With the Yankees still fighting for a division title, they faced a tough test on Friday night in the form of Orioles ace Trevor Rogers.
The Bombers passed with flying colors — and baseballs — as Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Judge combined for three home runs off the left-hander, one of the game’s best pitchers this season, in an 8-4 win.
“The two big boys really leaned on a couple,” Aaron Boone said after the victory kept the Yankees tied with the Blue Jays atop the American League East, as Toronto beat the Rays in Canada on Friday.
With two games left in the regular season, the Jays hold the tiebreaker over the Yankees thanks to their 8-5 head-to-head record.
The Yankees, who can fall back on having home field advantage in the Wild Card round, began scoring Friday when Stanton smashed his first home run of the night, a two-run shot, over Yankee Stadium’s short right field porch in the opening inning. He followed with another two-run homer off Rogers in the third inning.
The second homer was a no-doubter, a towering 451-foot, 112.2-mph moonshot to the left field terrace. Boone acted as if it was nothing out of the ordinary.
“Don’t get me wrong: he hit it great, but that’s not all of it either,” the manager said. “That’s like a good, healthy flyball to center for us regular people.”
The definition of a Stantonian Blast 💥 pic.twitter.com/qqF4hLVL6g
— New York Yankees (@Yankees) September 27, 2025
Stanton’s second home run came after Judge had already crushed a two-run dinger of his own earlier in the third, a rapid response to Jordan Westburg’s three-run homer off Will Warren in the top of the inning.
Judge now has 52 home runs this season, and he’s closing in on the first batting title of his career with a .330 average. His second straight and third overall MVP Award could also be coming.
Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh is another candidate for the hardware, though Boone said the choice should be obvious.
“Nothing Aaron Judge does surprises me. To me, he’s the clear-cut MVP,” Boone said when asked about Judge’s average. “He’s playing like an all-time great.”
As for Rogers, the owner of a 1.81 ERA had only surrendered three home runs over his first 106.2 innings this season. Yet Stanton and Judge tagged him for three longballs over just 13 batters on Friday night. They totaled 1,271 feet in distance as the Yankees improved to 51-7 when the two homer in the same game.
That includes the postseason.
“It’s a lot of fun,” Stanton said of going deep when Judge does. “I understand the record is in our favor overall when that happens too, so anything to help us get a boost is good.”
Stanton now has 452 home runs for his career after hitting his 22nd and 23rd jacks of the year. He is tied with Red Sox legend Carl Yastrzemski for 40th place on the all-time home run list.
While the Yankees’ biggest sluggers teed off on Friday, a few of their pitchers didn’t make things easy.
Warren allowed another homer in the sixth when Tyler O’Neill smacked a bases-empty blast off the right-hander. That ended Warren’s night, as well as his rookie season. He finished the year with a 4.44 ERA, 171 strikeouts and 162.1 innings over 33 starts, though Boone made sure to note “he’s not done yet” with the playoffs nearing.
Should the Yankees wind up in the Wild Card Series, Warren could find himself pitching in relief, as Cam Schlittler looks to be the Yankees’ preferred third starter behind Max Fried and Carlos Rodón.
“Ultimately, I just want to win,” Warren said. “I’m willing to do whatever, however that looks. I’ll take it and run with it.”
With Warren out of the game, Mark Leiter Jr. took over, only to find himself in a bases-loaded jam thanks to a Paul Goldschmidt error and a pair of walks. Fortunately for the Yankees, Tim Hill cleaned up the mess with an inning-ending groundout before Austin Wells added an insurance run with a single in the bottom of the sixth.
The Yankees scored again in the seventh on a Stanton groundout, bringing his RBI total to five on the night.
The DH had been struggling over his previous 23 games, hitting just .158 with a .577 OPS, but he looked to be in his deadly postseason form on Friday with the playoffs just days away. Stanton, who hit .336 with a 1.199 OPS and 17 home runs over 39 games before that, said he’s been feeling more comfortable at the plate lately, finding his balance and “fine-tuning things” ahead of October.
“I don’t really feel like he really fell out of it,” Boone said. “Obviously, he wasn’t hot or getting a lot of results there for a little bit of a stretch, but I didn’t feel like he really ever fell off.”
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