EW YORK — Cody Bellinger entrered the left field on Saturday with 13 defensive runs saved since 2005, a record by itself. On Friday, he made one of the more bizarre defensive plays of the early season, dropping a ball and somehow reeling it back in for an improbable circus catch. Twenty-four hours later, Bellinger found himself at the center of a mess that threatened to derail a night the Yankees desperately needed to win.
The Yankees eventually beat the Miami Marlins 9-7 on Saturday night at Yankee Stadium, improving their record to 7-1. It was their fourth straight victory and their second this series after an 8-2 win in the opener. But the path to that final score was anything but smooth, and Bellinger was at the heart of both the chaos and the cure.
His evening included a defensive blunder that handed Miami a four-run lead, a two-run home run that swung the momentum back to New York. Agsin, Bellinger’s sacrifice fly pushed the Yankees in front for good in the sixth inning. In eight games this season, few players have packed more into a single night.
A defensive lapse that cost the Yankees badly
The Yankees entered the fourth inning already down 3-0, with starter Ryan Weathers having been lifted after a rough 3.2 innings. Paul Blackburn inherited the mess and got the first two outs before the wheels came off.
Agustin Ramirez singled to third to reach base with two out. Jakob Marsee then lifted a flare to shallow left field. What followed was one of the uglier plays at Yankee Stadium this season.
Both Jose Caballero and Ryan McMahon gave chase on the ball before it dropped in front of Bellinger. With no one covering third base, Ramirez broke hard for the bag. McMahon, still running, tried to get back and catch Bellinger’s incoming throw. The throw sailed off the bag. The ball skipped into foul territory. Ramirez never stopped and scored standing up. Nobody was home, either.
Just like that, Miami led 4-0. Marsee advanced to second. The Yankees had handed the Marlins a gift.
“Just an awkward play with the shift on. [McMahon] had to run a long way to third and my ball sailed” Bellinger said.
Blackburn struck out Otto Lopez to end the inning and prevent further damage. But the Yankees were now staring at a four-run deficit against a pitcher in Max Meyer who had been sharp through four innings. For a moment, it looked like the kind of game that quietly slips away.
One swing changed everything
The Yankees had just one hit through four innings against Meyer. Aaron Judge broke through with a two-out single in the fifth to give the crowd something to hold onto. Then came Bellinger.
He turned on a Meyer pitch and drove it to right-center field. The ball carried out of the yard. Two runs scored. The deficit was suddenly 4-2 and Meyer’s night was finished.
The Yankees dugout came alive with Bellinger’s home run. The crowd at Yankee Stadium, which had been quietly tense through much of the first four innings, had its spark. Meyer walked off. The bullpen door opened. New York smelled blood.
“It gave us that spark we needed. It turned us on a little bit. We started getting on base a lot more from there” Giancarlo Stanton said about Bellinger’s blast.
Manager Aaron Boone described the Bellinger moment in simpler terms.
“Meyer was throwing the ball well and all of a sudden it was a shot in the arm and we were right back in the game” Boone said.
The Yankees did not look back after Bellinger’s bomb. They feasted on the Miami bullpen from there, scoring three runs in the sixth and one in the seventh before Stanton’s go-ahead two-run single in the eighth put the game away.
The sacrifice fly that put New York ahead
After Trent Grisham and Aaron Judge each produced RBI hits in the sixth to tie the game at 4-4, Cody Bellinger came up with a chance to do more damage. He hit a fly ball to left that was not especially deep, but Grisham was sent home anyway. The throw came in. Grisham was safe. Yankees led 5-4.
The go-ahead sacrifice fly was the third significant contribution Bellinger made to Saturday’s result. He had cost the Yankees a run in the fourth. He had erased half that deficit with one swing in the fifth. And now he had nudged the Yankees in front.
For a player who signed a new contract with New York this past offseason, Bellinger appears fully settled into his role as one of the core pieces Aaron Boone manages around. In 160 games as a Yankee entering this season, he has 30 home runs and 100 RBIs. The first home run of 2026 came at perhaps the most important moment of the young season.
The bigger picture for a 7-1 team
The Yankees are rolling through the first two weeks of the season. Their 7-1 record is the best in the American League East. They have drawn 21 walks in the past two games alone. Their baserunning has been aggressive and effective. And their ability to erase deficits, as demonstrated again Saturday, has become a defining trait.
For Bellinger personally, the night was a microcosm of what good outfielders do. They make mistakes. They recover. They stay locked in and make the next play count.
On Friday, Bellinger nearly dropped a ball and saved it. On Saturday, he threw one away and hit one out. The Yankees are 7-1. He is a major reason why, errors and all.
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