New York Yankees slugger Aaron Judge rounds the bases after hitting a two run home run in the bottom of the first inning at Yankee Stadium against the Oakland A’s on Wed Apr 24, 2024 (AP News photo)

By Jessica Kwong

NEW YORK.—The Oakland Athletics allowed Aaron Judge to hit a two-run homer to start the third of the four-game series in the Bronx and fell to the New York Yankees 7-3 on Wednesday night.

The A’s dropped to 2-1 in the series and 1-5 in their current 10-game road trip.

In the first inning, Judge hit a home run on a fly ball to right field and Juan Soto scored, putting the Yankees up 2-0. With that, he surpassed former captain Derek Jeter to earn the ninth spot in the Yankees all-time home run list.

Judge seemed to take a third strike call and was walking back to the dugout when A’s starting pitcher Joe Boyle was charged with a balk. Judge proceeded to hit a fastball. A’s manager Mark Kotsay said it was an “umpire judgement call, it was close”.

“You don’t see that call that often and in that moment, it gives Judge another pitch and he capitalized on it,” said Kotsay. “So it’s definitely umpire discretion and you can’t argue box, so you have to kind of have to stick with that.”

Boyle laughed when asked what exactly happened.

“They called a balk,” he said. “So what I was doing, the clock was running down, probably should have stepped off but tried to squeeze a pitch in and I felt like I stopped, but obviously they saw it differently and I haven’t watched the video or anything yet so I don’t really know what it looks like.”

In the fourth inning, Anthony Volpe tripled on a sharp line drive to center fielder JJ Bleday that was deflected by right fielder Lawrence Butler and Austin Wells scored, expanding New York’s lead to 3-0. Then Soto went out on a sacrifice fly to center field and Volpe scored, boosting the Yankees up 4-0.

In the fifth inning, Anthony Rizzo homered on a fly ball to right center field and gave the Yankees a 5-0 lead.

The A’s would not go out without putting up a fight and in the sixth inning, Brent Rooker hit a home run on a line drive to left field and Ryan Noda and Tyler Nevin scored, cutting the Yankees’ lead to 5-3. In the same inning, Soto responded with a home run on a fly ball to center field and put the Yankees up 6-3.

In the seventh inning, Alex Verdugo went out on a sacrifice fly to left fielder Seth Brown and Giancarlo Stanton scored, giving New York a 7-3 lead.

Boyle allowed two runs and three hits, struck out six and walked four in three innings pitched. It was his fifth start in the season and his fourth loss – to right-handed pitcher Clarked Schmidt on Wednesday.

A’s second baseman Zack Gelof was a late scratch due to left abdominal soreness.

“Zack came in a little sore, went through his pregame. After ground ball routine we talked about it, decided to scratch him,” Kotsay said. “He did go for imaging. Zack does have a left oblique strain and most likely will be heading to the IL.”

The finale of the four-game series at Yankee Stadium takes place Thursday with A’s (9-16) left-handed pitcher Alex Wood matching up against Yankees (17-8) left-handed pitcher Nestor Cortes. First pitch is at 4:05 p.m. PT.