Four homers in 8th lead to Yankees win
Home runs have been coming in bunches for the New York Yankees in recent games, and they got a bunch more Saturday.
Brett Gardner, Matt Holliday, Starlin Castro and Didi Gregorius all hit solo homers in the eighth inning, leading Jordan Montgomery and Yankees over the Toronto Blue Jays 7-0.
The Yankees tied the franchise record with four homers in an inning. Gardner led it off with a home run and then with two outs, Holliday, Castro and Gregorius connected in succession.
“It’s pretty impressive, a lot of fun to be a part of,” Gardner said.
It was the 25th multihomer game of the season for New York, second in the majors to Tampa Bay (26). The Yankees have gone deep in 13 of their past 15 games, hitting 25 homers in that span.
“We’re getting it from all spots in the lineup, which is really nice,” manager Joe
Girardi said.
All eight of New York’s hits were for extra bases. The Yankees had four doubles, with Castro, Gregorius, Aaron Judge and Aaron Hicks hitting them.
Jason Grilli became the first reliever in Blue Jays history to allow four homers in a single inning. He declined to speak to reporters following the game.
Blue Jays manager John Gibbons stuck with Grilli as long as he could because,
as he said, “our guys in the `pen are running on fumes right now.”
This was the fourth time the Yankees have hit four homers in an inning — they last did it Oct. 1, 2012, against Boston. They first did it in 1977 at Toronto against the expansion Blue Jays, with Cliff Johnson connecting twice and Lou Piniella and Thurman Munson once each.
Montgomery (3-4) gave up three singles in six innings, striking out five and walking three for his first win since May 6 against the Cubs.
“The curve was my best pitch today,” he said. “I got it for strikes and then expanded the zone a little bit and got them to swing over it.”
The rookie left-hander lasted just 4 1/3 innings in his previous outing, May 29 at Baltimore.
“I thought Monty threw the ball really, really well,” Gardner said. “It’s a lot of fun for us to play behind him and watch him continue to get better.”
Adam Warren, Tyler Clippard and Dellin Betances each pitched a hitless innings in relief.
Joe Biagini (1-4) allowed three runs in a career-high seven innings.
“We didn’t score him any runs, obviously, but he had it all working,” Gibbons said.
Hicks and Judge hit back-to-back RBI doubles in the third. Biagini set down 10 straight before Castro and Gregorius doubled in the seventh.