The Yankees have hammered opponents in the first half of the season
They hit six homers, including two grand slams, and scored six innings from Luis Severino.
Next, they’re tasked with taking on an improved Red Sox team that had all but surrendered after a 10-19 start to the season. But Boston has moved up to second place in the AL East with Tampa Bay, albeit a whopping 14 games behind the Yankees, who improved to 59-23 with the win over the Pirates.
The Yankees looked good after losing to Pittsburgh on Tuesday and ended Wednesday night with a season-high 22 goals.
Joey Gallo, Josh Donaldson and Kyle Higashioka, all broken down, hit solo homers to ignite the offense, with Donaldson and Gallo going back to back in the sixth with two outs.
Aaron Judge hit a grand slam on former Yankee Manny Bañuelos in the eighth inning to make his Pirates debut, and Aaron Hicks added a grand slam to second baseman Josh VanMeter, who fielded the ninth inning.
Judge’s home run was his MLB-leading 30th of the year. That’s putting it mildly.
After rain in the area delayed the start of the game by more than an hour, Severino came on in the first inning out of trouble.
He allowed a leadoff single to Ke’Bryan Hayes and a double to Bryan Reynolds before falling behind Jack Suwinski, 3-0. But Severino got Suwinski to pop to second and Daniel Vogelbach to strike out looking before Yoshi Tsutsugo grounded to first to keep the game scoreless..
Severino eliminated 12 straight batters before Oneil Cruz went single in the fifth infield.
The Yankees broke through in the fifth.
Gallo went to the start of the rally. Isiah Kiner-Falefa singled out on the left side of infield to send Gallo into third place.With Higashioka at the plate, Kiner-Falefa stole second before LeMahieu hit a two-run single down the middle with a tie in the infield.
Luis Severino scored six innings of shutout in the Yankees’ landslide win.
The judge then hit a double off the wall to right center, but third base coach Luis Rojas unwisely sent LeMahieu home and was picked for the second out at the plate. Matt Carpenter huffed and then huffed to hold the game by two runs.
Donaldson took out Mitch Keller with two outs in the sixth inning for his first home run since June 19 and Gallo followed with his first since June 17. . The Yankees loaded bases later in the inning, with Donaldson striking three.
Wandy Peralta replaced Severino after a long seventh-place spike. Severino had axed three and allowed just four hits in his jewel of 88 pitches.
Now the Yankees are moving to Boston, where Thursday’s game will be the first of 16 remaining between the two rivals. It will also be the Yankees‘ first trip to Fenway Park since losing the wild-card game there last October.
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