NEW YORK – Aaron Judge’s two-run blast brought the Yankee Stadium fans to their feet in the top of the third inning in Wednesday’s 11-2 win over the Nationals. Little did they realize things were just getting started.
The Yankees sent 15 batters to the plate in the inning, scoring nine runs on eight hits, three walks and, of all things, a catcher’s interference call. The inning lasted a whopping 41 minutes.
“It was outstanding,” manager Aaron Boone said. “That was some banging right there.”
Cade Cavalli allowed a leadoff single by Ben Rice before serving up back-to-back homers by Judge and Cody Bellinger. And these weren’t “Yankee Stadium home runs,” either.
Judge’s blast clocked in at 107.2 mph and 424 feet, clearing the center-field fence to give the Yankees a 3-0 lead on his 41st home run of the season. Bellinger followed with a 102.9 mph, 410-foot shot to right-center, his 25th.
“It’s just everybody clicking, everybody having good at-bats, not trying to do too much,” Judge said. “Guys just had good at-bat after good at-bat. Bellinger hits the big homer after me, and everybody's trying to pass the baton.”
Jazz Chisholm Jr. walked and stole second base, scoring on Jasson Domínguez’s ground-rule double. Anthony Volpe lined out, but Austin Wells reached safely on a catcher’s interference play that the Yankees successfully challenged, setting up Ryan McMahon’s three-run homer, his second since joining the Yankees last month.
McMahon’s home run knocked Cavalli out of the game after 2 1/3 innings and eight runs (seven earned), bringing left-hander Shinnosuke Ogasawara in from the bullpen.
Ogasawara struck out Trent Grisham, but Rice went deep in his second at-bat of the inning, pushing the lead to 9-0. That marked the third time this season the Yankees hit four home runs in an inning, becoming the first team in MLB history to accomplish that feat. Over the previous 47 seasons, Yankees batters had hit at least four homers in the same inning only four times.
“It's kind of crazy,” McMahon said. “Looking at the depth of our lineup, though, those are the kind of innings that I think our team can put together. Hopefully there's a lot more of that in the future.”
Judge singled, passing the baton to Bellinger and Chisholm, who each drew walks to load the bases. Domínguez singled on a soft grounder down the third-base line, scoring Judge to give the Yankees a 10-run lead.
While the lineup was mashing its way to a huge lead, Max Fried – who had retired the first 11 Nationals to start the game – headed down to the indoor cage to do some throwing as the interminable inning went on.
“It's a good problem to have, right?” said Fried, who improved to 14-5 with seven innings of one-run ball. “It goes from 1-0 to 10-0; there are definitely worse things to happen.”
Volpe struck out to end the inning – his second out of the frame – to end the outburst. In total, the two Nationals pitchers combined to throw 77 pitches, the second-highest total in an inning since at least 2000. Only the 2003 Marlins threw more, needing 91 pitches in the first inning against the Red Sox on June 27, 2003.
“I know we scored a lot of runs that inning, but you could tell from each guy up in the box, the guys on deck, even if you took a peek in the dugout, guys were locked in there on the top step,” Judge said. “That really helped us not think about how many runs we scored or what just happened. It was like, ‘Hey, you got a job to do up there. It doesn't matter how many outs, who's on base, what the score is, you’ve got to go up there and do a job.’ It's what makes this team special.”
Six different players homered for the Yankees in the win, as Grisham hit a leadoff homer in the first and Wells went deep in the fourth.
“This time of year you want as many guys feeling good about the way they're playing as possible and I feel like we have a number of those guys,” Boone said. “We’ve got to get a few more guys going, but I feel like a lot of guys are in a good place.”
After dropping three straight games to the rival Red Sox, the Yankees finished the homestand with four straight wins, giving them 11 victories in their last 15 games. They scored 26 runs in the three-game sweep of Washington, belting 10 home runs in the series.
“Good to see the guys come out today in a day game, getaway, with a chance to have a really good series and finish it off, really put an exclamation point on it,” Boone said. “Good day for us. Good flight. Now we’ve got to go get after it in Chicago.”