BOSTON — On a night when Aaron Judge again made Yankees history — breaking a tie with Joe DiMaggio and gaining sole possession of fourth place on the franchise’s home run list — Luis Gil made a run at making some history of his own.
But a high pitch count through six no-hit innings prevented the young righthander from going further than that.
Regardless, Judge’s monstrous first-inning homer, a 468-foot shot that cleared Fenway Park’s Green Monster, and Gil’s standout night helped the Yankees get what they most needed and wanted — an important 4-1 victory over the Red Sox in front of a sellout crowd of 36,760.
“I’m in awe,” Jazz Chisholm Jr. said of Judge, who has 362 career homers, including 47 this season. “He’s a special player.”
Judge, who homered twice in Thursday night’s victory over the Tigers, crushed an 0-and-1, 92.5-mph fastball from righthander Lucas Giolito onto Lansdowne Street, which runs parallel to the Green Monster, for his sixth homer in 12 games. It was the longest home run hit at Fenway this season.
“It’s special,” said Judge, who now will chase Lou Gehrig and his 493 homers for third place (Mickey Mantle has 536 and Babe Ruth leads the way with 659). “But just like all those guys in front of me and on the list, they weren’t playing for records, they were playing to win. So I’m just trying to follow in their footsteps. I’m here to win.”
Ben Rice, who had two hits, including an RBI single in the seventh that made it 4-0, said of Judge’s homer: “I mean, that electrified us. We were so excited. Just set the tone for us and got the scoring going, and I felt like from then on, we had the momentum.”
The Yankees (82-65), who improved to 3-8 against the Red Sox (81-67) this season, pulled 1 1⁄2 games ahead of their rival for the American League’s top wild-card spot. They went 17 games over .500, matching their season high, and moved to 6-4 in this 12-game stretch against the three American League division leaders and a top wild-card contender.
Yankees lefthander Max Fried (16-5, 3.02) will oppose righthander Brayan Bello (11-6, 3.12) on Saturday afternoon and Will Warren (8-6, 4.22) will face Red Sox ace Garrett Crochet (15-5, 2.57) on Sunday night.
The Red Sox made three errors and the Yankees, who stayed three games behind AL East-leading Toronto, committed two.
Fernando Cruz retired the first two batters of the seventh before allowing Nate Eaton’s first homer of the season — Boston’s first of two hits — which made it 4-1. Devin Williams pitched a scoreless eighth, aided by a nice scoop by defensive replacement Paul Goldschmidt on a terrific stop and throw by Ryan McMahon on Masataka Yoshida’s inning-ending grounder. David Bednar struck out two in a perfect ninth for his 23rd save, sixth with the Yankees.
“Where we are in the division right now, everything is so tight, all these games are so important for us,” Gil, who lowered his ERA to 2.83, said through his interpreter. He walked four and struck out four in an effectively wild 93-pitch outing. In his last seven starts (38 innings), he has a 1.89 ERA.
The Yankees tacked on in the third, with a catcher’s interference call playing a starring role. Judge worked a two-out walk and went to second when Rice flied to left but made contact with Carlos Narvaez’s glove. Cody Bellinger, slashing .347/.405/.589 with runners in scoring position this season, lined an opposite-field single to left for a 2-0 lead.
Jose Caballero doubled with one out in the seventh against Justin Wilson and stole his MLB-leading 46th base (12 with the Yankees). With the infield in, McMahon smoked a grounder to second baseman David Hamilton, who made a diving stop. He fired home but the throw got away from Narvaez for an error on Hamilton, making it 3-0 and putting McMahon on second. After Trent Grisham struck out and Judge was intentionally walked, Rice lasered an RBI single to center to make it 4-0.
But it was Judge’s titanic milestone home run that still had his teammates shaking their heads afterward.
Judge, in his 10th season, accomplished the feat in his 1,130th career game. DiMaggio reached 361 homers in his 13th season and 1,736 games (he missed the 1943-45 seasons while serving in World War II).
It was Judge’s 19th first-inning home run this season, an MLB single-season record. Judge, who also homered in the first inning Thursday night and has four in the last four games, had matched the record of 18 he set in 2024, one he shared with Alex Rodriguez, who hit 18 first-inning home runs in 2001 while with the Rangers.
“It’s amazing,” Rice said. “You kind of catch yourself taking it for granted every now and then what he’s doing, but then those milestones come along and you’re able to really appreciate it.”
Erik Boland started in Newsday’s sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.
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