Yankees get homers from Gary Sanchez, Aaron Judge and Miguel Andujar as bats finally come alive to beat Angels

The heat was on the Yankees in more ways than one Tuesday at the Stadium.

It wasn’t just about the blistering heat and humidity that pushed the heat index to 107 degrees shortly before first pitch against the Angels. General manager Brian Cashman, who built the team to contend for a championship, said of his underperforming fourth-place club that it "sucks right now," "stinks to high heaven" and is "unwatchable,"

After ruminating aloud about trade talks, possible promotions and the notion that without significant improvement the Yankees could end up "sellers," Cashman said, "The players that are here are on notice that they’ve got to get better or there's going to be changes."

They certainly looked better after that. The Yankees got home runs from Gary Sanchez, Aaron Judge and Miguel Andujar and a two-hit, two-RBI performance off the slumbering bat of Gleyber Torres in a 11-5 rout before a perspired 23,152. The 11 runs is a season-high for the Yanks, who pounded out 11 hits and drew nine walks.

"That’s these guys, the [lineup] heaviness I talk about and making it real tough on the opposing pitcher," manager Aaron Boone said.

The Yankees put up the same number of runs in the first four innings against Los Angeles (10) that they’d scored in dropping the four straight games before Tuesday’s contest.

"Like I’d said in Boston, not being the first team to score puts a little pressure on you. You feel like you’re clawing back and fighting," Judge said. "It’s good to get that first blow tonight. . . . We’re a different team when we score first."

Torres came into the game in a 4-for-51 slump and logged his first RBI since June 6 and first multihit game since June 10.

"I think this was big," Boone said. "'[He] identified some things and he’s working hard to unlock it."

The offensive outburst proved more than enough to earn the win for righthander Jameson Taillon, who limped through 5 1/3 innings before letting lefthander Nestor Cortes and righthander Albert Abreu take the Yanks the rest of the way.

Taillon (3-4) gave up five runs and nine hits with a walk, striking out five. He said "I gave up too many two-strike hits."

Taillon gave up three home runs, including two blasts to Angels phenomenon Shohei Ohtani. Both of Ohtani’s home runs, his 27th and 28th of the season, were lasers to rightfield. He’s hit three home runs in the first two games of the four-game series and the Yankees on Wednesday will see the other considerable talent of Ohtani when he pitches against them.

Cashman said that making a trade or promoting a Triple-A player were possibilities but that "the most important thing is to self-correct with what we’ve got."

"We have a lot of mentally-tough guys in that room and that’s what it’s going to take to get back where we need to be," Judge said.

Cashman added that if the Yankees cannot get untracked, the trade conversations could be very different than expected.

"We're trying to fix what we've got, self-correct what we have and add to it if we can," he said. "But if it's unworthy at some point, then you have to have different conversations . . . I don't think we're at that point yet, but I understand . . . the question: [it’s) because we played to that level right now."

The Yankees have found little traction in trade dialogue, Cashman said, but AL East rival Toronto on Tuesday morning was able to swing a deal with Miami for reliever Adam Cimber and outfielder Corey Dickerson.

Sanchez’ home run into the second row of the second deck in rightfield put the Yankees ahead 1-0 and kept his tear at the plate going. He also had a run-scoring double and has nine home runs and 21 RBIa in his last 28 games.

"We got on the board first," Sanchez said through a translator. "It makes us a different team when we score first."

The Yankees trailed 2-1 going into their turn in the second and scored four runs to go ahead for good. Brett Gardner had a sacrifice fly and DJ LeMahieu a run-scoring single ahead of Judge’s two-run homer into the netting above Monument Park. It was his team-leading 18th home run.

Torres’ two-run single to rightfield capped a five-run fourth for a 10-3 lead. The other runs scored on Andujar’s home run, the Sanchez single and Luke Voit's double to centerfield.

By Roger Rubin

roger.rubin@newsday.com@rogrubin

Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.