SAN DIEGO — Aaron Judge hit another long home run at Petco Park, Marcus Stroman pitched six strong innings to keep the Yankees' pitching hot streak going and New York won its second straight against the San Diego Padres, 4-1 on Saturday night.
Judge's two-run shot off Dylan Cease (5-4) with one out in the first went 429 feet into the second deck in left-center. It was the Yankees' fifth home run this series, for a total of 2,089 feet.
Judge has homered in four straight games and has 17 this season to tie Baltimore's Gunnar Henderson and Houston's Kyle Tucker for the major league lead. Anthony Volpe was aboard on a leadoff single.
''That ball was absolutely hammered,'' manager Aaron Boone said. "I thought Cease was really good for them. You felt like he was on and Judgey just drops the hammer there in the first inning to give us a lead.
''What Aaron's doing is what the greats do from time to time.''
The Yankees hit four home runs in an 8-0 win Friday night, including consecutive shots by Juan Soto — in his first game in San Diego since the Padres traded him to New York on Dec. 7 — and Judge.
''This is impressive what this lineup is doing and what this pitching staff is doing,'' Judge said. ''I think it all comes down to trying to make sure I do my job, getting on base for the guys behind me and when guys are on base try to drive them in, because what Volpe's been doing in the leadoff spot has been incredible. It's fun to watch.''
Asked about Judge, Stroman said it's "watching greatness, you know. Sometimes you can kind of take it for granted, to be honest. But this is something I'll be sitting with my grandkids at some point, saying I got the opportunity to play with Aaron Judge and Juan Soto and Gerrit Cole, because those are going to be three of the best players, I think, to ever play this game.
