NEW YORK — History has a way of tapping certain franchises on the shoulder. For the New York Yankees, it happened again Tuesday night in the Bronx — and not everyone noticed.
Amed Rosario delivered two home runs, including a go-ahead three-run blast in the eighth inning, to power the Yankees past the Athletics 5-3. It was a dramatic, come-from-behind victory at a chilly Yankee Stadium. The crowd left buzzing. The dugout erupted. But the real story went far deeper than one comeback win.
Rosario steps up in a cold Bronx night
Manager Aaron Boone chose to start the right-hand-hitting Rosario at third base in place of Ryan McMahon, with Athletics starter Aaron Civale, a neutral right-hander, on the mound. Boone had a feeling about the veteran.
“He’s just a good hitter,” Boone said before the game.
Those words held up. Rosario led off the scoring with a solo shot off Civale in the second inning. The Athletics clawed back against starter Cam Schlittler in the third, with Nick Kurtz lining a two-run double and Tyler Soderstrom adding a two-out RBI double to give the A’s a 3-1 lead.
Schlittler had retired 21 straight batters dating back to April 1 in Seattle before the third inning unraveled. Despite the rough patch, he finished the night with five innings pitched, five hits, three earned runs, zero walks and seven strikeouts. His walk-less streak on the season remained intact.
Then came the eighth. With the Yankees trailing 3-2, Giancarlo Stanton drove in a run with a single. That set the stage for Rosario, who turned on a pitch from ex-Yankee Mark Leiter Jr. and sent it 414 feet down the left-field line at 107.3 mph. Three runs scored. The stadium shook.
Rosario watched the ball go, pounded his chest and pointed at his teammates. The bench went wild.
“He’s become beloved in that room in short order,” Boone said. “I think they all get thrilled by his successes, too.”
Rosario, who signed a one-year, $2.5 million deal with New York this past offseason after hitting .303 with a .788 OPS in 16 games with the club down the stretch in 2025, deflected credit after the win.
“All these guys are great teammates, always supporting one another,” Rosario told reporters.
A stat 73 years in the making
Tuesday’s victory gave the 2026 Yankees 8 wins through their first 10 games of the season. More striking is what accompanied those wins: New York has allowed 25 or fewer runs over those 10 games. That combination — at least 8 victories and no more than 25 runs permitted — has happened only twice in Yankees history through a team’s first 10 games.
The other time was 1953.
That 1953 Yankees squad, managed by the legendary Casey Stengel, was in the middle of the most sustained dynasty in baseball history. The team went on to finish 99-52, won the American League pennant by 8.5 games over the Cleveland Indians and captured the World Series over the Brooklyn Dodgers in six games. It was New York’s fifth consecutive Fall Classic title — a record that still stands and one that no franchise has come close to matching.
That team was loaded. Yogi Berra led the club with 27 home runs and 108 RBIs. Mickey Mantle, Billy Martin and Joe Collins each slugged 20 or more. Whitey Ford went 18-6 with a 3.00 ERA. Eddie Lopat posted a 2.42 ERA. Nine pitchers threw at least 50 innings, and not one of them finished the year with an ERA over 4.00. The pitching staff conceded just 547 runs all season, the fewest in the American League.
That is the company the 2026 Yankees now keep.
Pitching anchors the early-season surge
The parallel between the two clubs starts with the pitching staff. Earlier this week, the 2026 Yankees set a record of their own — through seven games, they had allowed just eight total runs, tying the 2002 San Francisco Giants and the 1993 Atlanta Braves for the fewest runs permitted in the first seven games of a season in major league history.
That historic run of stinginess has cooled slightly — the Marlins tagged the Yankees for runs in a loss Sunday — but the staff’s season-long totals remain among the most impressive the franchise has posted in decades. Schlittler has emerged as an unexpected ace-caliber presence. Through his first three starts of 2026, the second-year right-hander has issued zero walks. His command has been a revelation.
The 1953 staff’s consistency was built over 154 games. The 2026 staff has 10 games of evidence. But the early indicators are striking, and they point in the same direction.
Two eras, one standard of excellence
The 1953 Yankees entered that season as defending champions. They had already won four straight titles and were driven by a roster most organizations could never dream of assembling. Mantle was 21 years old. Ford was 24. Berra was the backbone behind the plate. Stengel was at the height of his managerial brilliance. They went 11-3 in April alone and never looked back.
The 2026 Yankees are operating in a different era with different challenges. Ace Gerrit Cole continues to work back from injury. Carlos Rodon is also managing a hamstring issue. Yet the pitching staff has not skipped a beat, and the lineup, led by Aaron Judge, has provided enough run support when the Yankees have needed it most.
The roster is built around depth, versatility and veteran savvy — qualities that mirror the 1953 squad in spirit, if not in names. The Yankees don’t have a Yogi Berra in 2026, but they have Rosario coming off the bench and delivering two home runs in a critical April game. They don’t have a Whitey Ford, but Schlittler has pitched as if he belongs in the same conversation.
Whether the 2026 Yankees can sustain this level of play across 162 games remains to be seen. The 1953 club is the only measuring stick currently available, and that team went on to win it all.
For now, the Yankees have 8 wins, a pitching staff that has held opponents to 25 or fewer runs through 10 games, and a place in franchise history that only one other Yankees team can claim. That is no small thing.
The Bronx has been here before. The question is whether 2026 will end the same way 1953 did — with a championship banner hanging inside Yankee Stadium.
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