Yanks win, tie MLB record with homers in 27 straight
NEW YORK — Aaron Hicks and Giancarlo Stanton stretched the Yankees’ home run streak to a major league record-tying 27 games, and New York beat the Toronto Blue Jays 10-8 on Monday night.
Hicks and Stanton each hit three-run drives, and NewYork matched the mark set by Alex Rodriguez and the 2002 Texas Rangers.
CC Sabathia (5-4) pitched six innings of tworun ball for his 251st career victory. He threw 104 pitches, his most in a game since 2016, and struck out a season-high nine. The 38year-old lefthander whiffed Billy McKinney with his final pitch, earning a big roar from the Bronx crowd.
Stanton hit his shot during a seven-run sixth inning for his first homer in a season spoiled by various injuries.
The Yankees batted around during that inning, their fourth time turning over the order in the past week. The blowout came a night after New York’s eight-game winning streak ended.
Blue Jays starter Aaron Sanchez (3-10) allowed seven runs in 5 1/3 innings. Toronto had won three of four.
Hicks
turned
on Sanchez’s fastball in the fifth inning to make it 3-2 with his fifth homer of the season.
Didi Gregorius and Gleyber Torres led off the next inning with consecutive singles, and then the Yankees were off. DJ LeMahieu, who matched a career high with four hits, had a single, Luke Voit had an RBI double and Gregorius singled again before reliever Sean Reid-Foley finally ended the frame with New York up, 10-3.
Lourdes Gurriel Jr. hit his 10th homer for Toronto leading off the eighth. Nine of those have come in 29 games since he was recalled from Triple A Buffalo on May 24.
Gurriel’s shot was the first of five straight hits allowed by Jonathan Holder, the last a grand slam by Freddy Galvis. The righthander was pulled after that without getting an out. Gurriel batted again during the five-run inning and struck out on three pitches against Adam Ottavino.
Yankees closer Aroldis Chapman allowed an unearned run during the ninth but got his 22nd save.
Sanchez looked sharp early, especially when he back-doored running fastballs to Voit and Hicks for consecutive strikeouts in the third. Amid Yankees talk, Stroman says he loves bright lights: Blue Jays righthander Marcus Stroman likes pitching in the Bronx, and he’d love it even more if he wasn’t facing the Bombers.
Asked before the game about trade speculation connecting him and New York, Stroman stopped short of saying he was hopeful for a deal but insisted he could handle the city’s notoriously tough stage.
“I love it. New York’s like the Mecca of the world,” Stroman said. “I love excitement. I love bright lights. I love competition. I love pressure.
“I’ve always loved pitching here, even though I haven’t always pitched fairly well here, I’ve always enjoyed it. Yankee lineups are brutal. They’re hard to kind of navigate. But yeah, I love the spotlight. The bigger the moment, that’s where I’ve always wanted to be.”
Stroman, 28, is from Long Island and still has family in the area. He was expecting about 40 family and friends for Monday night’s series opener. Stroman pitched six scoreless innings against the Red Sox at Fenway Park on Sunday and won’t throw during this three-game series.