NEW YORK — The scoreboard read 8-2 Yankees and the ninth inning was almost over. Most of the 48,788 fans inside Yankee Stadium were already on their feet, ready to head home happy. Then Cody Bellinger went back on a hard liner, knocked it down, fell toward the warning track wall, and somehow came up with the ball anyway.
The place went crazy.
It was the loudest moment of a game full of them. And it capped off something the Yankees had been building all afternoon: an athletic showcase that went well beyond the box score.
Yankees run wild before Bellinger takes center stage
Long before the ninth inning, the Yankees were making the Miami Marlins look uncomfortable in ways that had nothing to do with home runs.
In the second inning, Jazz Chisholm Jr. drew a walk and immediately put his speed to work. He stole second. Then he stole third. Right behind him, Jose Caballero stole second base. Three steals in one inning, all coming before a hit had been recorded in the frame.
Both Chisholm and Caballero came around to score. The Yankees manufactured two runs off four walks, zero hits, and an opposing pitcher who simply could not handle the traffic.
Miami catcher Liam Hicks, who carries a poor defensive reputation behind the plate, had no answer. The Yankees went 5-for-5 in stolen base attempts on the afternoon. Chisholm and Caballero each swiped two bags. Aaron Judge added one in the eighth inning, his first steal of the 2026 season.
Through seven games, the Yankees lead the American League with 11 stolen bases. Only the Milwaukee Brewers, who have 15, have run more in the early going across all of MLB.
Bunt attempts, risky tags and aggressive baserunning fill the afternoon
The running game was just one piece of it. The Yankees pushed the Marlins’ defense all day in a variety of ways.
In the third inning, with two outs and a runner on third, Caballero pushed a bunt toward the first-base line, looking to sneak an infield single. It did not work. But the willingness to try it said something about the club’s mindset.
In the sixth inning, Ryan McMahon lifted a fly ball to left with two runners on base. Austin Wells, standing at second base, did something that surprised everyone in the ballpark. He tagged up and took off for third.
The throw from left field beat him. But Wells slid around the tag and was called safe, then scored on a wild pitch. A catcher pulling off a heads-up tag evasion on a shallow fly ball is not something you see every day.
In the eighth, Trent Grisham tried to go from first to third on a Judge single to left. He was thrown out, but only because he came off the base during his slide.
“I thought Grish going there, and he beats the throw,” manager Aaron Boone said after the game. “He just came off obviously on the slide. But really good job by them today of being smartly aggressive.”
Bellinger’s ninth-inning grab stuns the Bronx
Then came the moment nobody could script.
With two outs in the top of the ninth, Miami’s Xavier Edwards sent a 96.4-mph liner to left off Ryan Yarbrough. Bellinger broke hard, ran back toward the warning track and leaped at the edge of the outfield grass.
He got a glove on it but could not hold on. The ball caromed off him. As Bellinger came back down against the wall, he blindly swiped backward with his glove hand and somehow closed his glove around the ball.
Out.
Bellinger raised both arms against the outfield wall. The bleachers erupted behind him. The catch was immediately circulated on social media and drew comparisons to some of the most memorable grabs in recent memory.
“I feel like I had a good bead on it the whole way,” Bellinger said in the clubhouse afterward. “I think it caught off my wrist. I really don’t know. I’m just glad I came down with it.”
He acknowledged the element of fortune involved.
“I got a little lucky with the snag,” Bellinger said.
Bellinger’s defensive pedigree backs up the circus catch
The grab was stunning. But it did not come from nowhere.
Bellinger won a Gold Glove Award with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2019. In his first season with the Yankees in 2025, he posted seven outs above average, placing him in the 93rd percentile among all outfielders, according to Baseball Savant.
The Yankees signed Bellinger back in part because of what he brings with his glove and his legs. On Friday, he made the case in a single swing of his arm.
“We’re a really athletic team,” Bellinger said. “We believe that we’re one of the best teams out there, and we want to be showcasing that.”
Boone points to identity taking shape in early going
The Yankees finished the game 8-2, improving to 6-1 on the season. They matched their second-best start through seven games in franchise history, trailing only the 7-0 club from 1933.
Boone sees something forming in this group beyond wins and losses.
“We have a handful of guys that can really push it in the running game,” Boone said. “So far, I think the guys are doing a good job of taking extra bases, too.”
He pointed to how the team evolved last year as a template. The Yankees became more aggressive after the trade deadline brought new pieces and a new energy. That carry-over is already visible in April 2026.
“I think we became that aggressive club in the second half of last season,” Boone said. “Night in and night out, we’re rolling a good amount of speed and athletes out there, and that slowly became a little more of our identity.”
Starter Will Warren went 5.2 innings and allowed just two solo home runs, retiring 12 straight batters at one point. The bullpen added 3.1 perfect innings. Yankees pitchers have now surrendered just eight runs in the first seven games, averaging 1.1 per contest.
The offensive production spread around. Bellinger went 1-for-4 with a double, a walk and a run scored. Judge drove in three runs. Ben Rice hit a solo homer and a two-run double after striking out three times early. The Yankees drew 11 walks on the afternoon.
The Bellinger catch was the moment everyone will remember. But the Yankees gave their fans a full highlight reel long before the ninth inning even started.
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