PHOENIX — Two nights earlier, the ball had skipped under his glove and helped bury the Yankees in a 13-inning loss. The rookie wore it hard. On Friday, George Lombard Jr. answered the only way a young player can, with a bat loud enough to drown out the memory.
He roped a two-run single in the first inning. He homered in the sixth. By the end of the night he had two hits and three RBIs, and the shortstop who looked shaken in Minnesota looked like a foundation piece instead.
The timing was almost cruel in its symmetry. On the same afternoon the club braced for its biggest injury blow in months, its least-settled everyday player delivered his steadiest game.
What could have been a gut-punch turned into a statement. And the statement had almost nothing to do with the man everyone was worried about.
The Yankees hammered the Diamondbacks 9-2 at Chase Field on Friday night, hours after learning Aaron Judge would return to the injured list with a right calf strain that could end his regular season. New York improved to 89-64, won for the 11th time in 15 games, and pulled within four games of Tampa Bay in the AL East after the Rays lost 4-2 to Boston. The Yankees also stayed 5 1/2 games clear of the Red Sox for the top American League wild-card spot.
A five-run first that needed no superstar
The blueprint for life without Judge showed up immediately. The Yankees sent 10 men to the plate against Arizona left-hander Eduardo Rodriguez and scored five times before recording a second out.
Each of the first five hitters reached. Paul Goldschmidt walked, Cody Bellinger singled, and after another walk, Ben Rice drew a bases-loaded free pass to force in a run. Amed Rosario blooped a run-scoring single, a passed ball let Heliot Ramos score, and Lombard punched a two-run single up the middle for a 5-0 lead.
It was not one thunderclap swing. It was nine hitters grinding a former All-Star into 45 first-inning pitches. That patience is the version of the offense the Yankees will need most in October, when Judge’s absence turns every rally into a group effort.
Cole steadies himself, then makes history
The lead let Gerrit Cole exhale. The right-hander had allowed seven home runs across his previous two starts, and the noise about his October readiness had grown loud. He quieted much of it.
Cole gave up a two-run homer to Corbin Carroll in the second, again on a fastball left over the plate, but nothing else. He worked six innings, allowed two runs on four hits, walked none and struck out six on 90 pitches. Boone had said before the game that Cole would start in a wild-card series regardless.
Cole framed the outing as a step, not a fix. He explained that he had spent his time between starts tightening his delivery to sharpen his deception.
“I don’t think we did a perfect job tonight, but I think we moved the needle in the right direction,” Cole said. “I think there’s still some meat on the bone there. It’s not easy, but it’s necessary. It’s the big leagues.”
The win was the 162nd of Cole’s career, moving him past Mike Moore for the most by a pitcher taken first overall in the MLB Draft, a quiet milestone on a night built for other headlines.
A defensive miscue redeemed in real time
Here is the layer that gives the night its shape, and one few will center. Lombard’s error two days earlier in Minnesota had been part of a walk-off sequence that cost the Yankees a winnable game. Friday offered the rare thing sports seldom grants so quickly, a clean second chance.
His sixth-inning homer chased Rodriguez and pushed the lead to 7-2. For a rookie thrust into the shortstop job down the stretch, the response mattered more than the runs. Asked about the night, Lombard kept it simple.
“It was great from the start, just good at-bats all around,” Lombard said. “Obviously, there was a good pitcher on the mound. We made him work.”
The performance lands as the Yankees weigh postseason roles across the infield, where a rookie’s steadiness now carries real October weight.
Rice climbs toward 40 as Judge sits
Rice gave the Yankees another anchor. His third-inning homer off Rodriguez traveled 390 feet and was his 39th of the season, a total manager Aaron Boone claimed he predicted in spring training. Rice finished with the homer and a triple and has five long balls in his last 22 games.
The context around the swing was somber. Judge had fueled so many first innings over the years, and now the Yankees must chase October without him again. Rice spoke to the weight of the timing.
“It’s a tough blow for us to take,” Rice said. “We were missing him for a long time, so this one is especially hard to swallow. But we’ve got no choice but to just keep playing hard and keep doing our thing.”
The Yankees believe pitching will carry them regardless. Cam Schlittler, the likely AL Cy Young Award winner, is lined up to start a potential wild-card opener, with Max Fried and Carlos Rodon behind him.
New York and Arizona meet again Saturday, with Schlittler set to face Brandon Pfaadt. A looming four-game series against the Rays at Yankee Stadium, beginning Tuesday with a doubleheader, may decide the division. For one night, a shaken rookie and a steadied ace made the Yankees look ready.
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