Yankees start with a slam to pound Pirates, but Aaron Judge still sitting at 60 homers
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The New York Yankees started Wednesday’s game against the Pittsburgh Pirates almost the same way they finished the night before, with a grand slam.
That this one wasn’t preceded by an Aaron Judge homer left Yankees fans disappointed. They came to see the slugger make history by matching Roger Maris’ American League home run record, only to watch Judge go 2 for 4 with two doubles, a walk and two runs scored.
Oswaldo Cabrera’s first-inning grand slam spoiled a career-best 10-strikeout performance by Pirates rookie starter Roansy Contreras, and Gleyber Torres homered twice in an eight-run eighth as the Yankees rolled to a 14-2 win at Yankee Stadium.
“In the first inning, we’ve got to put the ball on the plate,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said on the AT&T SportsNet postgame show. “We can’t put ourselves in a deficit like that.”
It marked the 13th time this season that the Pirates have surrendered 10 or more runs, including a 16-0 loss to the Yankees on July 6 at PNC Park, and the ninth time they lost by double-digit runs.
It was the sixth consecutive loss for the Pirates, who started their 10-game road trip with a sweep of the Cincinnati Reds but were swept in four games by the New York Mets and in two games by the Yankees.
“We’ve got to flush,” Shelton said. “We started this road trip really well by winning four games, then we came in and played two playoff teams that are both playing really well right now.”
All rose as Judge came to bat to lead off the bottom of the first inning, hoping to witness history in the making. He led off the ninth Tuesday with his 60th homer, tying Babe Ruth for second-most in Yankees and AL history. Instead, Judge drove a first-pitch fastball for a double to left. Gleyber Torres and Giancarlo Stanton drew walks to load the bases.
Where it was Stanton who hit the walk-off grand slam in the ninth for a 9-8 win Tuesday, this time Cabrera sent a 1-1 slider 403 feet over the right-field fence for his first career slam and 4-0 lead.
Yankees right-hander Luis Severino didn’t allow a hit until the fourth inning, when Rodolfo Castro singled, raced to third on Ben Gamel’s single to center and scored on a sacrifice fly to right by Ke’Bryan Hayes to cut it to 4-1.
One of four players acquired from the Yankees in the Jameson Taillon trade in January 2021, Contreras was pitching in Yankee Stadium for the first time and had an uneven start.
Contreras fanned 10 through 4 2/3 innings, the most by a Pirates rookie pitcher since Gerrit Cole had 12 strikeouts on Sept. 19, 2013, against San Diego. The Yankees, however, tagged Contreras for six runs on six hits, including four doubles and the slam.
Contreras got Judge swinging at a 1-2 slider in the second, but Judge answered with a ground-rule double that bounced over the left-field fence in the fifth, then scored on a single to left by Torres for a 5-1 lead. Contreras was pulled after Josh Donaldson’s double to the right-center scored Torres to make it 6-1.
The Pirates cut it to 6-2 when Castro hit a two-out triple and scored on a single to left by Hayes in the sixth.
The Yankees batted around the order in the eighth, which saw Torres homer twice, first off Pirates righty Miguel Yajure and then off lefty Eric Stout. Torres started with a 355-foot solo shot to right field for his 22nd home run and a 7-2 lead. Yajure walked Donaldson and Stanton, then gave up an RBI double to Cabrera to make it 8-2.
Stout replaced Yajure but fared no better, giving up a two-run double to Harrison Bader and an RBI double to Jose Trevino as the Yankees stretched their lead to 11-2.
“We just didn’t throw the ball on the plate,” Shelton said. “When we did throw it on the plate, it looked like we threw it right down the middle. You throw the ball right down the middle against this club in this ballpark, you’re going to get damage. And we got damage. It got away from us really quickly.”
That brought Judge to bat again, but he drew a four-pitch walk that caused fans to leave the game and miss Torres homering again, this time a 398-foot, three-run shot to left to increase the lead to double digits.
“I kind of figured that’s what the crowd reaction was going to be,” Shelton said. “I’ve been to Yankee Stadium a lot of times. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anybody stay when the score is like that.”