Yankees’ Aaron Judge ends HR drought with grand slam against Red Sox

NEW YORK — Aaron Judge ended the longest home run drought of his Major League career in the most loudest fashion possible Friday night.

With the New York Yankees trailing by three runs in the seventh inning against the Boston Red Sox, Judge hit a go-ahead grand slam for his 52nd home run of the season, the highest score in the major leagues. The swat set off deafening delirium in Yankee Stadium. MVP chants prompted Judge to emerge for a curtain call.

The blast was Judge’s eighth career grand slam. He had played in 16 games, 60 at-bats and 75 plate appearances since his last homering on Aug. 25 against the Colorado Rockies.

The tension for this possibility was already building earlier in the inning.

Red Sox right-hander Justin Slaten led off the seventh inning with full counts to Anthony Volpe and Alex Verdugo. Both times, he walked the batter. Gleyber Torres followed with a single to score Volpe from second base for the Yankees’ first run of the night.

Red Sox manager Alex Cora then replaced Slaten with left-hander Cam Booser, who had to figure out how to deal with Juan Soto and Judge, the most prolific offensive duo in baseball.

Booser chose to throw Soto around, letting him walk far outside the strike zone four times and load the bases. With each pitch, the decibel level reached new highs. By the fourth, Yankee Stadium was in an uproar. Soto threw his bat. Judge walked to the plate. Booser was in trouble.

Booser got behind Judge with a cutter in the dirt and a fastball that appeared to be in the strike zone. Forced to attack Judge, Booser hit a 96 mph fastball up the middle to Judge, who took the bait and didn’t miss.

The score remained tied and the Yankees defeated the Red Sox 5-4.