Aaron Judge's home run, two doubles not enough as Yankees fall to Cubs, 5-2

The Yankees’ bats were shut down as Cubs left-hander Matthew Boyd dealt eight scoreless innings, before a ninth-inning rally came up just short as Chicago managed a 5-2 win on a sunny Saturday afternoon in The Bronx.

The scheduled pitchers’ duel between two southpaws never materialized as Yanks starterMax Fried lasted just three ineffectual innings before he was forced out due to a blister on his left index finger.

Aaron Judgenotched a milestone home run in a 3-for-4 day, butNew York saw its five-game winning streak snapped as they fell to 53-42. Chicago improved to 56-39.

Here are the takeaways…

– “The one thing we’ve been able to count on is Max being an ace. He’s been everything we could have hoped for,” Aaron Boone said before the game. Apparently, the manager stating the obvious was seen by the baseball gods as some sort of transgression. They settled the score in the form of tough luck for the starter before the blister ended his day after surrendering four runs (three earned) on six hits with three walks and two strikeouts, which saw his ERA jump to 2.43.

Fried was clearly in discomfort from the start and was seen shaking his left hand on multiple occasions as he struggled for command and a grip on the baseball. He threw just 39 strikes out of 73 pitches (53.4 percent).

In the game’s first at-bat, Nico Hoerner roped a triple to center (100.2 mph off the bat). Fried limited the damage to one run and pitched out of a two-on and two-out situation in the second before the wheels came off in the third.

It started with Kyle Tucker’s single to left and Seiya Suzuki just keeping it fair down the left field line for a double. And then Fried had some tough luck as Carson Kelly's soft liner to third kicked off Oswald Peraza's glove for an RBI hit.

A weak pop-up on the infield set up a double-play ball to third that should have ended the inning, but Peraza's throw to second took Jazz Chisholm Jr. out of rhythm, and the second baseman's throw to first went way over Paul Goldschmidt's head into the protective netting. A single up the middle made it 4-0 before he managed to get out of the inning.

– Judge was the lone Yankee to make anything happen off Boyd, lining a two-out double in the fourth and a one-out ground-rule double in the seventh. The rest of the bombers went a combined 2-for-24, with the other hits being a swinging bunt from Chisholm to lead off the fifth and Anthony Volpe’s one-out single in the eighth.

That isn't to say there weren't some loud outs: Volpe smacked a liner 110.4 mph off the bat (.720 xBA) and Judge rocketed a ball deep into the left-center gap (109.3 mph) in the first, but Pete Crow-Armstrong ranged over and made a leaping catch at the wall for a 409-foot out. It would have been a homer in 23 other big league parks, including Wrigley Field.

– In the ninth against Cubs reliever Brad Keller, Cody Bellinger extended his hitting streak to 17 games with a one-out double to left before Judge launched a 388-foot home run to right (105.5 mph) for his 350th career homer. He is now the fastest player to hit that milestone, needing just 1,088 games. He pushed his average to .358 and his OPS to 1.204 on the season as he looks to repeat as AL MVP.

Keller then plunked Giancarlo Stanton on the arms, and the Cubs brought in Daniel Palencia. The hard-throwing closer snuffed out any hope by getting Chisholm swinging on a 101 mph fastball and Trent Grisham to ground out to third to end it.

– The Yanks' bullpen retired 12 straight Cubs to keep the Yanks in the ballgame as Ian Hamilton (two innings, two strikeouts on 18 pitches), Scott Effross (one inning on seven pitches), and Jonathan Loaisiga (one inning, one strikeout on 14 pitches) combined to get to the eighth. 

But in his second frame, Loaisiga was stung for a home run to left on a 0-2 curveball of Kelly’s bat. The dinger was the seventh he's allowed this year in 23.1 innings over 22 appearances.

Tim Hill needed four pitches to get three outs in the eighth, and JT Brubaker allowed a hit and a walk in a scoreless, 15-pitch ninth.

– Grisham, struggling with a nagging hamstring, went 0-for-4 at the plate, including grounding into a double play. He was able to make a running grab deep in the left-center gap in the sixth inning. 

Game MVP: Matthew Boyd

The NL All-Star needed just 85 pitches to get 24 outs, allowing just four hits and no walks with six strikeouts as his ERA fell to 2.34 on the season.

Highlights

What's next

The Yankees conclude the first half of the 2025 campaign on Sunday with a 1:35 p.m. first pitch in The Bronx.

Right-hander Will Warren (4.70 ERA, 1.400 WHIP in 90 innings) gets the ball for the home team against lefty Shota Imanaga (2.80 ERA, 0.984 WHIP in 61 innings).

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