Aaron Judge ended it with one swing Sunday night, sending a first-pitch sinker from Kevin Kelly into the second row of the right-center field seats for a two-run homer that lifted the New York Yankees past the Tampa Bay Rays 2-0. It was Judge’s fourth walk-off homer and his first since 2022, a finish that came after Trent Grisham opened the ninth with a walk.
Judge, who had entered the game in a 1-for-24 slide, drove in both runs in the Yankees’ fastest game of the season, a 2-hour, 12-minute victory that gave New York its first win in five tries against Tampa Bay this year. The homer was his 17th of the season and his first since May 10, a sharp turnaround for a hitter who has spent much of the spring carrying the lineup.
The hit mattered because the game had been locked in a pitcher’s duel for eight innings. Ryan Weathers threw seven shutout innings for New York, and Drew Rasmussen matched him with seven scoreless frames for Tampa Bay. The Yankees finally broke through only after Cody Bellinger made a key defensive play with two outs in the eighth, throwing out Junior Caminero at third after Ryan Vilade singled to left with Oliver Dunn at second. Ryan McMahon applied the tag before Dunn crossed the plate, keeping the game tied and setting up Judge’s finish.
Tim Hill later struck out Richie Palacios to strand two runners in the ninth, which kept the Rays from answering before Judge stepped in. He did not miss the first pitch he liked, and the ball carried far enough that it would have been a home run in just three major league ballparks. It was his eighth walk-off hit, another entry in a career that keeps producing late-game damage when New York most needs it.
The Yankees ended a three-game losing streak and improved to five wins in 15 games, a needed snapback after a difficult stretch. Tampa Bay lost for just the fourth time in 17 games, though the defeat still trimmed nothing from the effort it took to reach this point in the standings: the Rays remain in front of the AL East, now by 4 1/2 games over New York. The margin is smaller, but it still leaves the Yankees chasing.
Judge’s homer, which came to the opposite field on an inside-corner sinker, also fits a larger case already being made about his form. One of the most prominent voices in the sport recently hailed Aaron Judge as baseball’s best hitter right now, and Sunday offered another example of why. Even after the slump, the count stayed the same for the Yankees: one pitch, one swing, one game over.
New York now turns the page quickly, with Will Warren set to open a three-game series Monday at Kansas City. Tampa Bay heads to Baltimore on Monday with Shane McClanahan scheduled to start for the Rays, trying to keep a lead that no longer looks as comfortable as it did before Judge’s drive cleared the wall.
