Aaron Judge broke out with a two-run ninth-inning homer off Kevin Kelly to end an 11-game stretch without an RBI as the New York Yankees beat the Tampa Bay Rays 2-0 on Sunday.
NEW YORK — Aaron Judge didn’t just watch it. He briefly let the flight of the ball play out from the moment it left his bat, glanced toward right field, saw it clear the wall, and then immediately dropped his bat at first base before starting his trot.
The long home run drought was over, and the timing couldn’t have fit any better for the Yankees. Judge’s two-run homer came in the ninth inning off Kevin Kelly, lifting New York over the Tampa Bay Rays 2-0 on Sunday—New York’s first win in five games this year against its AL East rival.
“It’s just a great swing from him,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said.
Judge ended a career-high 11-game slump without an RBI. snapping a stretch that had gone 8 for 43 between homers and left the Yankees losing seven of 11 games. The homer was his first of the game—and his first runs batted in since he went deep in the first inning off Logan Henderson in Milwaukee on May 10.
After years of hearing “superstar” used too casually, Judge has always seemed to speak in the blunt language of the box score. He did it again after this one.
“There’s no frustration, I got a job to do,” Judge said. “Obviously I want to get the job done and help the team win and we weren’t winning, so I was mad about that. But no homers, RBIs, you can find other ways to help your team win. So that’s what I was trying to do.”
The drive traveled 363 feet into the wind—one of those measurements that makes the landing feel even more dramatic. The article’s own comparison made it land in company beyond “usual good”: it would have been a home run in just three major league ballparks. with Citizens Bank Park and Great American Ball Park among the others. It was Judge’s fourth walk-off homer and his first since 2022. when he hit three game-ending homers and finished with 62 overall—one more than Roger Maris’ previous AL season record.
For the Rays, this was a late-night momentum shift they couldn’t absorb. Judge had homered three days after telling reporters. “I’m not doing nothing at the plate. ” describing a 1-for-24 slide that had dropped his average to .246. On Friday, in the Yankees’ 4-2 loss, he ended up with a 396-foot flyout to left fielder Chandler Simpson.
Sunday’s swing carried a different feeling from the start. He was hitless in 15 at-bats leading into the game, but singled in the first inning before being doubled off on Ben Rice’s flyout.
New York starter Ryan Weathers tried to sum up the stretch without dressing it up. “He’s been putting good swings on balls,” Weathers said. “He’s just been having bad luck lately and that was a pretty impressive homer to get it out in these conditions.”
It wasn’t just a personal finish for Judge. The homer moved the Yankees within 4 1/2 games of the Rays in the AL East.
Bellinger’s great defensive play
While Judge’s bat carried the headline. Cody Bellinger delivered a moment that quietly protected the Yankees’ margin in the eighth inning. With pinch runner Oliver Dunn at second and Junior Caminero at first, Ryan Vilade singled to left. Bellinger came up with a one-hop throw to get Caminero moving on a sliding tag at third just before Ryan McMahon applied it as Dunn crossed the plate.
Caminero later explained what he was trying to do on the base paths, saying through an interpreter: “I was trying to go to third so there wouldn’t be a play at home, and credit to Cody for going to third base and getting the out.”
For Bellinger, it was the kind of defensive precision that doesn’t always show up in highlight packages. The play was his third outfield assist this season and his seventh in 175 games in left field.
“I picked my head up and Mac had a huge target at third,” Bellinger said. “I actually threw I thought a pretty nasty sinker to him and he picked it, did a great job of picking it and putting the tag on.”
In the end, Judge broke through at the exact moment New York needed it most—turning a quiet stretch into a statement, then letting the Yankees hold on for the 2-0 win.
Aaron Judge Yankees Rays Kevin Kelly Logan Henderson Ryan Weathers Cody Bellinger Junior Caminero Oliver Dunn AL East