New York Yankees fail to clinch AL East title but Aaron Judge makes history yet again

(CNN) — The New York Yankees failed to clinch the American League (AL) East title for the second night running on Wednesday, despite a historic 142nd RBI for Aaron Judge in a 9-7 loss to the Baltimore Orioles.

Down 3-0 after the first inning, the Orioles never looked to be in trouble until the bottom of the ninth, when the Yankees began to fight back. Juan Soto singled to bring home Anthony Rizzo to make it 9-4 to Baltimore before Judge hit a three-run homer – his MLB-leading 57th of the season – to cut Baltimore’s lead to two.

The Orioles then made a pitching change, bringing on Keegan Akin for Matt Bowman, and then closed out the game to seal the win over their division rivals.

Despite the loss, Judge has now homered in four consecutive games, climbing to 142 RBIs on the season and becoming the first player to bat in 140+ runs in a campaign since 2009, when both Prince Fielder and Ryan Howard recorded 141. According to MLB stats, the previous longest stretch between 140+ RBI seasons was five years, since RBIs became an official statistic in 1920.

Having nearly clawed back a big deficit, Judge chose to focus on the team’s effort in a post-game interview. “No quit in the team there all the way till the end,” the 2022 AL MVP said, according to AP. “I never feel like we’re ever out of a game no matter the score.”

A disastrous first inning for the Yanks saw fill-in starter Marcus Stroman give up six straight singles to open the ballgame, the first time since at least 1969 that Baltimore has achieved that feat.

With the Orioles having scored three in the top of the first, Anthony Volpe’s RBI single in the second brought it back to 3-1.

But a difficult fourth inning for New York saw Baltimore open up its lead again, as Gunnar Henderson’s two RBI single prompted more booing from the Yankee Stadium crowd and marked the end of Stroman’s evening on the mound.

Clayton Beeter fared no better, allowing RBI doubles from Anthony Santander and Colton Cowser in the fourth, and an RBI single from James McCann in the fifth to make it 8-1.

Juan Soto hit back with a two-run shot – his 41st home run of the year – to make it 8-3 in the fifth, before Jordan Westburg’s RBI single in the top of the eighth gave Baltimore enough of a cushion to see the game out.

Having clinched their seventh playoff berth in eight seasons last week, the Yankees now have to win at least one of their four remaining games to seal the division title.

“Nothing’s been easy for us this year. Shouldn’t expect it to be now. But we’ve kind of persevered and kind of grinded our way through all of it,” said Yankees manager Aaron Boone, per AP. “We’ll be ready to go tomorrow.”

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