SAN FRANCISCO — Most of the Yankees’ weekend by the bay was all about Aaron Judge, and deservedly so as the former Giants fan put on a show playing his first games in the stadium near his hometown.
But on Sunday afternoon, Judge’s co-superstar had his day in the sun.
Juan Soto crushed a pair of home runs, the second one turning a deficit into a lead in the ninth inning as the Yankees finished off a sweep of the Giants with a 7-5 win at Oracle Park.
“That’s some savage at-bats right there,” manager Aaron Boone said after Soto homered off Giants starter Blake Snell and closer Camilo Doval.
The dramatic comeback finished off a strong West Coast trip for the Yankees (42-19), who went 7-2 against the Padres, Angels and Giants before flying home Sunday night into an off day Monday.
The Giants (29-31) led 5-3 entering the ninth inning and called on Doval, their closer who had held opposing hitters to a .198 average before Sunday. But Gleyber Torres led off with a single, Jose Trevino hustled down the line to beat out a double play and then Anthony Volpe’s triple to the right-center field gap pulled the Yankees within 5-4.
Soto came up next and clobbered a cutter down the middle into the right-field seats, not far from making a splash in McCovey Cove. His 17th home run of the season put the Yankees up 6-5.
“That’s what he does,” said Judge, who went 2-for-3 with two walks and two steals. “We’ve been seeing it all year long, he comes up in big moments, against one of the best closers in the game. … I had a nice front-row seat for that one, that was impressive.
“Throughout the whole inning, guys were just having great at-bats. If they didn’t get a pitch, just pass it to the next guy and the next guy came up big. We felt like we were never out of the game.”
The Yankees added an insurance run as Judge walked, stole second and then scored on Giancarlo Stanton’s ground-rule double — his 1,500th career hit.
Clay Holmes closed it out in the ninth for his 17th save to cap off a special trip.
“We’re having a great time, we’re having great moments,” Soto said. “We’ve been playing great baseball. Really happy to come over here and keep doing what we’ve been doing since Day 1.”
Coming into Sunday, the Yankees had gone 19 straight starts of at least five innings, but Nestor Cortes lasted only 4 ¹/₃ innings as the Giants forced him to throw 95 pitches. He gave up three runs on seven hits, including a pair of solo home runs, while striking out seven.
Cortes squared off against Snell, the reigning NL Cy Young winner who many fans wanted the Yankees to sign this offseason before he landed with the Giants on a two-year, $62 million contract in the middle of March. Snell, who entered the game with a 10.42 ERA in five starts after missing most of spring training, was putting together his best outing of the season before leaving the game in the fifth inning with a tight left groin.
Before Snell departed, Soto had keyed another rally, this time with some small ball, laying a perfect bunt down the third-base line for a single as the Yankees eventually loaded the bases.
Alex Verdugo cashed in against lefty reliever Erik Miller, who replaced Snell in the middle of the at-bat, by lining a two-run double to the right-field corner to tie the game at three.
The Giants regained the lead in the sixth inning by scoring a pair of runs off reliever Dennis Santana, but it set the stage for the Yankees to secure their 18th comeback win of the year — tied for the MLB lead. They had 31 all of last season.
“I can go back over the years how many times we probably lose that game,” Judge said. “Teams bring in their closer up two runs and we kind of go 1-2-3. But this team’s different. They went up there with the mentality that, ‘Hey, we’re still in this ballgame, just gotta get the first guy on and see what happens.’ That was a fun one to be a part of.”
