NEW YORK (AP) — Aaron Judge ended the longest home run drought of his career with a go-ahead grand slam for the New York Yankees against the Boston Red Sox on Friday night.
The star slugger had gone 16 games without a longball before launching a clutch drive into the lower left-field seats off reliever Cam Booser in the seventh inning to give the AL East leaders a 5-4 advantage.
Judge’s eighth career slam and second this season sent the Yankee Stadium crowd of 45,292 into a frenzy, and he came out of the dugout for a curtain call.
It was the 52nd homer of the season for Judge, who also leads the majors with 130 RBIs. He hadn’t gone deep since Aug. 25, when he homered twice against Colorado.
Judge hit nine homers in 10 games before the drought.
The 2022 AL MVP set a career-worst when his homerless streak reached 16 games Thursday night against Boston.
