Coming into this game, a lot of eyes were on one particular player. Earlier today, the Yankees officially placed Jazz Chisholm Jr. on the 10-day injured list with a thumb sprain. In his place, they recalled Anthony Volpe, who has been playing second a lot since he was sent back down to the minors in place of George Lombard Jr.
In the weeks since then, Volpe has hit pretty well, but it was Triple-A, and Yankees’ fans had seen a lot of him putting up .600 OPSes over the years. However with Chisholm’s
injury, Volpe was the call to get some reps at second base. At least through one game, there’s reason to have hope that whatever he was working on in the minors has helped.
In his big league return, Volpe went 3-for-4 with five RBI, including a seventh inning grand slam that basically put the game away for the Yankees. Obviously, drawing any hard conclusions about one game against a 100-loss team is premature, but it was still good to see. Besides Volpe, the Yankees got a couple solid contributions on offense as they swept the Rockies with a 10-3 win.
After a good top of the first from Max Fried, the Yankees’ offense struck early. Ben Rice led off the game for New York with a single, eventually moving to third thanks to a wild pitch and a ground out. With two outs, Luis García Jr. was the Yankees’ last hope for the inning, and he delivered. His deep shot to center field hit off the very top of the wall for a two-run homer, the 30th of his very nice season.
The Rockies did answer right back, with a two-out homer of their own. After Fried got the first two Colorado hitters, Kyle Karros took an offering out to left field for a solo shot.
However, the Yankees proceeded to get that run back and more in the second. Ryan McMahon and Austin Wells started the inning with a single and a walk respectively, bringing Volpe to the plate. After working an eight-pitch at-bat, Volpe punched through a single to score McMahon and move Wells to third. A couple batters later, Wells tagged up and scored on a Cody Bellinger fly out.
The home run from Karros ended up being the only run that Fried allowed, but he didn’t have the most efficient day. After a seven-pitch at-bat that ended in a strikeout in the fourth, Fried was already sitting at 80 pitches, only 48 of which were strikes. With Fried still only a couple starts back from an injured list stint, the Yankees went to the bullpen. In his 3.1 innings, Fried allowed one run on one hit and two walks, striking out seven. Those numbers are fine other than the length, he just struggled putting batters away at times.
Following Fried, the bullpen held things down for a while, but the Rockies eventually threatened again. After getting the first two out of the seventh, Ryan Yarbrough issued a walk to Ezequiel Tovar, leading to Aaron Boone going to Brent Headrick. On the very first pitch Headrick threw, Jake McCarthy hit one to right center that nether Spencer Jones or Jasson Domínguez could track down, with it landing in between them. Tovar scored with McCarthy racing all the way to third with a triple. The tying run was suddenly at the plate, but Headrick did get out of the inning after that.
However much like the previous time Colorado scored, the Yankees’ offense answered and extended the lead. Bellinger and Domínguez started the inning with a double and walk respectively, before both moving up with stolen bases. Jones then came through with an RBI single, scoring both runners, and moving to second on the throw. A couple batters after that, McMahon and Wells drew walks to bring the order back around to Volpe. Once again, he came up with the big hit, getting a grand slam to just clear the porch in right. After the years of hubbub around Volpe and his play, he did get a deserved curtain call in this game.
In the top of the eighth, with Luis Gil on the mound, the Rockies picked up one run thanks in part to a Domínguez misplay in right field. Gil stayed on for the ninth and managed to load the bases with nobody out, causing Boone to get David Bednar up in the bullpen. Gil got the next three outs without allowing a run, preventing any further madness.
Having swept the set with Colorado, the Yankees will now welcome the Mets to the Bronx. Tomorrow’s 9/11 anniversary game is set to begin at 7:05 p.m. ET. Carlos Rodón and Nolan McLean are expected to be the starting pitchers.
Box score
