The Yankees hit three more home runs on Wednesday night — the final game of their season-opening homestand — and needed all of it as the bullpen nearly came crashing down for a second time in the series during a 9-7 sweep-avoiding victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Aaron Judge hit his fifth home run of the season, a three-run shot, just three batters into the game off Arizona starter Merrill Kelly to spark a four-run first inning, which was polished off by a Trent Grisham RBI double.
Grisham got in on the action in the third with a two-run shot, his first of the year, to make it a 6-1 game.
Yankees (4-2) starter Carlos Carrasco, who joined the team on a minor-league deal in spring, did enough to pick up his first win of the season, allowing three runs on five hits with five strikeouts and two walks in 5.1 innings of work.
He left with a 9-3 lead after Judge drove in his fourth run of the night with a single and Jazz Chisholm Jr. lined his fourth home run of the year into the short porch in the bottom of the fourth.
Two nights night after Mark Leiter gave up an eighth-inning, game-deciding grand slam to Eugenio Suarez, reliever Ryan Yarbrough served up a Geraldo Perdomo grand slam in the top of the seventh to make it a 9-7 game. Yarbrough did not record an out to start the inning, walking two straight batters before Corbin Carroll’s single loaded the bases.
Leiter and Luke Weaver combined to stabilize the final 2.1 innings, allowing just one hit to secure the win.
