NEW YORK -- The Yankees hope to continue penciling Aaron Judge into their lineup's No. 3 spot against the Mets for years to come.
He gave them a loud reason to keep doing it Monday.
Judge crushed a solo home run in the sixth inning against the crosstown rivals at Yankee Stadium. Judge's blast was his 36th of the season and it tied things up, 2-2.
Judge had gone six games without a homer, almost an eternity for a slugger who's been near the top of the league home run leaderboard all season.
It came off Mets starting pitcher Rafael Montero in a 1-0 count. Judge crushed the 94-mph fastabll into the right-center field stands, about seven rows deep, and didn't even look like he got all of it.
It was Judge's first Subway Series game.
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Here are some Subway Series notes, via Yankees PR:
SUBWAY SERIES RENEWED: The Yankees begin the 2017 Subway Series with the Mets tonight... are 8-4 in their last 12G vs. the Mets (since 5/14/14)... are 1-0-2 in the last three season series vs. the Mets (since 2014).
>> Are 12-9 vs. the Mets at the current Yankee Stadium, going 5-2-1 in the last eight home series.
BATTLE FOR THE EMPIRE STATE: The Empire State Building will shine in the colors of the Yankees and Mets this week to celebrate the 2017 Subway Series... at the beginning of each game, the tower lights will be split, with the North/South sides lit up in pinstripes for the Yankees and the East/West sides lit up in orange and blue for the Mets... each evening at the conclusion of that night's game, the winning team's colors will sparkle for 10 minutes before the building will shine in the winning team's colors until 2:00 a.m.
Brendan Kuty may be reached at bkuty@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @BrendanKutyNJ. Find NJ.com Yankees on Facebook.