Soto plays hero for Yankees; Judge HR drought now at 16 games - ESPN

NEW YORK — Juan Soto, one half of the New York Yankees' historic offensive tandem, added another memorable highlight to his 2024 reel Thursday night, delivering a walk-off single in a crucial 2-1, 10-inning win over the Boston Red Sox one night after blasting an electrifying home run on a throbbing foot.

The other half, meanwhile, is mired in an unusually long home run drought.

After nearly four months of mashing home runs at an unreal clip, Aaron Judge was held inside the ballpark for a 16th straight game. Judge has been stuck on a major league-leading 51 home runs since launching two against the Colorado Rockies on Aug. 25.

The AL MVP frontrunner extended his career-long homerless streak by going 1-for-4 with a single and some bad luck. Judge hit two flyouts at 99.9 mph — one traveled 381 feet to center field at Yankee Stadium — and smashed a 104.7 mph one-hopper that Red Sox third baseman Rafael Devers snagged to initiate a double-play. Judge's single — at 88.1 mph — was his weakest-hit ball of the night.

«He's got 51 homers,» Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. «And tonight, just missed one. Pummeled a ball that Devers made an unbelievable play on. Turning that ball into a double play was about as good a play as you'll see. So, I mean, look, homers, even for guys like that, they still come in bunches and you're going to have those stretches. I guess it's amazing that he has avoided those, but that's just testament to how good of a hitter and how much power he has.»

Since Aug. 26, Judge has posted a slash line of .207/.352/.259. The 16-game sample resembles Judge's slow start to the season; the 32-year-old center fielder was slashing .200/.336/.392 with six home runs in 34 games through May 3.

Then Judge was tossed from