The New York Yankees achieved a significant offensive performance in their 11-2 victory over the Washington Nationals at Yankee Stadium on Wednesday. The highlight came in the third inning, when the Yankees sent 15 batters to the plate and scored nine runs. The rally included eight hits, three walks, and a catcher’s interference call. The inning lasted 41 minutes.
“It was outstanding,” manager Aaron Boone said. “That was some banging right there.”
Ben Rice started the inning with a single off Nationals pitcher Cade Cavalli, followed by back-to-back home runs from Aaron Judge and Cody Bellinger. Judge’s home run traveled 424 feet and was his 41st of the season, while Bellinger’s was his 25th.
“It’s just everybody clicking, everybody having good at-bats, not trying to do too much,” Judge said. “Guys just had good at-bat after good at-bat. Bellinger hits the big homer after me, and everybody’s trying to pass the baton.”
After Jazz Chisholm Jr. walked and stole second base, he scored on Jasson Domínguez’s ground-rule double. Austin Wells reached base due to catcher’s interference after a challenge by the Yankees. Ryan McMahon then hit a three-run homer, which ended Cavalli’s outing after allowing eight runs (seven earned) in just over two innings.
Shinnosuke Ogasawara entered as relief for Washington but gave up another home run to Rice during his second at-bat of the inning. This made it four home runs in one inning for New York—marking the third time this season they have done so and making them the first team in Major League Baseball history to achieve that feat three times in one year.
“It’s kind of crazy,” McMahon said. “Looking at the depth of our lineup, though, those are the kind of innings that I think our team can put together. Hopefully there’s a lot more of that in the future.”
Judge added another single later in the inning before walks loaded the bases again for Domínguez, who drove in another run with an infield single.
During this lengthy offensive surge, Yankees starter Max Fried took advantage of extra time between pitches by heading indoors for additional throwing as he waited out his teammates’ rally. Fried went on to pitch seven innings and allowed only one run.
“It’s a good problem to have, right?” said Fried, who improved his record to 14-5 with this outing. “It goes from 1-0 to 10-0; there are definitely worse things to happen.”
Anthony Volpe struck out twice during this frame—once ending it—and Nationals pitchers combined for 77 pitches during that third inning alone. According to available records since 2000, only one other team has thrown more pitches in an inning: The Marlins threw 91 against Boston on June 27, 2003.
Six different Yankees players homered during Wednesday’s game; Grisham opened with a leadoff homer and Wells hit another later on.
“This time of year you want as many guys feeling good about the way they’re playing as possible and I feel like we have a number of those guys,” Boone said. “We’ve got to get a few more guys going, but I feel like a lot of guys are in a good place.”
The win capped off four consecutive victories for New York following three losses against Boston earlier in their homestand—giving them wins in 11 out of their last 15 games. Over their sweep against Washington they scored a total of 26 runs—including ten home runs across three games (https://www.mlb.com/news/yankees-score-9-runs-send-15-batters-to-plate-in-third-inning).
“Good to see the guys come out today in a day game, getaway, with a chance to have a really good series and finish it off, really put an exclamation point on it,” Boone said. “Good day for us. Good flight. Now we’ve got to go get after it in Chicago.”
“I know we scored a lot of runs that inning, but you could tell from each guy up in the box, the guys on deck, even if you took a peek in the dugout, guys were locked in there on the top step,” Judge said. “That really helped us not think about how many runs we scored or what just happened. It was like ‘Hey you got a job to do up there It doesn’t matter how many outs who’s on base what the score is you’ve got to go up there and do a job.’ It’s what makes this team special.”
