Right out of the gate, it looked like this could be a repeat of last night’s back and forth slug fest, the two sides trading the lead as early as the first inning. That pattern continued until the seventh, when the Yankees broke the game open scoring four runs on five hits. In total, New York collected 13 hits, their highest outlay since August 12th against the Mariners, to level the series with a 9-3 victory.
Elmer Rodríguez impressed in his nine Triple-A starts since his last MLB appearance, pitching
to a 2.13 ERA thanks to an uptick in sinker velocity and curveball usage rate. We saw both trends on display in the first, ERC striking out Jeremy Peña on a filthy curveball and freezing Yordan Alvarez on a 98 mph front door sinker after starting that AB off with a 99 mph heater. Unfortunately, we also saw the command issues which plagued his four previous big league appearances. Isaac Paredes drew a two-out walk after falling behind, 1-2, and Jose Altuve drove him home on a first pitch sinker that caught to much zone. Trent Grisham was principally at fault for the Altuve double, however, getting an awful read on the fly ball and breaking in before getting turned around on a ball that flew over his head.
Fortunately for ERC, his offense immediately responded in the bottom of the frame. Ben Rice lasered a 1-2 fastball from Peter Lambert into the seats in right for his 35th home run of the year to join Aaron Judge and Don Mattingly as the only three draft picks in franchise history to reach that milestone. It was the first run scored by the Yankees in the first inning since July 20th, that 23-game streak falling one short of the all-time franchise record.
They followed up that blast with some old fashioned small ball. Luis García Jr. reached on a soft line drive single to center. Cody Bellinger then pulled what looked like the inning ending double play ball to first, but Christian Walker hit García in the right shoulder with the throw, the ball trickling far enough into center to allow both runners to advance to second and third. George Lombard Jr. then hit a soft grounder to the right side on a sinker that shattered his bat to bring García home as the go-ahead run, 2-1.
Credit to ERC, he did not let the first inning misfortune get him off his stride. He tallied another pair of strikeouts against Taylor Trammell and Cam Smith, the sinker impressively holding its velocity at 97-98. The bats kept generating traffic in the bottom of the second, loading the bases with two outs on a single by Jazz Chisholm Jr. and walks by Austin Wells and Rice. García came within inches of hitting the Yankees’ first grand slam of the season, his line drive hooking just the wrong side of the right field foul pole. He hit a lazy fly ball to left on the following pitch to strand all three runners in place.
After a brief lull in the third, we saw a pair of lead changes in the fourth. Daulton Varsho somehow managed to muscle a solo home run into the Yankees bullpen on a decently located changeup from ERC that got the hitter unbalanced on his front side. The tie game would not last for long, the Bombers again loading the bases. This tie they did so with nobody out on three straight singles from Jazz, Wells, and José Caballero. Grisham’s nightmarish day continued with a ground ball double play, the silver lining being that it plated Jazz to retake the lead, 3-2. However, Rice flew out to end the inning and it was hard not to feel like they squandered an opportunity against a flagging Lambert.
ERC rebounded nicely with a 1-2-3 fifth, collecting his fifth strikeout on a nasty sweeper to Christian Vázquez. He’d face the minimum in the sixth against the top of the order to position himself for a deep start with the pitch count at just 83. In the bottom half, Jazz walked for his third time on base and attempted his second steal of the game. He was ruled out on the field, and despite video replay appearing to show his hand contacting second base before the tag was applied, the replay center decided to stick with the call on the field. A Wells single knocked Lambert from the game with two outs, but Kai-Wei Teng got Caballero to hit his second pop out to end the frame.
ERC came back out for the seventh but issued a leadoff walk to Jose Altuve to prompt Aaron Boone from the dugout. It was without question ERC’s best start in the bigs, completing six-plus innings after failing to make it out of the fifth in his previous four. The sinker velocity obviously stood out, ERC still firing at 97 mph against Altuve in the seventh, and the curveball looks like a real weapon inducing a gaudy 55-percent whiff rate on 11 swings, but it was his ability to paint the glove-side edge of the zone with sinkers that impressed me most. He departed having allowed three runs on three hits and two walks with a career-high six strikeouts on 88 pitches.
Paul Blackburn came in and immediately gave up a double to Varsho to put runners at second and third with no outs. Lombard then committed his fifth error in the last five games, booting a sharp grounder from Walker to allow Altuve to score the tying run. Blackburn then made a brilliant heads-up play on a grounder right at him by Trammell. Seeing Varsho had strayed too far off third, he ran right at the runner and tagged him out to keep the score tied. A walk of LaMonte Wade Jr. loaded the bases, but Blackburn stranded all three ducks on the pond with clutch strikeouts of Vázquez and Peña on a pair of disgusting breaking balls.
That seemed to turn the tide of momentum in the Yankees’ favor, because the bats truly came alive in the bottom of the seventh. Grisham singled, Rice walked, and García singled to again load the bases with no outs. This time, Bellinger made sure to capitalize on the golden opportunity, his two-run double securing a 5-3 lead. They weren’t finished, Spencer Jones singling to plate García and Jazz doubling to plate Bellinger to give him his third hit of the game and the Yankees a 7-3 lead.
This extra breathing room allowed Boone to go to Michael Fulmer for the eighth. Signed to a major-league contract just hours before first pitch as added cover for Fernando Cruz’s trip to the IL, the Mets’ former first round pick worked a 1-2-3 inning as he tries to revitalize his major league career after pitching just 9.1 innings since the end of 2023 following a long road back from 2024 Tommy John surgery.
Seemingly discontent with a four-run lead, the Yankees saved a final flourish for the eighth. Rice reached on a one-out walk and García roped an elevated 1-0 changeup from Enyel De Los Santos over the short porch in right for a two-run tank. It’s García’s 28th on the year and fourth in his last six games, giving him at least three hits in back-to-back contests.
Tim Hill set the side down in order in the ninth to secure the win, 9-3. Don’t look now but the Yankees have now scored at least seven runs in three straight games. With García staying hot and Jazz and Wells joining him, the lineup looks to be turning it around at just the right time.
The Yankees go for three straight series wins in the rubber game tomorrow, Gerrit Cole taking on former Yankee farmhand Hayden Wesneski. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 pm ET with the broadcast returning to YES.
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