NEW YORK — Beaming and thumping his chest, J.C. Escarra turned to seek out virtually the complete Yankees roster chasing him, a deserved celebration after his first game-ending swing within the huge leagues. The rookie first noticed Austin Wells about to deal with him, then felt Anthony Volpe attempting to tear his pinstriped jersey off, the buttons barely holding collectively.
“These are the moments that I’ll always remember,” Escarra stated. “These are stuff you dream about as a child, and it’s all unfolding in actual time in entrance of my eyes.”
Escarra lifted the deciding sacrifice fly, and several other of his teammates delivered memorable performances in arguably the membership’s greatest win of the season to this point. Trent Grisham got here off the bench to crack a game-tying homer and Devin Williams pinned the bases loaded in a vital spot, establishing the Yankees’ 4-3, 10-inning victory over the Padres on Wednesday night at Yankee Stadium.
“Simply a variety of battle, a variety of grit,” Grisham stated. “This collection was sort of like the power of the blokes which are on this locker room; there was a variety of battle. Each sport, we had been down, combating again. We had been in each single one in every of them, after which to come back away with the final two was enormous.”
Wednesday’s comeback was unbelievable, delivered after San Diego’s Dylan Stop carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning. Cody Bellinger shattered Stop’s bid for historical past with a second-deck homer, a swing that modified every thing. The Yanks had successful, the sport was tied and Stop would quickly exit with a proper forearm cramp.
San Diego scored a pair of runs within the eighth; considerably confusingly, loud reactions rippled by the group whereas the Padres moved forward. These cheers, nevertheless, had been for the Knicks, who overcame a 20-point deficit to stun the Celtics in Sport 2 of the NBA’s Japanese Convention Semifinals. Many followers had been multitasking, monitoring the hoops motion on their telephones.
“I figured the Knicks had been doing properly,” supervisor Aaron Boone stated.
So would the Yankees, and Grisham had the response his workforce wanted.
Considered as a supplementary piece of the blockbuster swap that fitted Juan Soto for pinstripes in December 2023, Grisham has benefited from elevated taking part in time, proving to be way more than his defense-first scouting report would counsel. Grisham’s second-deck drive to proper area off Jason Adam was his tenth homer of the yr, surpassing his complete from all of final season.
“I’m having enjoyable with the blokes, I might say that greater than something,” Grisham stated. “The clubhouse is actually good in right here, led by ‘Cap’ [Aaron Judge]. So, I might say the blokes have been essentially the most fulfilling half.”
Luke Weaver recorded 5 outs in reduction, and the bullpen telephone rang for Williams, whose first month-plus as a Yankee has hardly equaled expectations. Dislodged from the nearer’s position in April, Williams was unbowed by a tough efficiency in Monday’s collection opener, insisting that his confidence continues to construct.
Boone has been steadfast in his perception that Williams will play a key position for the Yanks this season. Nonetheless, his reasoning for inserting Williams right into a high-leverage state of affairs on this evening was easy: “We would have liked him, interval.”
With no security web and an automated runner dancing from second base, Williams navigated the highest of the order. It wasn’t clear, not with a stroll and successful batter, but it surely was efficient — particularly the full-count “Airbender” that fell off the desk to strike out Xander Bogaerts, pinning the bases loaded.
Williams pumped his fist, roared, then roared once more, although he’ll want to observe the video to really expertise it. Williams stated he “sort of blacked out, which is an efficient factor — “I used to be fully locked in on what I used to be doing.”
“It was an enormous spot, you already know?” Williams added. “Beginning with the [automatic] runner at second, getting out of that with out giving up any runs, I felt like our guys had been going to come back by and the sport was going to be over — and it was.”
Grisham’s homer, Williams’ escape and Escarra’s sac fly wouldn’t have been attainable with out Max Fried, because the Yankees improved to 8-0 within the left-hander’s begins.
Persevering with a dominant opening to his Yankees profession, Fried handcuffed the Padres over seven innings of one-run ball. He struck out eight, walked none and scattered 5 hits, together with Jackson Merrill’s fourth-inning residence run, which represented the primary earned run Fried had permitted since April 15.
“I believed this may need been his greatest command sport, in my view, all yr,” Boone stated, “Clearly, that’s saying one thing, with how properly he’s pitched.”
Fried’s ERA is an American League-best 1.05 by 51 2/3 innings. In franchise historical past, solely Whitey Ford (1.01 ERA in 1956) and Phil Niekro (1.04 ERA in 1984) have fared higher over their first eight begins of a season.
“We went out and there and performed our model of baseball,” Fried stated. “It was actually huge. We went down, however the offense all the time got here again and answered. It’s only a actually good collection win.”
