Judge's homerless streak reaches career-high 16 games, Yanks beat Red Sox 2-1 on Soto's hit in 10th

NEW YORK (AP) — Juan Soto hit a game-ending single leading off the 10th inning to lift the New York Yankees over the Boston Red Sox 2-1 Thursday night as Aaron Judge’s homerless streak stretched to a career-high 16 games.

With pinch-runner Jon Berti on second as the automatic runner, Soto reached out for a sinker on the outside corner and grounded a single against Josh Winckowski (4-2) just past the glove shortstop Trevor Story, who tried for a diving, backhand grab.

Center fielder Ceddanne Rafaela’s one-hop throw was up the third-base line and Berti slid in head first ahead of catcher Connor Wong's attempt for a lunging tag to give the Yankees back-to-back walk-off wins for the first time since May 8 and 9, 2021, against Washington.

Soto was mobbed in the infield and said he will remember his first walk-off hit for the Yankees.

“The crowd, my teammates and everybody, I mean, those guys they were running hard on me,” he said. “I just did not know where to go.”

Judge, who leads the major leagues with 51 homers and 126 RBIs, went 1 for 4 with a single and is batting .207 (12 for 58) with 21 strikeouts since Aug. 26. He went homerless in 15 games from Aug. 17 through Sept. 2 in 2017.

He hit a first-inning drive that Wilyer Abreu caught in front of the right-field wall and a 104.7 mph grounder that third baseman Rafael Devers grabbed with a spinning stop and turned into an inning-ending double play in the fifth.

“Homers, even for guys like him, they still come in bunches and you’re going to have those stretches,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “I guess it’s amazing that he has avoided those. But, I mean, that’s just a testament to how good of a hitter and how much power he has but I thought he had good at-bats tonight and almost got one."

Gleyber Torres homered off Cooper Criswell leading off the first and Danny Jansen went deep against Nestor Cortes starting the fifth. Acquired from Toronto in late July, Jansen hit his third home run for Boston and first since Aug. 10.

New York (85-62) won for the fifth time in seven games and opened a two-game AL East lead over second-place Baltimore (83-64), the Yankees’ largest since before play on Aug. 27. The Yankees have won seven straight series openers.

Boston (74-73) dropped 4 1/2 games back of Minnesota (78-68) for the final AL wild card.

“You have to stay positive," Devers told reporters. "You can come tomorrow and win then win the next two games and you’re right back there again in the fire. Keep playing and stay positive.”

Clay Holmes (3-5), demoted from his closer’s role after blowing 12 saves in 41 chances, retired the last two batters of the 10th as Nestor Cortes and four relievers combined on a four-hitter.

Anthony Volpe left the bases loaded with inning-ending flyouts in the fourth and sixth.

Coming off his first relief appearance in three years, 4 1/3 hitless innings to win at the Chicago Cubs, Cortes allowed three hits and three walks in five innings with nine strikeouts. He has allowed 24 homers this year, eight more than previous career high.

“There’s always that chip on my shoulder as far as belonging here, belonging in the big leagues, and I never want to lose that edge," he said. "That's what keeps me going.”

Cortes was accepting of the bullpen role but had complained after the Sept. 7 game in Chicago, saying: “Obviously I was upset. I felt like I’ve been, amongst all the starters, the workhorse here. Once (Gerrit) Cole went down, they picked me to be the opening day starter -- not necessarily the No. 1, but the opening day starter. I had to switch my routine there. ... “Now they do this.”

He said after facing the Red Sox: “I know last week I might have came off like I was asking for too much, but I got my point across and at the end of the day, I’m going to do whatever this team needs for me to do to win, whether it's throwing 40 pitches out of ‘pen or 70 pitches out of the ’pen or starting a full game."

Criswell gave up four hits and three walks in 5 1/3 innings.

Rafaela’s 102.3 mph liner leading off the eighth knocked off the glove of reliever Tim Hill, who picked up the ball with his bare left hand and threw to first for the out.

Giancarlo Stanton, in a 1-for-26 slide, blooped an opposite-field single into right in the fourth. Rizzo was hit by a pitch for the 220th time.

Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred met separately with both teams before the game.

Tierna Davidson, Crystal Dunn, Rose Lavelle, Emily Sonnett and Lynn Williams of the gold medal-winning U.S. Olympic women's soccer team were honored on the field before the national anthem.

TRAINER'S ROOM

Red Sox: RF Rob Refsnyder was scratched because of right wrist discomfort and replaced by Romy González, then pinch ran in the 10th inning.

UP NEXT

Boston All-Star RHP Tanner Houck (8-10, 3.24) is scheduled to start Friday on eight days' rest after getting pushed back because of soreness. RHP Clarke Schmidt (5-3, 2.23) makes his second start for the Yankees since recovering from a strained right lat muscle.

AP MLB: https://www.apnews.com/hub/MLB

New York Yankees' Juan Soto reacts after hitting the winning base hit during the 10th inning of a baseball game against the Boston Red Sox at Yankee Stadium, Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

New York Yankees' Juan Soto, right, reacts after hitting the winning base hit during the 10th inning of a baseball game against the Boston Red Sox at Yankee Stadium, Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

New York Yankees' Juan Soto (22), top, is mobbed by teammates after hitting the winning base hit during the 10th inning of a baseball game against the Boston Red Sox at Yankee Stadium, Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

New York Yankees' Juan Soto, center, is mobbed by teammates after hitting the winning base hit during the 10th inning of a baseball game against the Boston Red Sox at Yankee Stadium, Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

New York Yankees' Aaron Judge runs to first base during the seventh inning of a baseball game against the Boston Red Sox at Yankee Stadium, Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

New York Yankees' Anthony Volpe, left, and Aaron Judge, right, douse Juan Soto, center, after he hit the winning base hit during the 10th inning of a baseball game against the Boston Red Sox at Yankee Stadium, Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Boston Red Sox's Wilyer Abreu, right, slides safely into second base past New York Yankees second baseman Gleyber Torres during the fifth inning of a baseball game at Yankee Stadium Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Boston Red Sox's Connor Wong, right, ducks as he is almost hit by a pitch during the ninth inning of a baseball game against the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium, Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

New York Yankees pitcher Nestor Cortes throws during the fourth inning of a baseball game against the Boston Red Sox at Yankee Stadium Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

New York Yankees' Gleyber Torres celebrates as he rounds the bases after hitting a home run during the first inning of a baseball game against the Boston Red Sox at Yankee Stadium, Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

New York Yankees' Gleyber Torres (25), center, celebrates after his home run with Juan Soto, right, during the first inning of a baseball game against the Boston Red Sox at Yankee Stadium, Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

NEW YORK (AP) — In what appears to be a sophisticated, remote attack, pagers used by hundreds of members of Hezbollah exploded almost simultaneously in Lebanon and Syria Tuesday, killing at least nine people — including an 8-year-old girl — and wounding thousands more.

A U.S. official said Israel briefed the U.S. on the operation — in which small amounts of explosive secreted in the pagers were detonated — on Tuesday after it was concluded. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the information publicly.

The Iran-backed militant group blamed Israel for the deadly explosions, which targeted an extraordinary breadth of people and showed signs of being a long-planned operation. Details on how the attack was executed are largely uncertain and investigators have not immediately said how the pagers were detonated. The Israeli military has declined to comment.

Here's what we know so far.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah previously warned the group’s members not to carry cellphones, saying they could be used by Israel to track the group's movements. As a result, the organization uses pagers to communicate.

A Hezbollah official told The Associated Press the exploded devices were from a new brand the group had not used before. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the press, did not identify the brand name or supplier.

Nicholas Reese, adjunct instructor at the Center for Global Affairs in New York University’s School of Professional Studies, explains smart phones carry a higher risk for intercepted communications in contrast to the more simple technology of pagers.

This type of attack will also force Hezbollah to change their communication strategies, said Reese, who previously worked as an intelligence officer, adding that survivors of Tuesday's explosions are likely to throw away "not just their pagers, but their phones, and leaving their tablets or any other electronic devices.”

Even with a U.S. official confirming it was a planned operation by Israel, multiple theories have emerged Tuesday around how the attack might have been carried out. Several experts who spoke with The Associated Press explained how the explosions were most likely the result of supply-chain interference.

Very small explosive devices may have been built into the pagers prior to their delivery to Hezbollah, and then all remotely triggered simultaneously, possibly with a radio signal.

By the time of the attack, “the battery was probably half-explosive and half-actual battery," said Carlos Perez, director of security intelligence at TrustedSec.

A former British Army bomb disposal officer explained that an explosive device has five main components: A container, a battery, a triggering device, a detonator and an explosive charge.

“A pager has three of those already,” explained the ex-officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he now works as a consultant with clients on the Middle East. “You would only need to add the detonator and the charge.”

After security camera footage appeared on social media Tuesday purporting to show one of the pagers explode on a man’s hip in a Lebanese market, two munitions experts offered opinions that corroborate the U.S. official's statement that the blast appeared to be the result of a tiny explosive device.

“Looking at the video, the size of the detonation is similar to that caused by an electric detonator alone or one that incorporates an extremely small, high-explosive charge,” said Sean Moorhouse, a former British Army officer and explosive ordinance disposal expert.

This signals involvement of a state actor, Moorhouse said. He adds that Israel’s foreign intelligence agency, the Mossad, is the most obvious suspect to have the resources to carry out such an attack.

N.R. Jenzen-Jones, an expert in military arms who is director of the Australian-based Armament Research Services, notes that Israel had been accused of carrying out similar operations in the past. Last year, AP reported that Iran accused Israel of trying to sabotage its ballistic missile program through faulty foreign parts that could explode, damaging or destroying the weapons before they could be used.

It would take a long time to plan an attack of this scale. The exact specifics are still unknown, but experts who spoke with the AP shared estimates ranging anywhere between several months to two years.

The sophistication of the attack suggests that the culprit has been collecting intelligence for a long time, Reese explained. An attack of this caliber requires building the relationships needed to gain physical access to the pagers before they were sold; developing the technology that would be embedded in the devices; and developing sources who can confirm that the targets were carrying the pagers.

And it's likely the compromised pagers seemed normal to their users for some time before the attack. Elijah J. Magnier, a Brussels-based veteran and a senior political risk analyst with over 37 years experience in the region, said he has had conversations with members of Hezbollah and survivors of Tuesday's pager attack. He said the pagers were procured more than six months ago.

“The pagers functioned perfectly for six months," Magnier said. What triggered the explosion, he said, appeared to be an error message sent to all the devices.

Based on his conversations with Hezbollah members, Magnier also said that many pagers didn’t go off, allowing the group to inspect them. They came to the conclusion that between 3 to 5 grams of a highly explosive material were concealed or embedded in the circuitry, he said.

Jenzen-Jones also adds that “such a large-scale operation also raises questions of targeting" — stressing the number of causalities and enormous impact reported so far.jenzen

“How can the party initiating the explosive be sure that a target’s child, for example, is not playing with the pager at the time it functions?” he said.

Hezbollah issued a statement confirming at least two members were killed in the bombings. One of them was the son of a Hezbollah member in parliament, according to the Hezbollah official who spoke anonymously. The group later issued announcements that six other members were killed Tuesday, though it did not specify how.

“We hold the Israeli enemy fully responsible for this criminal aggression that also targeted civilians,” Hezbollah said, adding that Israel will “for sure get its just punishment.”

People donate blood for those who were injured by their exploded handheld pagers, at a Red Cross center, in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)