Aaron Judge ends home run drought in grand fashion as Yankees slam Red Sox

NEW YORK — With Aaron Judge stuck in a 16-game homerless streak, the longest of his career, Nestor Cortes was asked about his teammate’s power outage on Thursday.

The pitcher hardly sounded concerned.

“The homers haven’t been there, but I know they’ll come around,” Cortes said. “He’s a big boy.”

It didn’t take long for Cortes to be proven right, as Judge finally launched his major league-leading 52nd homer of the season in the Yankees’ 5-4 win over the Red Sox on Friday. The slugger did so in grand fashion, roping a shot to left with the bases loaded in the seventh inning.

The 369-foot blast off Cam Booser inspired “MVP” chants from the Yankee Stadium crowd, which then received a curtain call from Judge.

The Yankees had already crossed the plate in the seventh on a Gleyber Torres single, but runs had been harder for them to come by earlier in the night.

That’s because former Yankees prospect Richard Fitts, traded to Boston in the Alex Verdugo deal, threw five scoreless innings while allowing just two hits. Fitts, drafted by the Yankees in the sixth round of the 2021 draft, found himself starting at the last minute after Tanner Houck was scratched with shoulder fatigue.

Meanwhile, Clarke Schmidt totaled 5 2/3 innings, five hits, two earned runs, one walk, five strikeouts and 86 pitches in his second start back from a lat injury. His last pitch ended up being his worst, as Masataka Yoshida drilled a two-run home run in the sixth.

Boston scored two more runs in the seventh when Trevor Story crushed his first home run of the season. That blast came off Mark Leiter Jr., who has now allowed earned runs in nine of his 17 appearances since being acquired from the Cubs.

Fortunately for Leiter and the Yankees, Judge found his power stroke at the perfect time. He had been slumping before Friday’s game, hitting .207/.352/.259 with four RBIs over his home run drought. But he went 2 for 3 with a walk on Friday while hammering the eighth grand slam of his career.

With another comeback win in the books following two extra-inning, walk-off victories, the Yankees are now 86-62. They’re also up three games on the Orioles in the American League East.

The Yankees will look to lock up a series victory with Gerrit Cole starting on Saturday. Brayan Bellow is scheduled to start for Boston.