GRIND, SEALED DELIVERED
After going 32 games without a walk-off win this season, the Yankees are beginning to make a habit of it.
Giancarlo Stanton ripped a walk-off single to left in the bottom of the ninth inning Sunday to lift the Yankees to a 3-2 win — their second straight walk-off — over the Nationals at Yankee Stadium.
“It’s been tough here, but these guys keep grinding away and finding a way to win ballgames,” manager Aaron Boone said. “It’s not always going to be easy, you’re not always just going to have your way with a team, but you’re going to have to win these tough ones every now and then to be a little bit of a separator as a club. So good to see us get backto-back wins where it wasn’t perfect.”
The Yankees (18-16) finished the nine-game homestand at 7-2 and moved back to two games above .500 for only the second time this season.
Nationals closer Brad Hand had coughed up a 2-1 lead in Saturday’s ninth inning, a game the Yankees eventually won 4-3 in 11 innings. The lefty set himself up for more trouble Sunday when he began the bottom of the ninth by walking light-hitting Tyler Wade on four pitches.
Aaron Judge, who was out of the lineup in a decision Boone called “proactive,” pinch hit for Brett Gardner and drew a walk. DJ LeMahieu then beat out a double play to put runners on the corners with one out, setting the stage for Stanton’s winner.
Stanton, who began the Yankees’ homestand on an absolute tear, had been hitless in the series — including grounding into a double play with the go-ahead run on second in the seventh inning — but came through in his final at-bat.
“It’s big-time. I love those moments,” Stanton said. “I had one earlier in the game that I didn’t capitalize on. It’s not too often you get two opportunities in the same game, but you definitely better get the second one if you don’t get the first.”
The homestand was filled with strong starting pitching performances, with the latest coming from Domingo German. The right-hander finished on a sour note, giving up a game-tying, two-run home run to Kyle Schwarber in the seventh inning, but was otherwise sharp.
German allowed two runs over 6¹/3 innings, marking the 19th time in the last 20 games that a Yankees starter has allowed three earned runsorfewer.
“It’s been huge,” Boone said. “That’s been what’s set us up to be successful and win these games. It’s hard to string together wins when your starters aren’t pitching well. Obviously they have been. They’ve really set the tone for us.”
Aaron Hicks had given the Yankees a 1-0 lead in the third inning with an RBI single to score Gardner from second. It was a big hit from the left side of the plate, where the switch hitter has largely struggled this season, but Hicks is now batting 10-for-27 overall over his last nine games.
Gleyber Torres made it a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the sixth when he crushed his first home run of the year, a no-doubter to left field.
After Schwarber answered with his game-tying homer in the seventh, the Yankees wasted opportunities to retake the lead in the seventh and eighth innings. But Stanton delivered in the ninth, sending the Yankees into Monday’s off day and then a showdown with the Rays with plenty of momentum.
“These are great games to feed off of, battles back and forth,” Stanton said. “The way you find wins and the way you scrape them out, it pays off and it helps the flow of getting these wins in series.”