Aaron Judge ties Joe DiMaggio for 4th place on Yankees’ home run list in win over Tigers

NEW YORK — Aaron Judge keeps rising up the Yankees’ all-time home run list.

The star slugger hit two more homers in Thursday night’s 9-3 win over the Detroit Tigers, giving him 361 in his career and tying him with Joe DiMaggio for the fourth most in Yankees history.

Only Babe Ruth (659), Mickey Mantle (536) and Lou Gehrig (493) are ahead of Judge on the Yankees’ home run list.

Judge opened the scoring with a solo home run against left-handed opener Tyler Holton in the first inning, then drilled another solo shot off of right-hander Sawyer Gipson-Long in the third.

He now has 46 home runs this season, good for second in the American League behind Seattle’s Cal Raleigh, who began the day with 53.

Judge reached 361 homers in 1,128 games. DiMaggio played in 1,736 games over his 13-year career.

Thursday’s feat came two days after Judge moved into sole possession of fifth place on the Yankees’ home run leaderboard, breaking a tie with Yogi Berra.

The second of Thursday’s homers accounted for Judge’s 100th RBI of the season, making this the fourth year he’s reached the milestone.

Judge, the reigning American League MVP, finished 3-for-4 with a hit-by-pitch. He leads the majors in batting average (.323), on-base percentage (.444), slugging percentage (.671) and OPS (1.115)

Giancarlo Stanton also hit a solo homer in the third inning against Gipson-Long, who surrendered seven runs in 2.1 innings. It was the 20th home run of the season for Stanton, who has now hit at least 20 homers in 14 of his 16 MLB seasons.

That was more than enough run support for Yankees starter Cam Schlittler, who held Detroit to one run over six innings and struck out seven.

The outing represented a bounce back for the rookie Schlittler, who gave up a career-high four runs over a career-low 1.2 innings against the Toronto Blue Jays in his previous start. The hard-throwing right-hander improved to 3-3 with a 3.05 ERA in 11 career starts.

Thursday’s game took place on the 24th anniversary of 9/11, which the Yankees recognized with a pregame ceremony honoring victims and heroes. President Trump was in attendance and gave a speech in the Yankees’ clubhouse before taking his seat behind protective glass in a suite along the third-base line.

With the win, the Yankees avoided a three-game sweep and moved back into sole possession of the first AL wild card spot by a half-game over the Boston Red Sox.

The Yankees are set to face the Red Sox this weekend in Boston, with the pivotal three-game series marking the final regular-season matchups between the century-old rivals.

Luis Gil (3-1, 3.31 ERA) is set to start Friday night’s series opener at Fenway Park for the Yankees, while Lucas Giolito (10-3, 3.38 ERA) is scheduled to pitch for Boston.

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