BALTIMORE — As Aaron Judge made his way through a sea of handshakes and fist bumps following a two-run homer in the first inning Thursday, he delivered a hardy slap on the back to hitting coach Alan Cockrell.
“That was telling him, ‘That was you,’ for the good scouting report,’’ Judge said following a 9-1 thrashing of the Orioles in front of an announced crowd of 14,946 at Camden Yards in a makeup game following Wednesday night’s rainout.
The Yankees wore black bands on their left sleeves in remembrance of former, manager and general Gene “Stick’’ Michael, who died Thursday.
By winning two of three from the O’s, the Yankees halted a string of 11 straight series losses in the Inner Harbor. The last time the Yankees won a series at Camden Yards was 2013 and they were 0-7 in games that would have clinched a series with a victory.
Judge’s 420-foot blast staked Sonny Gray to a 3-0 lead that was increased by homers from Chase Headley, Starlin Castro and Todd Frazier.
“We are playing our ballgame the last couple of games, passing the baton and getting clutch hits,’’ Judge said of the Yankees, who have won five of seven and cut idle Boston’s AL East lead to 3 ½ games.
The three-run first, which included an RBI double by Didi Gregorius, and a two-run third, when Matt Holliday and Jacoby Ellsbury drove in runs against loser Kevin Gausman (10-10), were early signs Tuesday night’s crushing, 7-6 loss in the ninth wasn’t demoralizing and not playing Wednesday had not left the Yankees stale.
Victimized by lack of run support — 14 runs in his six starts for the Yankees — Sonny Gray pitched to the early lead and didn’t allow an earned run in 5 ¹/₃ innings in a ballpark where he was 0-3 with a 7.53 ERA in three previous career starts.
“What I was happy with is that we didn’t stop [scoring],’’ Gray said of the Yankees, who plated two runs in the sixth on Headley’s 12th homer, one in the sixth on Castro’s 14th home run and another in the seventh on Frazier’s 23rd overall homer and seventh as a Yankee. “We kept putting pressure on them.’’
Judge’s 420-foot homer to the seats in right-center was his 39th and hiked his RBI total to 87.
Despite the colossal disparity between his numbers before and after the All-Star break, Judge’s complete body of work for a rookie is impressive and will garner MVP votes.
“I think we are going to look back on this year and say this kid has had a really good year,’’ manager Joe Girardi said of Judge, who has scored a 104 runs and has drawn 105 walks. “Sometimes when you are so good in the first half you are compared to those numbers which is pretty unrealistic to do it for a whole season, but he has had a special year.’’
After ignoring some hittable pitches in the first two games of the series, Judge decided more aggressiveness was required early against Gausman.
“There had been a couple of at-bats this series where they left a couple over the middle that I either missed or didn’t swing at,’’ said Judge, who crushed a 1-0 fastball clocked at 93 mph. “So my mindset was to be aggressive.’’
And then thank Cockrell for the help.