David Lennon: Yankees' bats get lucky 13 in third inning vs. A's
Ben Rice of the Yankees hits a two-run double against the Athletics in the top of the third inning at Sutter Health Park on Sunday in Sacramento, Calif. Credit: Getty Images/Thearon W. Henderson
WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- On a toasty Sunday afternoon, playing at a borrowed Triple-A ballpark with Major League Baseball’s first female umpire calling balls and strikes, the Yankees took their own big swing at making some remarkable history.
Actually, dozens of swings. Incredibly, all in the same inning.
Jen Pawol, the former Hofstra softball star-turned-umpiring trailblazer, was witness to the astonishing pinstriped parade that marched through Sutton Health Park during the Yankees’ 13-8 victory over the hapless A’s. Most of her job Sunday involved making sure they all touched the plate.
The Yankees scored 13 runs and had 11 hits in a third inning that stretched for 43 minutes, a relentless rally that fell one run short of the franchise record for a single inning set on July 7, 1920, against the Washington Senators. It was the fifth time they had scored at least 13 in the same inning. They hadn’t done it since 2005, when they accomplished the feat twice.
And the most prolific home run-hitting team in the majors did it all without smashing a single ball over the fence.
Another oddity: The Yankees were held hitless in the other eight innings, and the only runner to reach base was Cody Bellinger, who had a leadoff walk in the sixth. He was erased on a double play. They sent 18 batters to the plate in the third inning and 18 in the final six.
“Was just a strange day all around,” said manager Aaron Boone, whose club wrapped a 5-1 road trip in the most bizarre fashion. “Just glad to escape here and get on the bird.”
The first 12 batters in the third inning reached base, tying the team record set in 1949 — also against the Senators. The MLB record is 14, which the Tigers did to the Yankees on June 17, 1925.
During the merciless third-inning march, every starter but Austin Wells (two walks) had at least one hit. Anthony Volpe, Ben Rice and Bellinger each had two hits. Rice had four RBIs.
“I think it kind of showcased what our lineup is capable of and how dangerous it is in so many different ways,” said Volpe, who joined Alan Trammell (1983) and Mike Cameron (2002) as the only players since 1974 to have two hits, two steals and two runs scored in the same inning. “I feel like we could have those same types of games, those same types of innings, every night.”
This one, apparently, needed a verbal kick in the pants from the captain as the ignition. After the Yankees fell behind 3-0 in the first inning — Trent Grisham dropped a two-out pop-up to allow two runs to score and Lawrence Butler added an RBI single — Aaron Judge called out his teammates in the top of the third.
“I think we were kind of asleep there early,” said starter Will Warren (7-1), who went six innings and actually had to throw a handful of pitches in the bullpen to stay warm during that lengthy third. “Then Judge said something, like let’s wake up, and the boys woke up.”
Said Judge, “I expect more out of the guys, and I know they expect more out of themselves. So yeah, a couple choice words there, just to get it going. And the boys responded.”
That’s putting it mildly. The crazy 12-batter streak began with Volpe’s broken-bat bloop single to shallow centerfield. Eight hits and four walks later, it ended when Paul Goldschmidt struck out on three pitches — the last a called third strike that probably would have been overturned if Goldschmidt had challenged it.
That still didn’t do much to slow down the Yankees’ onslaught as Rice, who already had a two-run double in the inning that tied it at 3-3, followed the strikeout by rocketing a two-run triple to rightfield.
The only other interruption? It was Judge, who whiffed for the second out.
The three-time MVP and local favorite — Judge is from nearby Linden, California, roughly 50 miles away — kept the streak alive earlier with an RBI single, a 79-mph rainbow that dropped between a trio of A’s in shallow centerfield for a 4-3 lead. According to Statcast, the pop-up had a 2% chance of safely landing for a hit.
Grisham had a two-run single for a 7-3 lead, Volpe added an RBI single and Max Schuemann had a two-run double. After Goldschmidt’s strikeout, Rice tripled home two runs, and after Judge struck out, Bellinger’s RBI single made it 13-3.
With “Let’s Go Yankees!” chants coming from the sellout crowd of 12,514, the inning finally closed with Grisham’s lineout to rightfield. Waiting on deck was Volpe, who nearly got to bat for a third time in the same inning. “It was crazy,” he said. “I felt like I would run the bases, then I’d get up and have to put my stuff back on. It was a cool feeling.”
Not so much for the A’s, who needed three different arms — and 75 pitches — to get through the third inning alone. Starter Jacob Lopez, who retired the first six Yankees of the game, threw 27 pitches without recording an out. His big mistake? Walking the Nos. 8 and 9 hitters — Schuemann and Wells — to give the Yankees’ rally some early momentum. He also forgot to cover first base on Goldschmidt’s routine grounder to first, which wound up an infield single and a very bad blunder in hindsight.
Next was Michael Kelly, who threw 42 pitches, then Jack Perkins — part of the A’s ninth-inning meltdown Saturday — who finally got Grisham on six pitches.
The previous night, the A’s almost kicked away a 6-1 lead in the ninth on three consecutive bases-loaded walks to Rice, Judge and Bellinger before Jazz Chisholm Jr.’s hard grounder ultimately let them off the hook. On Sunday, the Yankees swung the bats, to devastating effect.
David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.
