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Fly Ball escapes Aaron Judge's glove, and a win eludes the Yankees

NEW YORK — If the New York Yankees and the Atlanta Braves managed to keep their current form, it would not be entirely surprising for those two teams to find themselves battling for a World Series title this October.

More specifically, 6-foot-8 Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge could have used an extra couple of inches on Ronald Acuna Jr.'s 11th-inning fly ball off reliever David Robertson. The ball ticked off the top of the webbing of the leaping Judge’s glove, caroming into the first row of the bleachers and bouncing back onto the field for a two-run home run that gave the Braves a 5-3 victory.

The loss dropped the Yankees (54-28) one game behind the Boston Red Sox in the American League East, while the Braves (49-34) increased their lead over the Philadelphia Phillies to 3 1/2 games in the National League East.

Before Acuna’s home run, the bullpens of both teams had worked a total of 10 1/3 scoreless innings after the exit of the starting pitchers.

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Yankees’ rookie right-hander Jonathan Loaisiga, making his fourth big-league start, lacked his previous command. He lasted just four innings and left on the losing end of a 3-2 score, and the Yankees optioned him to Class AAA after the game. Braves starter Anibal Sanchez worked six innings, allowing the Yankees to tie the game in the fifth.

After that came a procession of relievers — four for the Braves and Jonathan Holder, Chad Green, Aroldis Chapman and Dellin Betances for the Yankees — before Robertson hung the 1-2 curve to Acuna that wound up just beyond Judge’s reach.

“I haven’t seen the replay yet,” manager Aaron Boone said after the game. “I knew he got himself into a pretty good position but I couldn’t tell how close he came to it. It looked like he was going to have a chance at it.”

Judge seemed perplexed by the idea of a ball being out of his reach.

“I thought I had a good chance at any of them that are close to the wall,” Judge said. “Always get a good shot. I feel it hit my glove. It didn’t go in and they got two runs. That’s all that really happened. Tough play. I want to make that play for D-Rob and I wasn’t able to come through.”

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The Yankees nearly had a chance to win the game in the bottom of the 10th. Aaron Hicks sent a one-out, opposite-field drive to the right-field corner, which likely would have scored Didi Gregorius from first, but it bounced into the stands for a ground-rule double, forcing Gregorius to stop at third. After intentionally walking Miguel Andujar, Braves reliever Jesse Biddle struck out Greg Bird and Austin Romine to escape.

Loaisiga, who pitched six no-hit innings in his major league debut against the Tampa Bay Rays and held the Philadelphia Phillies to one hit over 5 1/3 innings in his last start, had trouble putting away the Braves. After the Yankees took a 1-0 lead on a Judge’s 23rd home run in the first — a towering fly ball into the right-field seats — the Braves tied it in the second on a home run by Johan Camargo, the first allowed by Loaisiga in four big-league starts.

The Braves then strung together three hard-hit doubles by Nick Markakis, Kurt Suzuki and Acuna to take a 3-2 lead in the fourth, but Loaisiga wriggled out of further trouble by striking out Charlie Culberson on a check-swing foul tip, and getting Camargo to ground out.

But Loaisiga’s difficulty in putting hitters away — the Braves fouled off 25 of 62 strikes — caused his pitch count to soar to a career-high 92, and he did not come out for the fifth inning. Boone said after the game that Loaisiga might be brought back to pitch in one game of a doubleheader against the Orioles on July 9, but he noted the high number of his pitches that had been fouled off.

Loaisiga had gotten an early 2-1 lead in the third inning on a run manufactured solely by Gleyber Torres, who led off the inning with a double, alertly took third on a wild pitch that strayed no more than 5 feet from Suzuki, and scored on another wild pitch by Sanchez.

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Torres helped the Yankees tie it in the fifth, leading off with a single and getting to second when Acuna, the Braves’ left-fielder, allowed the ball to scoot under his glove. Torres advanced to third after back-to-back walks to Brett Gardner and Judge, and scored on Gregorius’ sacrifice fly to shallow center.

But from there it was a battle of the bullpens, settled by mere inches.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

Wallace Matthews © 2018 The New York Times

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