Judge hits 28th home run, Stanton hurts hamstring as Yankees beat Braves 8-3

NEW YORK (AP) — Aaron Judge hit his major league-leading 28th home run and the New York Yankees stopped a three-game losing streak with an 8-3 win over the Atlanta Braves on Saturday night as Giancarlo Stanton hurt his left hamstring.

Judge had three RBIs for a major league-high 70, Juan Soto reached base four times on a single and three walks, and Marcus Stroman won for the fifth time in six decisions. The big league-best Yankees (52-27) had lost five of their previous six games, during which they were outscored 51-23.

“It’s just one game, but that’s what we’ve got to do,” Judge said. “Any time you hit a couple tough skids right there, you’ve got to understand it’s a long season but every game matters.”

Stanton doubled off the center-field wall in the fourth inning and winced when he rounded third base on Gleyber Torres’ double, which gave the Yankees a 4-1 lead. Trent Grisham pinch hit for Stanton in the sixth, and the Yankees said the oft-injured 34-year-old slugger had left hamstring tightness and will have imaging on Sunday.

Stanton appeared to be walking gingerly as he left the clubhouse.

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“He’s in pretty good spirits,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “Obviously he’s dealt with these kind of things in the past. So, hopefully, it’s not something that keeps him down too long.”

Stanton arrived in spring training slimmer after missing 266 games the previous five seasons due to biceps, knee, hamstring, quadriceps, ankle and Achilles injuries. He played in 69 of the Yankees’ first 79 games this season and is hitting .246 with 18 homers and 45 RBIs.

“He’s been having an incredible year — I think he’s been very consistent,” Stroman said.

Boone was ejected by Derek Thomas after Stroman started yelling at the plate umpire about a ball four decision to Marcell Ozuna leading off the seventh. Boone screamed at Thomas from the dugout and was ejected for the fourth time this season and for the 37th time in seven seasons as Yankees manager.

“I get it, I carried on a little bit,” Boone said. “But it just felt like there was some pitches at the top of the zone that we should have had.”

Ozuna homered in the first off Stroman (7-3), who allowed three runs, three hits and two walks in 6 2/3 innings. Atlanta batters were 0 for 9 on his slider, and he got all six of his strikeouts on the pinch.

Judge followed Soto’s walk in the bottom half by homering off Charlie Morton (4-4) for a 2-1 lead — Judge’s 22nd homer in 42 games. He has 11 first-inning homers this season for the Yankees, who lead the majors with 63 first-inning runs.

“He works the count, did a great job getting on first and then my job is to try to keep the line moving,” Judge said. “Getting the chance to get those two runs and give us back the lead — that’s the game plan right there.”

Judge’s 28 homers in his first 77 games leaves him just one homer behind his 77-game pace in 2022, when he set an American League record with 62 round-trippers.

“He’s on another historic run,” Stroman said.

Judge hit into a run-scoring double play in the third and drew a bases-loaded walk from Aaron Bummer in a three-run sixth.

Oswaldo Cabrera had a two-run single and Grisham had an opposite-field homer to left in the seventh against Jesse Chavez.

Travis d’Arnaud chased Stroman with a two-run homer.

Atlanta (42-32) had won seven of its previous eight games. Braves pitchers walked eight, matching their season high, and Atlanta finished with four hits.

Morton gave up five runs, five hits and five walks in 5 2/3 innings.

“Even when he left the game, we were only down three,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “Felt pretty good right there. Just couldn’t stop the bleeding in the sixth.”

TRAINER’S ROOM

Braves: LHP A.J. Minter (left hip) allowed an unearned run and struck out three batters in an inning Saturday night in his first rehab appearance for Class A Rome.

Yankees: Torres went 1 for 4 in his return after missing a game with right groin tightness.

UP NEXT

Yankees LHP Nestor Cortes (4-5, 3.36 ERA) and Braves LHP Max Fried (6-3, 3.11 ERA) start Sunday’s series finale.

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb