NEW YORK - The Yankees got the kind of September win that can look ordinary until you check the standings. A 6-1 victory over the Rockies on Wednesday night at Yankee Stadium gave them another clean result, another step toward October, and a reminder that some of their most useful pieces are not the obvious ones.
The biggest swing belonged to George Lombard Jr., a rookie shortstop just a month into his big league career. In the third inning, he jumped a hanging slider and sent it into the short porch for a grand slam, the first of the Yankees’ season. Four runs crossed, a close game opened up, and the night tilted hard in New York’s favor.
That burst backed a sharp outing from Will Warren, who worked six innings and allowed one run while striking out eight and walking two. Against a Rockies club that entered at 55-90, he stayed in control throughout and kept the Yankees from ever having to sweat too long.
The game also came with a bit of lineup shuffling before first pitch. Hours earlier, the Yankees placed second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. on the injured list with a right thumb sprain and called up Anthony Volpe to take his place. Even with that change, they handled business and improved to 83-62, a season-high 21 games over .500.
Aaron Judge was part of the evening’s quiet stability, too. In his second game back from a broken rib, he had two singles and played eight innings in right field, one more than he handled on Tuesday. Cody Bellinger also went deep.
But the more revealing performance came from Luis Garcia Jr., the left-handed bat the Yankees paid for with four right-handed pitchers in a deadline deal with Washington. He set the tone with a solo homer to right-center in the second inning, his 29th of the season, and finished 2-for-4 with a double and two runs scored.
Garcia has been one of the most productive pieces in the lineup since arriving. He has hit .292 with a .337 on-base percentage and a .500 slugging percentage as a Yankee, along with five homers and a 132 wRC+. Wednesday was his 10th multi-hit game since the trade deadline.
The fit has sharpened with time. Garcia came over after hitting 23 homers for the Nationals and leading the National League in slugging at the time of the deal.
Boone didn’t exactly hide what he saw in him then, saying: “He rakes,” Boone said. “He can really hit.”
The Yankees needed that kind of thump when Judge went down on May 31 and the offense spent much of the summer searching for a rhythm. Garcia was brought in to hit, and against right-handed pitching he has done that while allowing Ben Rice to settle in at designated hitter.
With Judge back and Bellinger healthy, Garcia no longer has to carry the load. He can sit lower in the order and still punish pitchers who thought they had made it through the danger.
Warren’s night may matter just as much down the road. He has now allowed two earned runs or fewer in five straight starts, and Wednesday marked his highest strikeout total since June 20 against the Reds. Five days earlier, he threw 2 1/3 scoreless innings of relief against the Padres, then returned to the rotation with rising velocity for a third straight outing.
His season line now sits at 10-6 with a 4.05 ERA and 141 strikeouts over 142 1/3 innings. For Aaron Boone, that kind of stretch is exactly what a club wants to find late in the year. The Yankees have spent much of the season looking for another starter they can trust in a short series, and Warren is giving them a real argument.
The bullpen did its part, too. John Schreiber, Paul Blackburn and Michael Fulmer combined for three scoreless innings, and Bellinger’s homer helped ensure David Bednar didn’t have to come in after pitching the ninth on Tuesday.
Then there’s the part that can get buried in a routine final score: the Yankees’ playoff magic number dropped to five. Boston’s loss helped restore a four-game cushion for the top American League wild-card spot, which would carry home-field advantage in the first round.
The Yankees have won seven of their last 10 and 15 of their last 22. They are still four games behind the Rays with 17 to play, but they are also four games clear of the Red Sox for the top wild card. The path is tight, but it’s there.
Lombard’s slam also put him in rare company. At 21 years and 99 days, he became the second-youngest Yankee to hit a grand slam, behind only Mickey Mantle. It also kept the franchise from an odd piece of history, since the Yankees were in danger of finishing a season without a grand slam for the first time since 1990.
Warren, watching the rookie’s moment unfold, summed him up this way: “He’s young, but he carries himself like he’s been around for a long time,” Warren said.
The Yankees keep finding reasons to believe. Judge is getting closer, Warren is settling in, and the deadline bat people questioned keeps producing. In September, that’s the kind of combination that matters.
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Cody Bellinger helped set the tone by scoring the first run and adding a double in the eighth inning, while Heliot Ramos delivered the biggest swing with a three-run home run. Aaron Boone also pulled Judge after six innings to keep him protected as he continues ramping up for the postseason, a small but telling sign that the Yankees are trying to balance the return of their centerpiece with the broader need to keep everyone else engaged and ready. [Read more 🡒]