Brett Gardner, D.J. LeMahieu and Luke Voit homered on consecutive pitches for the New York Yankees — and that was just the start of the night’s power surge.
By the time the barrage was over, the Yankees had hit a record-setting 2.29km of home runs in a three-game sweep of the Toronto Blue Jays.
The Yankees on Thursday tied a major league record with five home runs in an inning and hit six overall in a 10-7 victory that extended their winning streak to eight.
Photo: AP
“What a show,” Gary Sanchez, who also homered, said through a translator.
New York set a major league record for most home runs in a three-game span with 19 — three more than the previous high — and became the first team with six or more home runs in three straight games.
The Yankees (29-21) outscored Toronto 43-15 over the three games and outhit the Blue Jays 44-28, opening a 2.5 game lead over the Blue Jays for second place and closing within one game of Minnesota (31-21) for a first-round playoff series at home.
Voit’s home run was his major league-leading 20th.
Aaron Hicks struck out, and Giancarlo Stanton and Gleyber Torres followed with home runs that gave the Yankees a 9-2 lead and chased Chase Anderson.
The Yankees hit five homers in an inning for the first time, the seventh team to achieve the feat.
“That was a lot of fun.” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “Obviously, a tie game going into that inning and then everyone just started unloading with real good at-bats.”
“It was awesome,” said Stanton, who had four hits for the first time since July 23, 2018. “In general, it was just amazing to see everyone contribute like that.”
Sanchez, slumping for most of the season, added a seventh-inning homer off T. J. Zeuch for a 10-3 lead and raised his average to .145 with his first multi-hit game this year.
After losing 15 of 20 games and nearly dropping out of the American League’s eight playoff spots, the Yankees have outscored their opponents 71-20 over their winning streak.
Masahiro Tanaka (3-2) allowed three runs and seven hits in seven innings, striking out five.
Tanaka has thrown at least five innings in each of his past five starts.
Anderson gave up seven runs and eight hits in 2-2/3 innings.
He thought he might have been tipping pitches.
“Yeah, I think they put some good swings on all those pitches, so I [was] kind of wondering if I was doing something,” Anderson said.
Toronto closed in the ninth against Jonathan Holder on Danny Jansen’s run-scoring single and Cavan Biggio’s bases-loaded walk.
Aroldis Chapman relieved with the bases loaded and gave up a two-run single to Bo Bichette, then struck out Randal Grichuk and Teoscar Hernandez for his third save.
Chapman threw fastballs on all 12 pitches, ending the game with a 163kph pitch that Hernandez swung under.
“We could have just said OK, they’re swinging the bats great, we’re done. We came back and made them use their closer,” Blue Jays manager Charlie Montoyo said.
Elsewhere, the White Sox edged the Twins 4-3, the Red Sox beat the Marlins 5-3, the Giants sank the Mariners 6-4, the Angels defeated the Diamondbacks 7-3, the Astros outlasted the Rangers 2-1 and the Dodgers routed the Rockies 9-3.
The Mets mastered the Phillies 10-6, the Indians tamed the Tigers 10-3, Pirates crushed the Cardinals 5-1 and the Rays did the double over the Orioles, 3-1 and 10-6.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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