Trailing by two runs and their final three outs on Sunday in San Francisco, the Yankees had the bottom two batters in the order in the ninth inning against the hard-throwing Giants. Camilo Doval.
“Everyone in that dugout thinks we’re going to do something, that we’re going to cause damage,” Juan Soto said after the game. “We all know how capable we are of causing damage, so we always stay positive.
“… Everyone is like that, always thinking positive, always thinking we can do it.”
Four batters later, the two-run hole was a one-run lead when Soto hit his second home run of the day and recorded the game-winning RBI in New York’s 7-5 win, giving them an MLB-best record of 42- yielded 19. .
“These are some big, big ABs in a comeback scenario,” says manager Aaron Boone said after the 7-5 win.
With one out and a runner on first, Anthony Volpe tripled to bring the Yanks within a point, injecting a lot of energy into the team. But Boone said it was the runner on the first catcher Jose Trevino who rushed down the first base line to clear a double play ball Gleyber Torres‘ leadoff single – that might have been the catalyst for the big inning.
“That belief is always there, but I think everyone was quite excited when Trevy, quite frankly, knocked the ball away and said, ‘Okay, we’ve got a chance that we can potentially get our big boys there,'” the manager said. “And then boom, Volp puts it in the hole.’
Soto said, “It takes everything you have to put together an inning like that,” and it started with the catcher’s hustle play.
“Trevino did something huge when he ran over that ground ball and punched it out,” he said. “That was huge.”
For Trevino, “It’s just effort and play for the guys in this clubhouse, it’s plain and simple. The ball leaves my bat and I run as fast as I can to first base.”
With Trevino at first base for Volpe – who called the hustle play a “huge energy boost” – the manager said he considered sending in a pinch runner, even though the catcher did not represent the tying run.
After Volpe’s liner left for “Triples Alley”, the manager continued to ponder his decision and thought, “Please come on Trevy! Come on Trevy!” He said with a wide grin.
“I was a little hesitant to see if it was going to go down, but once I knew it was going down, I put it into the fastest gear I have,” Trevino said, unable to suppress a laugh.
But the deficit was still one. And with a runner on third base and one out, Soto said he thought about getting the ball in the air to score Volpe with a sacrifice fly. But Doval left a 97.6 mph cutter on the plate and paid the price.
“He left me one up the middle,” Soto said of the 1-0 pitch he clocked off the bat at 111.2 mph and 400 feet to right field that put the Yankees ahead for good came.
“That’s what he does,” Aaron Judge said. “We’ve been seeing it all year.”
Boone said, “That’s some ferocious fighting there.”
For Soto, the late homer was his 17th of the season after his 400-foot solo homer in the first inning. With his 3-for-5 afternoon, the 25-year-old saw his OPS rise to 1.031 this year, the second-highest in baseball. Obviously only behind Judge’s 1,075.
“He’s just incredible,” Soto said of his outfield counterpart. “Every time he hits the ball, it’s just a double, a home run. It’s just incredible what he’s done. And I’m beyond excited to continue doing it with him.
Judge, who walked in the ninth and stole a base before coming around to score on one Giancarlo Stanton ground-rule double in the ninth, closed the series in San Francisco, going 6-for-9 with three home runs, six RBI and three walks.
Clay Holmes got the Giants right in the ninth to secure the win and the weekend sweep.
After showing grit in their comeback late Sunday, Judge calls the 2024 squad one of the best he has played with.
“I can go back over the years to see how much [times] we probably lose that game, the teams get their two points and go like 1-2-3,” the ninth-year Yank said. “This team is different. They went there with the mentality of ‘Hey, we’re still in this ball game, we just gotta get the first guy on the line and see what happens.’
Trevino, playing his third season in pinstripes, agreed with the team captain.
“It’s different, it’s different,” the catcher said. “We play for each other, not to say we haven’t in the past, but this year we’re playing for the guy next to us, the guy in uniform.
“We play for everyone on this roster. We just want it.”
Soto added: “We’re just having fun, that’s all I can tell you. We’re all having fun with it.”
