Aaron Judge broke out of his slump and Geritt Cole dominated as the Yankees beat the Orioles, 4-1, on Friday night in Baltimore.

With the win, the Yankees (57-39) now trail the Orioles by just one game in the AL East.

Here are the takeaways...

-Judge entered Friday without an extra-base hit or RBI in his last eight games but he flipped that pretty quickly. In his second at-bat, Judge took a hanging curveball from Cade Povich 397 feet for his 33rd home run of the season. The ball left Judge's bat at 107.4 mph.

Judge is just the second Yankee to hit 33 home runs before the All-Star break. Roger Maris did it in 1961 and Judge did it in 2022.

None of the Orioles pitchers wanted anything to do with Judge as the Captain walked four times on Friday.

-In the series finale against the Rays on Thursday, the Yankees left 10 runners on base and it looked like they were destined to continue that streak Friday after leaving the bases loaded in the first inning, but the Yankees finally got the clutch hits they were looking for. In the second, Jose Trevino doubled in the Yankees' first run before Jahmai Jones -- the team's DH for the game -- singled to drive home Trevino.

The Yankees had more chances but just couldn't get the big hit until the ninth inning when Juan Soto hit a two-out single that scored Trevino from second. Overall, the Yankees were 3-for-10 with RISP and left seven men on base.

-Cole bounced back from two subpar outings where he failed to get out of the fifth inning. On Friday, the reigning AL Cy Young winner went six innings giving up just one run. Cole pitched out of trouble and struck out seven batters.

Cole had his best start of the season going the aforementioned six innings (106 pitches/75 strikes), giving up one run on five hits, and one walk.

-Aaron Boone put out a different-looking lineup on Friday. DJ LeMahieu was put in the leadoff spot, but it didn't bear fruit as the infielder went 0-for-4 with a strikeout. Ben Rice, in against the lefty starter, remained in the cleanup spot and finished 0-for-3 with a walk. Alex Verdugo was moved down to the six hole and went 0-for-3 with a strikeout.

Soto continued to show pain in his hand on certain swings, but he played the whole game and finished 2-for-5 with the big ninth-inning RBI.

-Again, the Yankees bullpen was great. The combination of Tommy Kahnle, Luke Weaver and Clay Holmes pitched three scoreless innings, giving up just one hit in the process.

The benches did clear in the ninth inning after Holmes hit Heston Kjerstad in the head as the rain started to come down. Orioles manager Brandon Hyde pointed and began yelling at someone in the Yankees dugout, which caused the benches to clear. Hyde was eventually ejected.

Game MVP: Gerrit Cole

Cole needed to pitch well especially after the Yankees starters struggled all week. Cole is the first starter to pitch into the sixth inning this week.

Here are the takeaways...

Game MVP: Gerrit Cole

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