ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Aaron Judge hit his major league-leading 26th and 27th home runs, Jose Trevino delivered a two-run shot that put New York ahead in the eighth inning and the Yankees beat the Tampa Bay Rays 5-4 on Wednesday night.
Judge’s 22nd career multi-homer game helped the Yankees come back from a 4-1 deficit after Isaac Paredes hit his fourth home run in two games for the Rays.
Clarke Schmidt (4-2) got the win and Clay Holmes pitched a scoreless ninth for his 12th save in 13 attempts.
The win was the 18th in 21 games for the Yankees, who maintained a 12-game lead in the AL East.
“It was a huge series win,” said Trevino, who had two of New York’s seven hits. “These guys are a good team. We come in here and we take two out of three from ’em.”
Trevino’s sixth home run provided the Yankees with their winning margin, but it was a defensive play the catcher made in the fourth that turned the game around. The Rays were up 4-1 and had the bases loaded when third baseman Josh Donaldson snuck behind Taylor Walls, and a perfect pickoff throw from Trevino ended the inning.
“That was a shot in the arm,” manager Aaron Boone said. “That was just one of those complete, turn-the-tables, pick-me-up plays.”
“I was just trying to get (pitcher Jordan Montgomery) out of the inning,” Trevino said.
“It was huge getting us out of the inning that way,” said Montgomery, “and it gave us a lot of energy, I guess.”
Tampa Bay lost for the eighth time in 11 games, and in dropping two of three to the rival Yankees lost a fourth straight series for the first time since August 2017.
Paredes, who homered three times in the Rays’ 5-4 win Tuesday night, hit his ninth homer of the season leading off the second against Montgomery. Vidal…