Watch: Jackie Bradley Jr. Robs Aaron Judge Of Homer In Yankees-Red Sox Doubleheader

by Pablo MenaJuly 17, 2017, 2:20 pmUncategorized >

Aaron Judge may have led the majors in home runs (30) the first half of this season and won the Home Run Derby, but Jackie Bradley Jr. managed to deny the rookie in a big way on Sunday.

Jackie Bradley Jr. Catch Aaron Judge Yankees Red Sox

The Boston Red Sox center fielder made an amazing leaping catch at the triangle in right-center field to rob the New York Yankees outfielder of a two-run score in the eighth inning of the second game of a double-header at Fenway Park on Sunday night.

“It’s one of those balls you just try to time up in the air,” said Bradley following the second game, a 3-0 victory for the Red Sox after his team lost the first contest 3-0. “Those are the type of plays, they rarely happen. A lot of different things got to go the right way. Gotta be just far enough over the wall, but short enough where you can grab it. And you’ve got to be able to get back there in time.”

According to Statcast™, a blast like Judge’s is a homer more than nine out of ten times. Based on the exit velocity (107.5 mph) and launch angle (32 degrees), Judge’s rocket was a perfect barrel and had a 94 percent hit probability, per MLB.com.

“I thought it had a chance, but I just hit it to the wrong part of the park and the wrong center fielder,” said Judge. “Jackie has been making plays like that for a long time.”

The Yankees lost the first game of the four-game series in Boston 5-4 on Friday, then won 4-1 on Saturday. T

In the first game on Sunday, C.C. Sabbathia pitched six shutout innings in his 18th career road start against the Red Sox to record his first scoreless line at Fenway Park and help the Yankees reach consecutive victories for the first time in more than a month.

The veteran left-hander allowed just two hits and five walks while adding three strikeouts.

“It just shows you a lot about this team, how tough we are,” said Sabathia, who was not originally scheduled to start in this series. “The core of this team are tough guys. We go out there and leave everything out on the field every night, and it shows up.”

Tyler Clippard, Chad Green and Aroldis Chapman each pitched scoreless innings as relievers, with Chapman recording his ninth save.

The Yankees last won successive games on June 11 and 12. “It’s been a long, long time,” said manager Joe Girardi. “Especially after the difficult loss that we had on Friday night, to be able to respond the way they did, it’s really good.”

Clint Frazier gave the Yankees a 2-0 lead in the fourth inning with a grounder that ended in two unearned runs following an error by shortstop Xander Bogaerts. Ronald Torreyes hit the single that scored Frazier.

Didi Gregorius then cracked a solo home run off Rick Porcello to right field to make it 3-0 in the fifth.

In the second game, David Price delivered a great pitching performance for the Red Sox: the lefty allowed seven hits and no walk while striking out eight in eight shutout innings.

“I expect to go out there and get 27 outs and nine zeros every fifth day, every time I touch the mound,” said Price. “That was a good win for us. We needed it.”

Price began his season late because of a left elbow strain, and so is currently 5-2 with a 3.39 ERA in 10 starts.

Mookie Betts gave the Red Sox a 2-0 lead by smashing a two-run homer off Masahiro Tanaka over the left-field wall — aka the “Green Monster” — in the bottom of the third inning, thus ending a stretch of 24 frames in which his team was scoreless. It was the longest drought the Red Sox have had since a 31-inning stretch from Aug. 7-9, 2009, which was also against the Yankees.

Betts added another home run in the sixth.

With the victory, the Red Sox (52-41) bumped their lead in the American League East to three games over the Rays (49-44) and 3.5 games over the Yankees (47-43).

The Red Sox and Yankees next face off again for a three-game series Aug. 11-13 in New York.

The Yankees next travel to Minneapolis for a three-game series against the Twins on Monday. First pitch is scheduled for 8:10 pm EST, with right-hander Bryan Mitchell set to take the mound for the Bombers for his first start and 13th major league appearance of the season.

BOSTON, MA – JULY 16: Aaron Judge #99 of the New York Yankees begins to the round the bases before he is robbed of a home run by Jackie Bradley Jr. #19 of the Boston Red Sox in the eighth inning of game two of a doubleheader against the New York Yankees at Fenway Park on July (Photo by Adam Glanzman/Getty Images)