BALTIMORE — Aaron Judge has picked up where he left off last year, and Franchy Cordero is doing his best imitation of 2022 Matt Carpenter.
With Nestor Cortes pitching like the All-Star he blossomed into last season, there was a familiar feel to Sunday afternoon’s Yankees victory.
Judge launched a pair of solo home runs, Cordero cracked his second in three games and the Yankees held off the Orioles 5-3 to take the series at Camden Yards.
The Yankees (6-3), who head to Cleveland, have split the first two games of all three series this season and are 3-0 in the rubber games.
Judge first extended his career-best on-base streak to 42 games with a first-inning single, then smacked a third-inning dinger to center against Baltimore’s Tyler Wells, who surrendered the 35th and 36th homers of Judge’s historic 2022 season.
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For his grand finale, Judge blasted off against righty Logan Gillaspie in the seventh inning, another solo shot that gave Judge 28 career multi-homer games — and three more homers than he had at this point last season.
Through nine games, Judge has crushed four homers. Through nine games last season, Judge had sent just one into the seats.
How does Judge compare now to last April, which jump-started a 62-home run campaign?
“Better?” manager Aaron Boone answered with a laugh.
“It took me a while last year to kind of get going,” said Judge, who didn’t hit his second home run until Game 14 of 2022.
“He might break that 62, who knows,” said Cortes, the winning pitcher.
Giancarlo Stanton contributed an RBI single in the first inning, but Judge’s bash brother Sunday was Cordero, who smoked a two-run shot to right off Wells in the fifth inning.
The Yankees brought in Cordero, a powerful lefty who is playing against opposing righties over Aaron Hicks and recent call-up Willie Calhoun, on the eve of Opening Day.
The move was a surprise, but it might have been a surprise Cordero was even available: The toolsy outfielder hit .413 with a pair of home runs in 18 spring games with the Orioles, who cut him at the tail end of camp. Cordero opted out of his contract, and the Yankees pounced.
“As soon as we knew he was probably going to have an [opt-]out, we were paying attention to him,” Boone said.
Cordero surely remembers the release, though he downplayed notions of the weekend being about revenge.
“I felt like I had really good chances of making the team in Baltimore,” Cordero, who went 3-for-5 with two home runs and two walks in the series, said through interpreter Marlon Abreu. “I can tell you I’m very happy I’m with the Yankees right now.”
After four games, it is too soon to call Cordero the new Carpenter — a corner-outfield, lefty-hitting revelation last season, when he revived his career with the Yankees and drilled 15 home runs in 47 games — but the early returns are promising.
Cordero, who has played in fewer than half the Yankees’ games, is tied with Judge for the team’s RBI lead with seven.
“I’m glad he’s on this side now,” said Cortes, another [briefly] former Oriole, who pitched in four games with Baltimore in 2018 as a Rule 5 pick.
Cordero’s and Judge’s swings were more than enough for Cortes, who pitched 5 ¹/₃ solid innings in which he was charged with two runs, both of which scored after he exited the game. He had to overcome a pair of issues through his 91 pitches: his glove and Adley Rutschman.
After the first inning, home-plate umpire Bill Miller asked the lefty to tinker with his dark glove to black out a white “44” that was etched on the outside, near the back of his hand.
After a sharpie did the job, Cortes came back for the second inning and did his. He allowed just four hits, all but one to Rutschman.
The Orioles’ star catcher finished 4-for-4, including an eighth-inning home run against Jimmy Cordero, and got Cortes into trouble in the sixth.
Rutschman dropped in a one-out single before Ryan Mountcastle doubled to left.
With two on and one out, Boone turned to Albert Abreu, whose first pitch to Anthony Santander was blistered down the right-field line for a two-run double to cut the gap to 4-2.
But Judge and the Yankees’ bullpen — which included Clay Holmes’ third save of the season and second in as many games — ensured the Orioles would not get any closer.
