NEW YORK — After the Yankees singled the Rays to death on Saturday, they broke out the big lumber in their 10-4 win on Sunday. The Bronx Bombers homered four times to bring their division lead back up to 5.5 games and four in the loss column.
Gleyber Torres accounted for half of those home runs. The second baseman ripped an opposite-field three-run homer in the first and went back-to-back with Giancarlo Stanton—who also blasted a three-run shot—in the second for his 21st of the season.
For Torres, it was his 12th career multi-homer game and second this season, the last coming on May 24 against the Baltimore Orioles.
The Yanks clubbed three homers in the second inning, the third coming off the bat of Oswaldo Cabrera. The 23-year-old’s no-doubter into the right field bleachers was the first of his major league career.
For the second straight game, the Yankees batted around in an inning. They recorded four walks, four hits and seven runs in the second—totaling 10 in the first two frames—continuing their weekend outburst.
Luis Patino lasted just two outs longer than Saturday’s starter Corey Kluber. The right-hander was ambushed with nine runs on five hits while walking four before being removed with one out in the second inning after tossing just 70 pitches.
The Bombers offense turned it on after entering the weekend averaging just 3.3 runs per game since Aug. 9. This marks the fifth time they’ve scored double-digit runs in back-to-back games, the last time being July 16-17 against the Red Sox.
Aaron Boone gave the Rays a taste of their own medicine with his pitching formula on Sunday. Domingo German started the game on short rest, however, a two-hour rain delay likely hindered the plan for him to throw 45 pitches. German managed one scoreless inning on 14 total pitches.
From there, Boone called on eight different pitchers to finish out the final eight innings. In order: Lucas Luetge, Greg Weissert, Wandy Peralta, Lou Trivino, Ron Marinaccio, Clarke Schmidt and Clay Holmes. The bullpen combined for eight innings allowing four runs while striking out eight.
The Rays four runs were charged to four different pitchers in the form of Luetge, Weissert, Marinacci and Holmes.
The Bombers early onslaught was all they needed as they finish their season series against the Rays winning 11 of their 19 matchups. If the AL East comes down to a tiebreaker, the Yanks would have the edge due to their head-to-head record.
