From Bryan Hoch:
As Yogi Berra might have said, it was déjà vu all over again.
The Yankees became the first team in AL/NL history to open multiple games with three consecutive homers in a single season, repeating their feat one month to the date. Trent Grisham, Aaron Judge and Ben Rice all went deep, setting the tone in a 15-3 rout of the Orioles at Camden Yards.
“It really starts with Grish; Grish got it going for us,” Judge said. “It gets you going, so it’s just kind of like, ‘Hey, I’ve got to go up there and try to do my job.’ It takes a little weight off everyone’s shoulders when Grish goes out there and does that. It was good.”
Cody Bellinger added a homer later in the inning as the Yankees notched the second four-homer opening frame in franchise history. That matched their output from March 29, when Paul Goldschmidt, Bellinger, Judge and Austin Wells went deep off the Brewers’ Nestor Cortes at Yankee Stadium.
“I definitely haven’t seen anything like it,” manager Aaron Boone said. “It’s hard to wrap your head around that.”
All four of Tuesday’s first-inning homers came off Kyle Gibson, who was thumped for nine runs over 3 2/3 innings. Boone said the Yankees “have a little bit of familiarity” with the 37-year-old right-hander, who was making his season debut after signing with Baltimore in late March.
“It was impressive at-bats, all up and down the first inning,” Judge said. “To see Bellinger get one there, which is big time, it’s good to see some of those guys rolling. This team kept the pedal to the metal.”
The power show nearly overshadowed an excellent performance by left-hander Carlos Rodón, who retired the first 15 batters he faced before issuing a walk. Jorge Mateo registered Baltimore’s first hit, a double to right field.
A night after the Orioles barely beat the Yankees with the Yankees dealing with a lot of bad luck, the Yankees destroyed the O’s in an easy win, with Carlos Rodon’s two runs seeming like the sort of runs you give up when your team is ahead by a dozen runs and you’re just trying to get the game over with. Rodon was much better than his final line suggested.
But, yeah, wow, what a fucking game! With Bellinger starting to hit a little bit, the top of the lineup is really quite formidable. I doubt Grisham keeps this up, but that’s the good thing. If he falls down, Dominguez can step right in there, or Bellinger might get hot.
Jazz Chisholm had to exit with an oblique injury, but he insisted after the game that the injury wasn’t a big deal. Hopefully he’s right. DJ LeMahieu, meanwhile, got a cortisone shot in his hip, so, well, either he’s out for the rest of the season, or he’ll be activated, suck because of the hip injury, and THEN go on the IL, after sucking for a month or so.
The featured image is Rodon oddly looking kind of cool, as he celebrates a great catch Judge made in right field.
Three teams, the Yankees included, scored 15 runs Tuesday.