers.
Kahnle came back from a slow start during the offseason and spring training due to shoulder issues, and did not allow a runner while striking out 11 in five innings during his rehab period.
DJ LeMahieu (non-displaced foot fracture) started his second rehab game against Somerset on Sunday, playing five innings at third base and going 1-for-1 with three walks and one RBI. The veteran will appear in back-to-back games on Tuesday and Wednesday (possibly against Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre), then potentially play a three-game stretch from Friday through Sunday before being ready to rejoin the Yankees.
Gerrit Cole finished Saturday’s 40-pitch bullpen session feeling good Sunday morning. He could play catch on Monday and face hitters on Tuesday or Wednesday.
Anthony Volpe hit a leadoff double in the first inning, extending his career-high hitting streak to 12 games. …Clay Holmes recorded the final two outs in Sunday’s win, making him 20 games played this season without allowing an earned run.
To commemorate Lewis Gil’s 14 strikeouts on Saturday, Marcus Stroman gave the young right-hander two bottles of wine in the Yankees’ clubhouse Sunday morning. The bottle was from Stroman’s wine label, Le Carenage.
On Sunday night, the Yankees reinstated Oswaldo Peraza (shoulder) from a rehab assignment, returning him from the disabled list and optioning him to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
