TAMPA — It’s as soon as once more time to embark on one other 72-hour craze over the legitimacy of the Yankees’ bats and the way they’re altering the game.
That’s what occurs after they membership 9 house runs, in case you had forgotten.
For the second time this season, the primary sparking the torpedo bat fad after the second recreation of the 12 months, the Yankees crushed 9 homers — seven within the first 4 innings alone — to tie the franchise document in a laugher of a 13-3 beatdown of the Rays at Steinbrenner Subject.
Giancarlo Stanton, Cody Bellinger and José Caballero drilled two homers apiece whereas the Yankees in complete accounted for 3,419 toes of lengthy balls.
With the Pink Sox and Mariners each shedding, the Yankees (68-57) moved into sole possession of the primary AL wild card, now main each groups by a recreation, whereas leaping into second place within the AL East — for the primary time since Aug. 1 — trailing the Blue Jays by 5 video games.
Within the land of the Grapefruit League, the Yankees teed off on Rays pitchers like they had been minor leaguers introduced on the bus experience throughout the state.
Besides they had been right-hander Shane Baz, left-hander Ian Seymour and left-hander Mason Montgomery, who mixed to serve up the 9 homers to Stanton (two), Bellinger (two), Caballero (two), Aaron Decide, Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Ben Rice.
After sitting by means of a one-hour, 55-minute rain delay to start the sport (with a 9:30 p.m. first pitch), the Yankees clubbed back-to-back-to-back house runs within the first inning — the third time this season they’ve achieved so, all of them within the opening body — off the bats of Decide, Bellinger and Stanton.
The Yankees joined the 2024 Dodgers and 1982 Brewers as the one groups to hit back-to-back-to-back homers at the least thrice in a single season, in keeping with Stathead’s Katie Sharp.
The opposite two instances the Yankees have achieved it this season got here on March 29 towards the Brewers (when it was back-to-back-to-back-to-back) and April 29 towards the Orioles.
Decide was concerned in all three whereas Bellinger took half in two.
Decide’s 429-foot blast on Tuesday was his fortieth house run of the season, marking the fourth totally different season during which he has hit that milestone.
He turned simply the fourth participant in Yankees historical past to take action, becoming a member of Babe Ruth (11), Lou Gehrig (5) and Mickey Mantle (4) — with Decide being the one one in that group to perform the feat in his first 10 seasons.
Stanton was enjoying proper area for the primary time since final Wednesday — after sitting out the weekend sequence towards the Cardinals with lower-body soreness from enjoying the sphere three straight video games — so the Yankees may get his bat within the lineup.
That proved prescient as Stanton remained red-hot, having now clobbered 13 house runs in his final 29 video games.
Bellinger led the membership with a four-hit night time, two of which had been his twenty third and twenty fourth house runs of the 12 months. The second made it a 12-2 lead within the sixth inning.
After the first-inning barrage, Caballero added his first house run as a Yankee within the second inning.
Shortly after receiving a video tribute from his outdated workforce, Caballero poked a two-run shot down the right-field line to make it 5-0.
He later completed it off with a solo shot within the ninth inning.
Stanton’s second blast was a three-run shot within the fourth inning, briefly extending the result in 9-2 earlier than Rice went back-to-back with him and made it 10-2.
Rice, making one other begin at catcher for the scuffling Austin Wells, now has 19 house runs on the 12 months.
All of it was greater than sufficient run assist for Carlos Rodón, who grinded by means of the humidity to ship six innings of two-run ball.
