Apr 16, 2018; Bronx, NY, USA; New York Yankees right fielder Aaron Judge (99) watches his solo home run against the Miami Marlins during the second inning at Yankee Stadium. Photo Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports
NEW YORK — For the first time all season, the New York Yankees enjoyed a relatively stress-free night.
There was no late-inning angst and no concerns about a slugger striking out in a key spot.
After opening a two-game series with the Miami Marlins by posting their most lopsided win of the season, the Yankees hope to get everything clicking again Tuesday night at Yankee Stadium.
“I thought the focus to start off this homestand after a couple of bad weather days was really strong,” said Yankees manager Aaron Boone, whose team withstood two rainouts in Detroit following an 8-6 win on Friday.
The Yankees won their second straight by getting 15 hits and going 7 for 18 with runners in scoring position during a 12-1 victory on Monday. Aaron Judge homered and extended his hitting streak to 12 games while Didi Gregorius homered twice for the second time this season, giving the Yankees a sixth multi-homer game of the season.
Judge owns the longest active streak in the majors and is hitting .400 (18-for-45) with four homers and 11 RBIs during this streak, which ties Dee Gordon and Marcell Ozuna for the longest streak of the season. He also hit his 60th career homer, becoming the quickest player to do so.
“He kind of sets the tone,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said of Judge. “His at-bat quality has been through the roof every time.”
The Marlins lost for the 10th time in 12 games and mustered five hits. Justin Bour drove in the lone run for Miami, which is batting .223.
“As a team we have to find a way to put better at-bats together and find a way to score runs,” Miami shortstop Miguel Rojas said. “That’s the bottom line.”
Miami’s struggling offense is hopeful of getting a lift when catcher J.T. Realmuto is expected to be activated from the disabled list. Realmuto has been sidelined since March 11 with a lower back bruise and accompanied the team to New York after going 3-for-3 with a homer in a rehab game with Single-A Jupiter on Friday.
“It will be nice to have J.T. back, obviously,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said before his team scored three runs or less for the 10th time this season. “He’s a guy who is a tremendous leader for us, behind the plate, but also a guy offensively, you plug in and put him in the middle of your order. It’s really an area we’ve had trouble scoring runs. It’s an area, where you welcome back, knowing that you have to protect him a little bit, early on.”
Realmuto batted .278 with 17 homers and 65 RBIs in 141 games last season after batting .303 in 2016.
After Luis Severino pitched six outstanding innings Monday, Masahiro Tanaka will make his fourth start of the season and will be pitching on extended five days rest due to rainouts in Detroit. He last pitched in Wednesday’s wild 10-7 win at Boston when he allowed six earned runs and seven hits in five innings during a game when he retired 12 of the first ’15 hitters.
While Tanaka owns a ratio of nine strikeouts per nine innings (18 strikeouts, two walks), he has allowed four home runs so far. Of the 10 runs Tanaka has allowed, seven have come on home runs.
Tanaka will be making his second start against the Marlins. He took a 2-1 loss in Miami on June 15, 2015, when he allowed a solo home run to Derek Dietrich among nine hits in seven innings.
Miami allowed double-digit runs for the third time and double-digit hits for the sixth time and hopes Jarlin Garcia’s second career start goes as well as his first.
Garcia made his first career start Wednesday against the New York Mets and pitched six hitless innings while getting a no-decision in a 4-1 loss. He threw 77 pitches and allowed two walks, struck out threw, recorded half of the outs via ground balls before the bullpen imploded.
Garcia threw 45 four-seam fastballs with an average velocity of 92.1 mph to complement a changeup and curveball.
“I felt like I could have kept going. But that’s not my decision, that’s up to the manager,” Garcia told reporters. “It’s my first start out there, so I understand what they’re doing.”
