WASHINGTON D.C — For seven innings Saturday afternoon, the Yankees lineup barely made a sound. Miles Mikolas, a reliever with a 5.78 ERA, had thrown four shutout innings against them. New York trailed 2-0 and looked headed for a quiet finish to a loud week.
Then the eighth inning arrived, and the Yankees did what they had done all series. They hit the ball over the fence, and they did it in a hurry.
Ryan McMahon, Trent Grisham and Paul Goldschmidt all homered in the eighth to turn the deficit into a 4-2 win over the Nationals at a muggy Nationals Park. It was the Yankees’ third straight victory, and their third straight late-inning rescue.
A team that spent late June and early July losing its grip has found a strange and effective new identity. Call them what one broadcast did: the cardiac kids.
Three swings, one inning, one lead
The rally started with one out and a fresh face on the mound. McMahon, who delivered a 12-pitch RBI double in Thursday’s win at Tampa Bay, turned on a pitch from Orlando Ribalta and drove it to right-center for a solo home run that pulled the Yankees within 2-1.
Ben Rice followed with a walk, his fourth time reaching base, and left for pinch-runner Jose Caballero. Washington summoned former Yankees prospect Clayton Beeter, and Grisham greeted him with a two-run drive to the second deck in right field for a 3-2 lead.
Goldschmidt made it back-to-back, driving his 15th home run of the season to left-center for an insurance run. It was his first homer since June 24, one night after he snapped an career-worst 0-for-34 skid.
The sequence pushed a familiar fact to its extreme. All nine of the Yankees’ runs across the first two games of this series had come on home runs, and every one of them had come against a Washington bullpen that leads the majors with 27 blown saves.
Schlittler grinds when he isn’t sharp
The win looked unlikely early because Cam Schlittler, the Yankees’ All-Star right-hander, gave up runs on the first pitches he could least afford. James Wood turned on Schlittler’s opening fastball and drove it out. Two batters later, Curtis Mead added another for a 2-0 Nationals lead.
It was only the second time all season Schlittler had allowed multiple homers in a start. But rather than unravel, he settled in, allowing just two more singles the rest of the way and finishing 6 2/3 innings with six strikeouts against a season-high-tying four walks.
His early damage nudged his American League-leading ERA from 2.01 to 2.05, but the outing kept the Yankees close enough to strike. Schlittler framed the day as a test of adjustment rather than dominance.
A bullpen that has quietly steadied
Behind Schlittler, the Yankees leaned on the arms that have carried the relief corps through a turbulent season. Fernando Cruz needed just seven pitches to breeze through the eighth. Brent Headrick, one of the sport’s surprise relievers this year, earned the win after escaping a bases-loaded jam in the seventh by striking out CJ Abrams.
David Bednar closed it out for his 18th save, allowing only a single to Wood before locking down the ninth. A night earlier he had thrown two innings to finish the win, and he arrived Saturday certain he would be available again.
Bednar’s steadiness is a recent development. After a rough start that pushed his ERA above 5.00 and a costly blown save against the Mets in May, he leaned on his splitter and stopped surrendering runs. Over two games in Washington, Cruz and Bednar combined for scoreless, near-hitless relief.
Riding a streak into the break
The Yankees improved to 53-42 and have now won three in a row for the first time since a four-game run in mid-June. They had dropped 11 of 13 before this stretch, a slide that knocked them from first place and left them chasing Tampa Bay in the AL East.
The turnaround has come without Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton, and by leaning on a Nationals team that scores in bunches and gives it right back. Washington entered the series second in the majors in home runs, yet its bullpen has been the gift the Yankees needed.
New York can complete a sweep Sunday, with Will Warren starting the final game before the All-Star break. A team that looked lost two weeks ago can now enter the break on its best run of the season.
The formula has been unusual, all homers and late thunder, but the Yankees are not questioning it. As McMahon put it, the season is a thing you ride rather than steer.
“You just got to ride the waves of the season,” McMahon said.
For Boone, the afternoon carried a personal marker. The win was the 750th of his managerial career.
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