Child hit by foul ball during Yanks’ win
Shortstop breaks Jeter’s homer mark as Bombers roll to 10th win in 12 games
Didi Gregorius took away one of Derek Jeter’s titles.
Jeter always will be remembered for leading the Yankees to five World Series championships. In his third season as Jeter’s replacement, Sir Didi surpassed his predecessor for the most home runs by a Yankees shortstop in a season.
Gregorius sent a three-run drive into the second deck in right field, Aaron Judge hit his AL-leading 45th home run and topped 100 RBIs, and New York beat the Minnesota Twins 11-3 Wednesday for a threegame sweep.
“He’s just getting better and better, maturing as a player, defensively, everything,” Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia said. “You’ve got to consider him one of the best shortstops in the league.”
The Yankees, who have won 10 of 12, began the day three games behind AL East-leading Boston. They opened a seven-game advantage over the Twins for the top AL wild card with 10 games remaining.
Gregorius has 25 homers, one more than Jeter’s total in 1999, and 84 RBIs. A knight in the Dutch Order of OrangeNassau, the 27-year-old had never reached double digits in home runs before hitting 20 last year.
“For me, most important is winning,” Gregorius said. “That’s what we play for. As long as we’re winning, I’m happy.”
He’s thrived in a situation where comparisons with Jeter were constant.
“That’s obviously something that’s always going to be ... in the back of your head,” Yankees outfielder Brett Gardner said. “I think last year just really turned the corner offensively, and it didn’t seem to matter if he was facing righties or lefties.”
The game was halted for 4 minutes in the fifth inning when a young girl was injured by a 105 mph foul ball off the bat of Todd Frazier. The Yankees said the girl was taken to a hospital for treatment, and New York manager Joe Girardi said he had been told by team security that she was OK.
Minnesota started 1½ games ahead of the Los Angeles Angels for the league’s last playoff berth. The Twins have lost five of six and were outscored
18-6 in the three-game series.
“I’ve had better trips to New York,” Twins manager Paul Molitor said. “We’ve talked a lot this last three days about handling the bigger stage and try to do the whole ‘Hoosier’ thing. The game’s the same, it just feels a little different and hopefully it helps these guys in the long run.”
Judge hit his eighth home run of September, a two-run drive that began the comeback from a 3-0 deficit. He added a sacrifice fly for his 101st RBI, joining Joe DiMaggio, Tony Lazzeri and Hideki Matsui as the only Yankees rookies to reach the century mark.
Judge’s opposite-field drive down the right-field line off Bartolo Colon was the first homer run in his big league career on 0-2 pitch. Gary Sanchez followed with a shot into Monument Park, his 32nd, to go back-to-back with Judge for the second time in the homestand.