NEW YORK — The play that turned the Yankees game will not lead many recaps.
With the score tied 5-5 in the seventh inning Wednesday night, Yankees reliever Paul Blackburn caught Josh Naylor leaning at first base and picked him off to end the frame. One throw, one out, one inning over.
The Yankees walked off the field with the momentum, and they never gave it back. New York scored three runs in the bottom of the seventh to take the lead for good, then pulled away for a 10-5 win over the Seattle Mariners at Yankee Stadium.
Trent Grisham homered twice and drove in four runs. Spencer Jones added three RBIs from the No. 3 spot. But it was Blackburn’s heads-up move, a small defensive play buried in the box score, that flipped a tie game and kept a fragile Yankees lineup in front.
The victory was the Yankees’ fourth straight comeback win and their fourth in five games. It pushed them to 68-52, and it came in a way this team has rarely managed lately: going away.
A lineup missing three stars scores 10
The offensive outburst was the story fans will remember. New York played without Aaron Judge, Cody Bellinger and Giancarlo Stanton, yet piled up 13 hits, including six doubles and Grisham’s two home runs. Eight of the 13 hits went for extra bases.
It was the Yankees’ first double-digit run total since July 9 at Tampa Bay. Wednesday marked just the fifth time in their previous 48 games that they had scored more than five runs. For a lineup that had leaned entirely on its pitching, the profile looked different.
New York did not do it in one burst. The Yankees scored in the second, third, fifth, seventh and eighth innings, chipping away at deficits of 3-0 and 5-3 before taking control. Grisham cut the lead to one with a two-out solo homer in the fifth.
Grisham finished 3-for-5 with 10 total bases from the leadoff spot. He capped the night with a two-run homer in the eighth, his ninth career multihomer game. He entered the day 8-for-17 with three home runs and four doubles over his previous four games.
Jones followed with a game-tying double moments later. Ryan McMahon doubled in the second and finished with two hits. Ben Rice reached base three times and scored three runs. George Lombard Jr. added two hits from the bottom of the order.
Boone’s gamble on Jones pays off
Manager Aaron Boone made a bold lineup call. He moved Jones, batting .129 in nine August games, into the No. 3 spot for only the second time. The rookie responded with two doubles and three runs driven in.
Boone said the breakout was overdue for a group that had gone cold without its stars, and he praised the way the lineup stayed patient against a Seattle staff built to limit runs.
“To break out like that, we haven’t done that in a while, against a team that’s good at limiting runs, good to see everyone contribute, especially when you fall behind like that in the first inning,” Boone said. “We just kept kind of crawling our way back into it.”
The Yankees loaded the bases in the seventh, and Seattle intentionally walked Heliot Ramos to face the struggling Jazz Chisholm Jr. Chisholm drew a bases-loaded walk to make it 8-5. Boone liked the at-bats his left-handed hitters produced against the lefty reliever.
“Some good left-on-left at-bats,” Boone said. “Eventually the dam broke.”
The bullpen bails out Warren
For weeks, elite starting pitching had carried an anemic offense. Wednesday flipped the script. Starter Will Warren allowed five runs and six hits in four innings, tying a career high by giving up three home runs. Randy Arozarena and Julio Rodriguez went deep in the first inning, and Dominic Canzone homered in the third.
This time the offense and the bullpen rescued the starter. Five relievers combined for scoreless innings after Warren departed. Blackburn earned the win, and Brent Headrick struck out the side in the eighth. Grisham, briefly booed after letting a shallow pop drop for a double in the second, more than made up for it.
Where the Yankees stand
The win clinched the series and left the Yankees a game from a sweep. The Mariners have lost six straight, dropping to 56-65 and a season-high nine games under .500. Bryce Miller took the loss after allowing five runs in six innings.
New York remains second in the AL East, six games behind the Tampa Bay Rays, who have won nine in a row. The Yankees hold a four-game lead over the Boston Red Sox, who have dropped five straight, for the top wild-card spot.
The bigger picture is a lineup that may be waking up just as reinforcements near. Grisham, Jones and the rest carried the load with the stars still out. If that continues, the Yankees become far harder to pitch around.
The clubs close the series Thursday afternoon. Left-hander Max Fried is set to face Seattle right-hander Logan Gilbert. For one night, the Yankees did not need their pitching to save them. A quiet pickoff and a loud offense did the job instead.
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