NEW YORK (AP) — Aaron Judge’s power outage set a personal record.
Judge's homerless streak stretched to a career-high 16 games as the New York Yankees beat the Boston Red Sox 2-1 in 10 innings on Thursday night.
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, a day after he went deep twice against Colorado. He went homerless in 15 games from Aug. 17 through Sept. 2 in 2017.
“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.”
Judge 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.
Judge hit nine homers in 10 games before the homer drought.
“He’s getting base hits. He's getting on base. He’s creating traffic,” pitcher Nestor Cortes said. “The homers haven’t been there but I know they'll come. He's a big boy.”
Cortes thought back to Judge's slow start. The Yankees captain was hitting .209 with six homers through May 4, when he was ejected by Ryan Blakney for uttering at the plate umpire with profanity after a seventh-inning called third strike against Detroit.
“You guys saw what happened in April,” Cortes told reporters. “He struggled a little bit and then he went on a tear. He probably needs to get thrown out again.”
AP MLB: https://www.apnews.com/hub/MLB
New York Yankees' Anthony Volpe, left, and Aaron Judge, right, dump a cooler on Juan Soto after he hit the game winning base hit during the tenth inning of a baseball game against the Boston Red Sox at Yankee Stadium Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024, in New York. The Yankees defeated the Red Sox 2-1. (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' Aaron Judge waits on deck during the fifth inning of a baseball game against the Boston Red Sox at Yankee Stadium Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
FIORANO MODENESE, Italy (AP) — Lewis Hamilton waved to a crowd of waiting fans on Wednesday as he drove a Ferrari Formula 1 car for the first time since joining the Italian team for the 2025 season.
Hamilton was behind the wheel of a 2023-specification Ferrari SF-23 bearing his racing number, 44, at the team's Fiorano test track, and wore a new helmet design in yellow with a prominent Prancing Horse logo.
Hamilton has shaken up F1 with his move to Ferrari after 12 years with Mercedes, where he won six of his seven world titles. The 40-year-old British driver has said he's fulfilling a childhood dream.
“I’ve been lucky enough to have achieved things in my career I never thought possible, but part of me has always held on to that dream of racing in red. I couldn’t be happier to realize that dream today," he said Monday after arriving at Ferrari's Maranello headquarters for his first day at work with the new team.
F1 tightly restricts teams from testing current-specification cars but the rules are more loose for older cars like the SF-23 that Hamilton drove Wednesday.
AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing
People gather outside the Ferrari track as British driver Lewis Hamilton tests a Ferrari Formula One SF-23, in Fiorano Modenese, Italy, Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
British driver Lewis Hamilton steers a Ferrari Formula One SF-23 at the Ferrari private test track, in Fiorano Modenese, Italy, Wednesday, Jan.22, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
British driver Lewis Hamilton steers a Ferrari Formula One SF-23 at the Ferrari private test track, in Fiorano Modenese, Italy, Wednesday, Jan.22, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
British driver Lewis Hamilton waves to fans during the first lap with a Ferrari Formula One SF-23 at the Ferrari private test track, in Fiorano Modenese, Italy, Wednesday, Jan.22, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)