Yankees 9, Athletics 5: Offense comes alive thanks to Judge’s grand slam

Now that’s more like it. After scoring nine runs in their last four games, the Yankees scored nine runs in eight offensive innings Sunday afternoon, giving them a 9-5 win over the Athletics in the homestand finale. Good win. Solid win. More of these, please. Let’s recap with bullet points since it’s Sunday and a holiday weekend:

• Grand Jury: The Yankees got on the board in the second inning thanks to two singles (Starlin Castro, Didi Gregorius) and a sac fly (Aaron Hicks). They broke the game open in the third courtesy of some shaky A’s defense. Shortstop Adam Rosales couldn’t make a play on Ronald Torreyes’ weak grounder, and Matt Joyce dropped Matt Holliday’s fly ball in the right field corner. That loaded the bases for Castro, who had a very 2016 Castro at-bat and struck out on three pitches. Aaron Judge picked him up with a loud grand slam into the right field seats. Hooray for that. The Yankees had been waiting for that big blow pretty much the entire homestand.
• Pineda Grinds It Out: Weird outing for Michael Pineda. Three runs (two earned because of his own throwing error) in six innings is fine, though he walked a season-high three and was uncharacteristically behind a lot of hitters. In the past, this would have turned into a disaster outing. One of those seven runs in 4.1 innings starts, know what I mean? Pineda has avoided those this year. Timely strikeouts and a line drive double play got him out of some jams Sunday. On a day he didn’t have his best stuff or location, Pineda still gave the Yankees a quality outing.
• Tack-On Runs: The Yankees were up 6-3 through six and a half innings, and they added one insurance run in the seventh and two more in the eighth. Gary Sanchez was credited with a double on a fly ball that left fielder Khris Davis couldn’t quite reel in with a diving catch. That allowed Torreyes to score from first with two outs. In the eighth, the Yankees loaded the bases on a single (Judge) and two walks (Chris Carter, Torreyes), then Brett Gardner got two runs home with a well-placed bloop inside the left field line. Balls like that (and the Sanchez double) hadn’t been falling in the last few days. Nice to get a few bounces again.
• Three Relievers: Hey, Chad Green finally got into a game. He pitched for the first time in a week. Green escaped a seventh inning jam with a strikeout before serving up a two-run home run to Davis in the eighth. That cut the lead to 7-5. Tommy Layne popped up Yonder Alonso on the first pitch, then Adam Warren got the final four outs without incident. Dellin Betances was warming for the ninth before the Yankees added those last two runs, so he was available. Green looked rusty more than anything. Layne and Warren needed 12 pitches to get the last four outs.
• Leftovers: Ten hits! The Yankees had double-digit hits for the first time since May 17th, the second game of the series in Kansas City … Sanchez (single, double), Judge (grand slam, single), and Torreyes (two hits) all had multiple hits. Hicks (single, walk) reached base twice as well. He’s still rocking a .429 OBP … the Yankees have won 29 of their first 47 games since 2013. Who knew?

Here are the box score, video highlights, and updated standings. Don’t miss our Bullpen Workload page either. The Yankees are heading out on the road for a seven-game road trip through Baltimore and Toronto now. Monday’s series opener against the Orioles is a Memorial Day matinee (1pm ET start). Jordan Montgomery and Dylan Bundy are the scheduled starting pitchers.

Source: FanGraphs