Yankees employ another power surge to avoid sweep vs. Diamondbacks

Join Post Sports+ for exciting subscriber-only features, including real-time texting with Greg Joyce about the inside buzz on the Yankees.On the final night of their opening homestand, the Yankees teed off on Arizona. And it’s a good thing they did, because a shaky Yankee bullpen nearly cost them again. But three more homers — including another by Aaron Judge — were enough to hold off the Diamondbacks, as the Yankees avoided a sweep in The Bronx with a 9-7 win on Thursday night. Judge’s three-run homer just three batters into the bottom of the first set the tone against right-hander Merrill Kelly. The Yankees scored nine runs off Kelly in just 3 ²/₃ innings en route to a six-run lead— which seemed safe until Ryan Yarbrough nearly set a torch to it when he entered in the seventh and loaded the bases with no one out before Geraldo Perdomo hit a grand slam to cut the lead to two runs. The lefty managed to retire the next two batters before Mark Leiter Jr.

finished the inning, as the pen recovered behind Leiter and Luke Weaver’s scoreless 2 ¹/₃ innings, with closer Devin Williams on the paternity list. The Yankees got off to a fast start as Ben Rice opened the bottom of the first with a booming ground-rule double to dead center.Cody Bellinger followed with a walk, and Judge hit a 112-mph rocket out to right-center to give the Yankees a 3-0 lead.It was Judge’s fifth homer of the young season. With two outs, Trent Grisham sent a double to the gap in left-center that just eluded left fielder Lourdes Gurriel Jr.

to score Jasson Domínguez from first. With an early lead, Carlos Carrasco issued a four-pitch leadoff walk to Josh Naylor and a one-out double to left to Eugenio Suárez, which led to an RBI groundout by Alek Thomas. The Yankees, though, tacked onto their lead in the third, again courtesy of Grisham. Starting in center, with Judge serving as DH and Bellinger in right, Grisham hit his first homer of the season, a two-run shot to r...