Judge, ‘an MVP for a reason,’ continues HR tear

SAN FRANCISCO — Aaron Judge homered for the third time in two games in San Francisco and the New York Yankees beat the Giants 7-3 on Saturday night.

Judge followed up his two-homer performance Friday night in his first game at the stadium where he rooted for the Giants as a child with one of the more prodigious shots hit in this ballpark’s 25 seasons.

“I have a lot of family in town, a lot of friends in town,” Judge said. “I have to do something special for them. Just trying to stay locked in and put on a show.”

He capped a nine-pitch at-bat in the first inning against Logan Webb (4-5) by launching a changeup 464 feet into the left-field bleachers for his major-league-leading 21st home run of the year and a 2-0 lead.

Judge has six homers and 12 RBIs on the first eight games of this California road trip.

“I thought he was at another level in San Diego, Anaheim and just taking his act up the coast now,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “There’s no doubt that I think he’s excited to be here and play here for the first time. … I think it’s cool for him to be here and playing in this building and to put on the performance that he’s put on the last two nights is in line with what he’s been here for a pretty good stretch.”

The change in the calendar did little to slow down Judge, who had 14 homers, 12 doubles and 27 RBIs in May for the most extra-base hits in a month by a Yankees player since Joe DiMaggio had 31 in July 1937.

Judge has reached base safely in 28 straight games and is as locked in as he was two years ago during stretches of his record 62-homer season.

“There were runs in the ’22 season that were pretty wild, but this is on par with that for sure,” teammate Giancarlo Stanton said.

Webb intentionally walked Judge with a runner on third and one out in a two-run third inning before striking him out with a runner on third to end the fifth. Judge singled in his last at-bat.

Judge got plenty of help, with Stanton hitting a two-run homer in the eighth off Ryan Walker, and Alex Verdugo also driving in two runs.

That was more than enough to lead the Yankees to their 15th win in 19 games in support of Cody Poteet (2-0), who was called up from Triple-A to make the start.

Poteet allowed a two-run homer to Casey Schmitt in the third inning and an unearned run in the fifth to earn the win in his second start of the season.

Webb had allowed only four earned runs in five starts at home this season before giving up that many in seven innings against Judge and the Yankees.

“He’s an MVP for a reason,” Webb said. “You can’t throw pitches in the heart of the plate. It’s the name of the game. He’s not the only one like that, but especially right now with him being as hot as he is.”

The Giants have lost three straight games for the first time since getting swept in a four-game series on May 3-6 at Philadelphia.