The Yankees' bats roared for three long balls, led by Aaron Judge's three-hit, four-RBI night, which was just enough for New York to hold on to a 9-7 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Thursday night at Yankee Stadium.
After striking out 30 times in the first two games of the series, the Yankees were more disciplined fanning only seven times.
Here are the takeaways...
-The Yankees were shut out for the first eight innings of last night's game, but they would get on the board early and often thanks to the long ball. Judge launched his fifth home run of the season, a three-run shot, to put his team up 3-0. It was Judge's 500th career extra-base hit and he's the third-fastest in franchise history to reach that mark (999 games).
Trent Grisham would drive in the fourth first-inning run with a two-out double that scored Jasson Dominguez. But that wasn't the end of Grisham's night. He would launch a two-run shot in the third (354 ft), depositing a 91 mph fastball down in the zone over the right field wall.
Judge would tack on an RBI single in the fourth before Jazz Chisholm Jr. launched a two-run shot of his own to make it 9-3. All of this came against one of Arizona's top three pitchers, Merrill Kelly. The right-hander allowed all nine runs in just 3.2 innings pitched.
-Carlos Carrasco made his first Yankees start on Thursday after pitching in relief over the weekend. In that appearance, he allowed three runs on five hits across two innings. This start was a lot different. The veteran right-hander cruised through three innings -- allowing a run on a groundout in the second -- but pitched into trouble in the fourth.
After a leadoff walk, a Josh Naylor single and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. double cut the Yankees lead to 6-2. But Carrasco came back by striking out the dangerous Eugenio Suarez before Alek Thomas grounded out to drive in Arizona's third run of the game. One final groundout helped Carrasco escape the fourth with minimal damage.
The 38-year-old left with one out in the sixth, putting a bow on a solid first start in pinstripes. Carrasco went 5.1 innings (82 pitches/55 strikes) allowing three runs on five hits and two walks while striking out five batters.
-In relief of Carrasco, the Yankees bullpen was mostly good but Ryan Yarbrough in the seventh struggled mightily. He allowed the Diamondbacks to load the bases with no outs before Geraldo Perdomo put a charge into one over the right field wall for a grand slam, cutting the Yankees lead to 9-7. The left-hander did get his next two batters out before he was subbed for Mark Leiter Jr.
This was the right-hander's first appearance since allowing a grand slam in Tuesday's implosion, but he struck out Gurriel Jr. to end the seventh.
-Manager Aaron Boone mixed up his lineup a bit. The changes saw Judge starting at DH with Grisham playing center and Cody Bellinger in right. Ben Rice started at first base -- and led off -- with J.C. Escarra making his first career start behind the plate. And the 29-year-old rookie was in the thick of it on Thursday.
After going hitless in his first two at-bats, Escarra laced a two-out double in the seventh inning for his first major league hit. Unfortunately for the Yankees, Rice struck out with the bases loaded. New York was 3-for-9 with RISP and left eight runners on base.
-After Leiter Jr., Luke Weaver came in for a four-out save and dominated, striking out one batter ...
