FROM BOMBING TO BOMBERS

Yanks wake up, smack four homers and beat Indians for 2nd straight win

CLEVELAND — Funny how just four swings can change everything.

Coming into Progressive Field for this fourgame series, the Bombers weren’t “banging, home runs, they looked lifeless at the plate and were booed out of Yankee Stadium on Wednesday. Two days later Giancarlo Staton hammered two home runs and Aaron Hicks and Rougned Odor had one each Friday night to power the Yankees to a 5-3 win over Cleveland at Progressive Field.

“Well, lately it’s, ‘Hey, I found the barrel,’ So that’s how those felt,” Stanton with a laugh about how it felt to finally break out. “I finally got some air under them.”

He could be speaking for the whole team really.

It was only the third time this season the Yankees (8-11) had won back-to-back games this and just the second time they have come back from a deficit of three runs or more. The first time was on Thursday night. The Bombers have won three of their last four, but have also lost six of their last nine.

It was also their first game this season with more than two homers.

After the Yankees had fallen into a 3-0 hole in the first, Hicks hit his second homer of the season with one out in the second. Odor hit a two-out, two-run shot to tie the game in that inning.

And then Stanton finally barreled the first one up.

Stanton led off the third crushing a 91-milean-hour fastball that Cleveland lefty Logan Allen left belt high for a 429-foot bomb to left field. The ball left the bat at 118-miles an hour.

In the fifth, he barrelled a 98-mile an hour fastball from right-handed reliever Trevor Stephan. This was just 115.7 mph off the bat and went 418 feet. He became the first hitter in the StatCast era to hit multiple home runs with an exit velocity of 115 mph or more in the same game.

“It’s weird. It’s just different. I’ve never seen anything like it.,” Aaron Boone said. “You just don’t see balls hit like that. And to hit two of them like he did in the game. I don’t know what that number ended up being on. But it was two really impressive swings. And when he’s locked in when he hits him like that it’s just different than anyone I’ve ever seen.”

Stanton had not hit multiple home runs in a season since September 27, 2018. The bombs to left field in the third inning and right in the fifth were his fourth and fifth homers of the season. Stanton, who was 3-for-35 before that first homer, had been swinging at balls out of the strike zone. He had 15 strikeouts in that span.

“I just think he’s got to get back into the strike zone and be committed,” Yankees hitting coach Marcus Thames said before the game of Stanton’s slide. “Swing with conviction and I think when you do that, that gets him on point.”

But Stanton wasn’t the only Yankee chasing hits as their losses piled up and the offense that was built to out-slug their opponents and overcome their defensive deficiencies, continued to fizzle. The Bombers went into Friday night’s game ranked last in baseball in slugging and a middling 21st in home runs.

Before the game, Thames diagnosed the offense as pressing.

“They’re chasing hits like I think they’re trying to get three hits in one or hit a three run home when nobody is on base at times ,” Thames said. “That just comes with, being an athlete trying to pick your teammates up but doing it the wrong way. “

The bats picked up Jordan Montgomery after a 37-pitch first inning that put them in a three-run hole. He returned the favor by retiring 12 of the last 14 hitters, getting through 3.2 more innings. Montgomery allowed three runs, two earned on four hits. He walked three and struck out five. He left in the fifth after giving up a double to Jonathan Lupow and a single to Jose Ramirez. Lucas Luetge gave the Yankees 1.1 scoreless innings to pick up his first win since Sept. 4, 2013 and Aroldis Chapman earned his fourth save, but had his streak of 15 straight appearances with at least two strikeouts end.

“We knew it was only a matter of time,” Montgomery said of the offense coming to life. “It was good. Stanton had a great night tonight. Really up and down the lineup, everyone had good ABs. They picked me up.”

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