Milwaukee 9, NY Yankees 4
When: 7:05 PM ET, Friday, July 7, 2017
Where: Yankee Stadium, Bronx, New York
Temperature:
83°
Umpires:
Home -
Chad Fairchild, 1B -
Mike Estabrook, 2B -
Larry Vanover, 3B -
Alfonso Marquez
Attendance:
43472
By The Sports Xchange
NEW YORK -- As Jesus Aguilar concluded his first postgame interview at Yankee Stadium, Ice Cube's 1992 hit "Today was a Good Day" blared on the sound system inside the Milwaukee Brewers' clubhouse.
To say it was a good day for Aguilar might be a major understatement.
Aguilar produced one of the greatest showings in Milwaukee's history when he tied a club record with seven RBIs and hit a tiebreaking grand slam with two outs in the top of the seventh inning as the Brewers overcame five errors in a 9-4 victory over the New York Yankees on Friday.
"He's a rookie doing this," Milwaukee manager Craig Counsell said of Aguilar, who was claimed off waivers from the Cleveland Indians on Feb. 2 after appearing in 35 games in parts of the previous three seasons.
"It feels like an experienced at-bat. He knows what he's doing. He's putting together professional at-bats. He has a plan. He knows what he can and can't do and he's a very mature hitter certainly when he steps in the box."
Hours after visiting Monument Park, Aguilar hit his first career grand slam onto the netting above the attraction beyond the left-center field wall to give Milwaukee an 8-4 lead. He hit the homer on 3-2 fastball against Tyler Clippard to cap a seven-pitch at-bat.
Aguilar's grand slam marked the 11th seven-RBI game in team history and first since Ryan Braun on Aug. 6 at Arizona. It also was the most by any rookie in team history.
Aguilar became the first rookie to get seven RBIs since San Diego's Hunter Renfroe on Sept. 27 against the Los Angeles Dodgers. He also was the second rookie with at least seven RBIs against the Yankees, joining Walt Dropo, who did it for the Boston Red Sox on July 1, 1950.
Before connecting off Clippard, Aguilar hit a two-run homer on a full count in the third inning off Jordan Montgomery and lifted a sacrifice fly to put the game in a 4-4 deadlock.
Aguilar's second homer also occurred after Aaron Judge made some history of his own with a solo shot off Josh Hader (1-0) in the fifth. Judge's latest blast gave him 30 for the season and broke the mark he shared with Hall of Famer Joe DiMaggio, who hit 29 as a rookie in 1936.
Judge's home run became an afterthought for the Brewers thanks to Aguilar's big night. He entered the game second among rookies in batting average and increased it 13 points to .299.
"I'm very very happy. I'm happy I tied Braun's record, but most important I'm happy that we got the win," Aguilar said through a translator. "That's all that matters. As long as we keep winning. We just got to keep playing the way we've been playing and just try to keep winning. I'm happy to be able to help the team."
The Brewers continued playing well despite committing five errors for the first time on the road since July 21, 1984, at Oakland.
"I'm pretty sure that doesn't happen," Aguilar said. "The most important thing is We came back from it. We put our heads up. We kept having good at-bats, we kept having a good game and, we were able to win."
Coincidentally, Aguilar made the last of those errors as he dropped a throw from Junior Guerra right before a 51-minute rain delay.
Before the delay, right fielder Domingo Santana and second baseman Jonathan Villar made two fielding errors apiece, but the Yankees only scored three runs on a sacrifice fly by Clint Frazier and a two-run homer by Ji-Man Choi.
By not being able to stop Aguilar from producing the best game of his brief career, the Yankees lost for the 17th time in 23 games since June 12. New York lost a game when its opponent made five errors for the second time since 1962 (also July 9, 1995 at Texas).
"It’s really disappointing, but we didn't have many hits," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. "They gave us some opportunities through their errors and we scored some runs, but we didn't have a lot of hits tonight."
Before allowing Aguilar's grand slam, Clippard (1-5) threw a wild pitch that scored Braun ahead of the game-tying sacrifice fly. He also walked Villar and Santana in the seventh and the Yankees opted to intentionally walk left-handed third baseman Travis Shaw.
"I was trying to throw a good fastball down and away and didn't execute," Clippard said. "I was trying to go down and away and it leaked middle-middle."
Guerra was lifted with a right shin contusion after allowing three runs (one earned) and two hits in 3 1/3 innings. Hader struck out seven in three innings after Judge homered off him.
Before New York's bullpen faltered again, Montgomery allowed two runs and seven hits in 4 1/3 innings. He came out after the rain delay but was lifted after allowing consecutive hits to Orlando Arcia and Villar.
NOTES: DH Matt Holliday (viral infection) took early batting practice and will play two games at designated hitter in a minor league rehab assignment. He anticipates he will be ready by next weekend when the Yankees are in Boston. ... Milwaukee manager Craig Counsell said RHP Wily Peralta (strained right calf) will need at least two more rehab starts. ... New York 2B Starlin Castro (strained right hamstring) was replaced on the All-Star team by Seattle 2B Robinson Cano. Castro is expected to appear in one or two rehab games and could be activated next weekend. ... Milwaukee OF Ryan Braun started at DH and extended his hitting to nine games with a double in the fourth inning.
Top Game Performances
Team Stats Summary
Team |
Hits |
HR |
TB |
Avg |
LOB |
K |
RBI |
BB |
SB |
Errors |
Milwaukee
|
14 |
2 |
24 |
.359 |
20 |
5 |
8 |
5 |
0 |
5 |
NY Yankees
|
4 |
2 |
12 |
.129 |
17 |
12 |
4 |
6 |
0 |
1 |