WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Nobody inside the Yankees dugout at Sutter Health Park saw it coming. Not in the first inning, and certainly not in the second. What unfolded Sunday afternoon, May 31, 2026, wasn’t scripted by any manager’s meeting or printed on a lineup card. It came from the captain — two blunt words, a raised voice, and a moment that turned a lifeless afternoon into one of the most jaw-dropping innings in franchise history.
New York finished its six-game, two-city road swing by beating the Athletics 13-8 to take two of three. The final score, though, barely captures the strangeness of a game where the Yankees went hitless for eight full innings yet somehow produced a 13-run third to win going away.
Sleepwalking into danger
Oakland left-hander Jacob Lopez retired the Yankees in order in both the first and second innings. Three strikeouts. No baserunners. Not so much as a ball out of the infield. Meanwhile, the Athletics had already built a 3-0 cushion after a sloppy opening frame in which a Trent Grisham fly ball to shallow center fell for a two-run error, allowing Oakland to score three unearned runs with two outs.
The score wasn’t the only problem. The Yankees looked flat. The dugout was quiet. The energy that had driven five victories on this road trip seemed to have evaporated somewhere between Sacramento’s heat and a late Saturday night.
Aaron Judge was watching all of it.
Two words that changed everything
Before the Yankees stepped in for their turn in the third inning, their captain made his way through the dugout. He wasn’t subtle about what he saw, and he wasn’t holding back.
What followed was simple, unfiltered leadership.
“Let’s f—ing go, boys!,” the Yankees captain shouted.
That was it. No motivational speech. No diagrams. Just the franchise captain, still in year 11 with the Yankees, refusing to let his team drift any further.
Judge later explained what pushed him to act. He had seen enough flat baseball in those first two innings to recognize a team running on autopilot.
“I just felt like we were a little asleep there the first two innings,” Judge said. “I expect more out of the guys. I know they expect more of themselves. So, yeah, a couple choice words there. ‘Get it going,’ and the boys responded.”
The inning that rewrote the record books
What followed is the part Yankees fans will retell for years.
Anthony Volpe led off the third with a bloop single to center. Two walks loaded the bases without a single out recorded. Paul Goldschmidt slapped an infield single to drive in the first run. Ben Rice followed with a two-run double. Then Judge himself dropped an RBI single into center, giving New York the lead.
The Yankees did not stop there. The first 12 batters to step in all reached base safely. By the time Paul Goldschmidt struck out for the inning’s first out, the scoreboard read 10-3 in New York’s favor. Volpe reached base a second time, then a third time in the same frame, needing to put his batting equipment back on after each trip around the bases.
“It was crazy,” Volpe said. “I felt like I would run the bases and then I’d get up and I would have to put my stuff back on. It was a cool feeling.”
The half-inning ran 75 pitches and 43 minutes. Thirteen runs crossed the plate. Not a single home run was hit. Every one of New York’s 11 hits came in that one frame.
Winning pitcher Will Warren spent the inning in a near-panic trying to keep his arm loose. He eventually retreated to the bullpen during one of Oakland’s pitching changes to throw a few warm-up tosses.
“I heard him freaking out about how he was gonna stay warm,” Volpe said. “I think it’s a good problem.”
Warren, who threw six innings and allowed just three unearned runs, summed up the moment directly.
“Judge said something, ‘Let’s wake up,’ and the boys woke up,” Warren said. “It’s very easy in a day game to go through the motions, but that’s how you get your ass beat, and so I’m glad we woke up and turned it around on them.”
Historic scale of a single inning
The numbers behind Sunday’s third inning put it in rarefied air throughout not just Yankees history but American League history.
According to ESPN Insights, the Yankees collected all 11 of their hits in the 13-run frame — making this only the second occurrence since 1900 of a team scoring 10 or more runs with every one of its hits falling in a single inning.
The Yankees also became the first team in American League history to score 13 or more runs in a game with every run coming in one inning. That had occurred twice in the National League — by the 1972 Atlanta Braves and the 2003 Philadelphia Phillies.
The 13 runs were one short of the franchise record for runs in a single inning, set all the way back in 1920. The first 12 consecutive batters reaching safely also fell one short of a club record established in 1949.
Judge, asked to put the inning in perspective after the game, didn’t reach far for the words.
“Well, we just raised the energy,” Judge said. “That’s why I kind of had a couple things to say. We were sitting here kind of flat, but when we have energy and we’re pressing on the gas against all these teams, we’re the best team in baseball. I just wanted guys to remember that. And the energy was great in the dugout, everybody was locked in on every pitch, every at-bat. Even when guys would walk, the dugout was getting excited. So just an all-around good inning there.”
Volpe speaks on what Judge’s voice means
Anthony Volpe was preparing to lead off the third when Judge’s voice cut through the dugout. The shortstop was asked after the game whether he heard his captain — and what it meant coming from him specifically.
Reporters put the question plainly: Judge said he used a few choice words to wake the team up. Did Volpe hear it, and does it carry weight when that guy speaks?
“Yeah, definitely,” Volpe said. “Any time whatever he says, or obviously how he leads by example and what he does — I think it means a lot when he speaks up.”
Volpe then went out and started the inning with a bloop hit, came back to bat a second time, and was waiting in the on-deck circle for a potential third at-bat when Trent Grisham flew out for the final out of the frame. He finished the afternoon with two hits, one RBI and two runs scored.
Sunday’s win capped a 5-1 road trip for New York, taking series at two stops. The Yankees entered June sitting at 36-23 through 59 games, second in the American League East.
Judge finished the day with one hit and one RBI. His 2026 season line now reads .248 with 53 hits, 17 home runs, 38 RBI, 43 runs, and five stolen bases through 59 games. The RBI total also pushed him to 868 for his career, passing Christian Yelich for 442nd all-time on the major league list, according to baseball historian @RobBballHistory on X.
The Yankees head home having confirmed once again what Judge declared in the dugout before it all unfolded.
When this team wants to flip the switch, few lineups in baseball can match them.
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