Yankees’ Jersey Tied for American League Home Run Leader
Toronto’s Hyun-jin Ryu pitches out of the bullpen for the first time since surgery
Aaron Judge (31) of the New York Yankees has moved into a tie for the American League lead in home runs in Major League Baseball (MLB).
Judge hit the tying home run in the bottom of the ninth inning of a 4-5 home loss to the Baltimore Orioles on April 24. Stepping to the plate with the bases loaded, he lined an 87-mile-per-hour splitter up the middle from Orioles’ fourth pitcher Felix Batista on a two-strike pitch and crushed it over the left-center field fence.
It was Jersey’s 14th of the season, four days after he fired up the cannon against the Cincinnati Reds on Tuesday, tying him with the Texas Rangers’ Adolis Garcia for the American League lead in home runs. In the National League, the New York Mets’ Pete Alonso leads with 18 homers and the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Max Muncy is 1-2 with 15.안전놀이터
The Yankees extended the game on Judge’s tying solo homer and won 6-5 on Anthony Volpi’s game-winning sacrifice fly in the bottom of the 10th to extend their winning streak to five games.
Judge led the league in home runs (62) last year and was named the American League Most Valuable Player (MVP). This year, he hit just six homers from the start of the year through April. He also spent time on the disabled list with a sore right hip. But since returning to the lineup on April 10, he’s hit eight home runs in his last nine games.
Earlier in the day, Yankees starter Gerrit Cole was shaky, allowing five runs (six hits and three walks) in five innings, but struck out two to reach 2,000 career strikeouts in 278 games, 1714 and two-thirds innings since his big league debut in 2013. He became the 87th player in history and the eighth with the Yankees.
Toronto Blue Jays’ Hyun-jin Ryu, 36, pitched out of the bullpen for the first time in 11 months after undergoing Tommy John surgery to reconstruct ligaments in his left elbow last June. He joined the Blue Jays for a series against the Tampa Bay Rays and threw from the bullpen mound on the outfield side of Tropicana Field on April 24. The Blue Jays coaching staff, including manager John Schneider, watched. According to the Toronto Star, a Canadian outlet, “Ryu threw a sharp changeup and curveball. Importantly, he hasn’t felt any elbow soreness lately,” and “Ryu is on track to return in the second half of the season.”
“This is the moment I missed the most (during my rehabilitation), throwing the ball on the mound,” Ryu told local media after his bullpen outing, “It feels good to see my teammates. It helped me regain my energy.” “I wanted to make them feel the change in my appearance as well,” he said, noting that his body is now slimmer than before the surgery. “My goal is to return to the team in the second half of the year (mid-July).