Yankees employ another power surge to avoid sweep vs. Diamondbacks
On the final night of their opening homestand, the Yankees teed off on Arizona.
And it’s a good thing they did, because a shaky Yankee bullpen nearly cost them again.
But three more homers — including another by Aaron Judge — were enough to hold off the Diamondbacks, as the Yankees avoided a sweep in The Bronx with a 9-7 win on Thursday night.
Judge’s three-run homer just three batters into the bottom of the first set the tone against right-hander Merrill Kelly.
The Yankees scored nine runs off Kelly in just 3 ²/₃ innings en route to a six-run lead— which seemed safe until Ryan Yarbrough nearly set a torch to it when he entered in the seventh and loaded the bases with no one out before Geraldo Perdomo hit a grand slam to cut the lead to two runs.
The lefty managed to retire the next two batters before Mark Leiter Jr. finished the inning, as the pen recovered behind Leiter and Luke Weaver’s scoreless 2 ¹/₃ innings, with closer Devin Williams on the paternity list.
The Yankees got off to a fast start as Ben Rice opened the bottom of the first with a booming ground-rule double to dead center.
Cody Bellinger followed with a walk, and Judge hit a 112-mph rocket out to right-center to give the Yankees a 3-0 lead. It was Judge’s fifth homer of the young season.
With two outs, Trent Grisham sent a double to the gap in left-center that just eluded left fielder Lourdes Gurriel Jr. to score Jasson Domínguez from first.
With an early lead, Carlos Carrasco issued a four-pitch leadoff walk to Josh Naylor and a one-out double to left to Eugenio Suárez, which led to an RBI groundout by Alek Thomas.
The Yankees, though, tacked onto their lead in the third, again courtesy of Grisham.
Starting in center, with Judge serving as DH and Bellinger in right, Grisham hit his first homer of the season, a two-run shot to right to make it 6-1.
Carrasco found more trouble in the fourth with a leadoff walk to Pavin Smith and a single by Naylor.
Guerriel then ripped an RBI double down the left field line. Another run-scoring groundout by Thomas made it 6-3, but Jazz Chisholm Jr. made a fine play to his right on Garrett Hampson’s grounder up the middle to end the inning.
Chisholm kept pouring it on with another two-run homer, the Yankees’ third in less than four innings, extending their MLB record with 22 homers in their first six games. No other team has hit more than 17 in that span.
Judge did more damage in the bottom of the fourth. After Rice walked and stole second with one out, Judge delivered a two-out run-scoring single to center and then swiped second.
Carrasco, who struggled badly the last two years, got through 5 ¹/₃ innings and allowed just three runs.
After Adam Ottavino finished the sixth, Yarbrough entered in the seventh to face the bottom of the lineup, to little effect.
The Yankees loaded the bases in the seventh against lefty Jalen Beeks, but Rice — who had reached base three times — struck out.
Leiter was removed after a two-out single by pinch-hitter Ketel Marte in the eighth, leaving Weaver for a four-out save.
Weaver got another pinch-hitter, Gabriel Moreno, to ground out and then finished it in the ninth.
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