By now, the Yankees have become accustomed to Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton crushing home runs in the same game, and it has almost always led to a win.
When Judge and Juan Soto first homered in the same game last month, Aaron Boone said it made him feel “warm and fuzzy.”
Wednesday, Judge, Soto and Stanton all went deep in the same game for the first time and, not surprisingly, good things happened for the Yankees.
On a warm night in The Bronx, in what the Yankees can only hope was a preview of the summer to come, the trio combined for 1,291 feet of home runs to power a fifth straight win, 9-4 over the Astros.
Soto clobbered a two-run, opposite-field, 440-foot home run in the first inning — part of his three-hit, five-RBI night — before Judge and Stanton both belted solo shots in the third, all off Astros right-hander Spencer Arrighetti.
Judge’s came as part of his own three-hit, three-RBI night as he continues to break out of a slow start while Stanton’s came off the bat at 119.9 mph, good for the hardest-hit ball in MLB this season.
It was more than enough support for Carlos Rodon, who bounced back from his worst start of the season by giving up just two runs across 6 ¹/₃ innings while striking out seven and walking none.
In the process, the Yankees (25-13) improved to 6-0 against the Astros (12-24) this season and have now won nine straight games against them dating back to last year.
Before Wednesday, Judge and Stanton had homered in the same game twice this season, both wins, and 37 games all time in which the Yankees were 33-4.
Judge and Soto had homered in the same game once and Soto and Stanton had homered in the same game once, both wins.
For Judge, it marked the latest encouraging sign that he is leaving his early-season slump behind him.
Besides his second home run in his last three games and fifth in his last 14, Judge added a pair of doubles, the second driving in a pair of runs to break the game open at 8-1 in the sixth inning.
A night after drilling a home run that came off the bat at 118.8 mph — which marked the hardest-hit home run in the majors this season — Stanton one-upped himself.
On a 1-2 count, he got a 79 mph curveball over the middle of the plate and obliterated it at 119.9 mph off the bat, surpassing Shohei Ohtani (119.2) for the hardest-hit ball in the majors this season.
And Soto followed his first-inning home run by adding a pair of RBI singles and an RBI groundout.
