Bronx Bomber Ball

Gleyber Torres and Gary Sanchez became the first pair of Yankees teammates ever to homer in three straight games as the Yankees took down the Astros 4-1 and extended their winning streak to seven games.
The night also marked the return of Aaron Judge to the Yankees lineup, although he was unable to make an impact, going 0-4 with a pair of strikeouts. Sanchez’s blast was the more impressive of the two, coming in the third inning off Brad Peacock after a Cameron Maybin single. The ball traveled over the opposing bullpen and deep into the stands. It was measured at 481 feet, the fourth longest homer hit this year according to Statcast. Maybin had to leave the game after the home run, with what was later announced as a strained calf. However, Aaron Boone has announced Maybin will face a significant injured list stint, so the injury might be worse than that. Torres’s homer came in the seventh, an opposite field shot just over the right-field wall after a Brett Gardner double. 
On the pitchin…

On the eve of Aaron Judge’s return to the lineup, the Yankees began an important four game set with the Houston Astros. While the Yankees have certainly been missing Judge, they have gotten healthy in other areas and rolled out a fearsome lineup to face their fellow contender on Thursday night. The Yankees opted to use this game as a bullpen day and the group turned in an effort that was good enough to bring home a win after their offense took over. Despite giving up some runs late, the Yankees brought home a 10-6 win and will now have Aaron Judge back in the fold on Friday.

It's been a good run the past week for the first-place Yankees.  They are entering a series against the also first-place Houston Astros, fresh off a sweep of their division rivals, the second-place Tampa Bay Rays.  Meanwhile, the Astros come to the Bronx limping after getting swept by the now 34-38 Reds.

While we at the BBB tend to focus on pitching matchups in our series previews, this series is going to be a notable one for reasons that relate to the Yankees’ offense.Why?More and more of the ‘A-Team’ is returning from the Injured List. Giancarlo Stanton returned to the active roster this past Tuesday.  With his rehab assignment now completed, Aaron Judge is slated to return by the end of the current week.Didi Gregorius hasn’t been back for too long.So, the spotlight in the press will be on the question of… who is going to be in the starting lineup?
Does Aaron Boone sit Cameron Maybin to make room for Judge?  With Maybin's current home run hot streak, that would be a difficult …

The Yankees 12-1 victory completed the series sweep of the Rays behind an offensive explosion and excellent start from CC Sabathia, who added another milestone to his historic career with his 250th career win. Sabathia is now the 14th pitcher in Major League history to reach 250 wins and 3,000 strikeouts, well on his way to Cooperstown.

Coming into the season, the Yankees’ bullpen was expected to be one of the best relief groups ever assembled. For the most part, that has been true. Their top four options (Chapman, Ottavino, Britton and Kahnle) have all been elite. However, there are two underachievers that Brian Cashman and co. need to address quickly: Luis Cessa and Jonathan Holder. With Aaron Judge’s impending return, and a true roster crunch on New York’s hands, the Yankees’ management team should look to remove one of these two from their roster rather than the red-hot Cameron Maybin.

The offense came early, in the middle, and late for the Yankees as they took game two of this three-game series against Tampa Bay. The team’s home run streak continued to 21 games and they extended their division lead against the Rays with tonight’s win.
New York’s offense struck quickly off opener Ryne Stanek, with a Gary Sanchez sacrifice fly in the first inning to get them started. However, the hitting faltered a bit after the introduction of Ryan Yarborough, who held the Yanks scoreless for three innings. In the fifth, more runs would come off a few singles by DJ LeMahieu, Luke Voit, and Gary Sanchez again, and the big blows would come in the seventh and eighth. Cameron Maybin continued his white-hot stretch as of late, blasting a long solo home run off Oliver Drake into the second deck in left field to make it four homers in four straight games, and then the newest Yankee Edwin Encarnacion smashed another solo shot, this one off Andrew Kittredge to the opposite field for his first…