Giancarlo Stanton hit two-run homers in consecutive at-bats and drove in five runs Friday night as the host New York Yankees beat the Baltimore Orioles 8-4 and remained tied for first place in the American League East.
The Yankees (92-68) won their sixth straight and are tied with the Toronto Blue Jays in first place for the third straight day. Toronto won eight of 13 meetings and would win the head-to-head tiebreaker should the teams finish with the same win total.
Stanton homered to right-center four batters into the bottom of the first off Baltimore’s Trevor Rogers (9-3) to give the Yankees a 2-0 lead. He homered again in the third, a 451-foot drive to a gathering area above the loading dock in left field to give the Yankees a 6-3 lead.
Aaron Judge preceded Stanton’s second homer with a go-ahead two-run drive onto the netting above Monument Park in center field.
Including the postseason, Stanton and Judge homered in the same game for the 58th time. The Yankees are 51-7 when the sluggers go deep in the same game.
Stanton had his second multi-homer game this season and 39th of his career. His second homer was the 453rd of his career, moving past Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame outfielder Carl Yastrzemski into sole possession of 40th on the all-time list.
Judge hit his 52nd homer of the season and 50th career homer against the Orioles. The two-time MVP ended the night with a major league-best .330 average.
Austin Wells added an RBI single in the sixth and Stanton hit a bases-loaded groundout in the seventh.
Jordan Westburg hit a three-run homer to left in the third off New York rookie Will Warren (9-8) to give the Orioles (75-85) a short-lived 3-2 lead. Tyler O’Neill opened the sixth with a homer to chase Warren.
Warren allowed four runs on six hits in five-plus innings. The right-hander struck out seven and walked one.
Tim Hill inherited a bases-loaded jam from Mark Leiter Jr. and retired Jackson Holliday on a grounder to end the sixth. After Hill notched the first two outs of the seventh, Fernando Cruz stranded two to finish the inning.
Camilo Doval struck out the side in the eighth and David Bednar worked around a walk and a single to seal the win.
Rogers allowed a season-high six runs on three hits in three innings to snap a personal five-game winning streak. Rogers, who walked three and struck out three, had his second-shortest outing this season and took his first loss since Aug. 1.
