The Yankees tied the single-season home run record with three long balls in their 11-6 win over the Red Sox at Fenway Park on Fridasy night. >> Box score
1) Aaron Judge hit his first homer since coming off the DL to tie the single-season record of 264 homers by a team, which was set by the Mariners. Luke Voit also went deep, hitting his 13th homer of the month -- the most in the Majors. Gary Sanchez put the Yankees on the board early in the game with a shot over the Green Monster as well.
2) J.A. Happ had one bad hiccup in an outing that was convincing to start the Wild Card Game. He allowed four runs -- all of which came on a Steve Pearce grand slam -- while striking out seven and walking two over six innings. The five innings before the bad sixth inning, Happ was lights out and proved to be WCG quality.
3) Every player in the Yankees lineup collected a hit tonight, with four players getting multi-hit games. Aaron Hicks had the most RBI with three while Gleyber Torres had a two-RBI double. Judge finished 2-for-4 with three runs scored.
4) With the win, the Yankees clinched home field advantage for the Wild Card Game against the Athletics
Highlights from Thursday's game
Chris Carelli, SNY.TV Facebook | Twitter | About Me | Archives
The Yankees have cemented home field advantage for the Wild Card Game. Amazingly, it took 99 wins and 264 home runs to nail it down.
In what has been a strange, yet successful season, the Yankees did a lot of things expected of them. Foremost, there was the general belief that they would hit a slew of home runs on their way to the postseason. Check and check.
The Yankees' four homers tonight tied them for the most by a club in a single-season at 264 bombs. The interesting part of it is the Yankees have received fewer than 30 home runs by Judge and less than 20 from Sanchez due to extended injuries. The Yankees made up the difference by having 12 players with at least 10 home runs this season and the club has received at least 20 home runs from all but one of the positions in the batting order (No. 9 hitters have 19 homers this season for the Yankees).
Teams are expected to ride their strengths in October and the Yankees are clearly the strongest up and down the lineup of all playoff teams when it comes to manufacturing the long ball.