Yankees score 10 runs in fifth in rout of Rockies

DENVER — The Yankees nearly gave themselves some form of carpal tunnel syndrome in tipping their collective caps after Friday night’s loss to the Rockies.

“They beat us tonight,” Aaron Boone said. “Give them credit.”

On Saturday afternoon, the Rockies reverted to the form that brought them into this series at 8-42 — the worst 50-game mark in the modern era, dating to 1901 — and on pace to lose 136 games.

The Yankees were all too glad they did.

Happily feasting on the smorgasbord of meatballs and cookies delivered by the worst pitching staff in the majors — particularly during a 10-run fifth inning in which they sent 14 to the plate — the Yankees backed Max Fried by producing a season-high 21 hits in a 13-1 destruction of the Rockies in front of 43,186 at Coors Field.

“Fun,” Cody Bellinger, one of four Yankees with three hits, said of the big inning.

The Yankees (31-20), who had only five hits in Friday’s stunning 3-2 loss, saw Paul Goldschmidt, Anthony Volpe and DJ LeMahieu join Bellinger, who finished a homer shy of the cycle, in the three-hit club. Jasson Dominguez and Austin Wells each added two.

Wells had two hits, two RBIs and two runs scored in the big inning as the Yankees combined seven hits, three walks and two sacrifice flies to take an 11-1 lead, knocking out Colorado starter Kyle Freeland in the process.

Afterward, all involved felt the biggest hit of the inning was the one that followed Wells’ first hit: the RBI double off the top of the left-centerfield wall by Oswald Peraza that snapped a 1-1 tie.

“It actually did,” Goldschmidt said of the Peraza hit sparking the dugout. “We had a bunch of guys on base those first couple innings and they got those double plays and kept us at bay. Then Wells started it off and the very first pitch, Peraza hit that double. I think that was really the big swing and then we had the lead and had the momentum and were able to add on from there.”

Said Peraza: “It was a big moment for me and for the team. I was looking for a good pitch. He [Freeland] threw me a cutter inside and I got my bat on the ball. I was excited for that.”

Aaron Judge, who was intentionally walked in the 10-run fifth and also struck out as the inning’s final batter, had only one hit — but it was his MLB-leading 18th homer, a 405-foot solo shot in the first inning. Judge is hitting .395 with a 1.244 OPS.

The rightfielder echoed Goldschmidt in praising the hit by Peraza, who also contributed several nice defensive plays at third behind Fried.

“That’s kind of what we’ve been waiting on the past few days,” said Judge, who before Friday had never played a regular-season game in this ballpark and now has two homers in two games there. “Then Peraza comes up big for us, has the big swing.”

Fried, who is 7-0 with an MLB-low 1.29 ERA, allowed one run, six hits and a walk in 7 1⁄3 innings in which he struck out seven. He has the lowest ERA by any Yankee in his first 11 starts of a season since ERA became an official stat in 1913, and the Yankees are 10-1 in his starts.

Judge’s homer in the first off lefthander Freeland (0-7, 5.86) gave the Yankees a 1-0 lead. The Rockies (9-43) tied it in the fourth on Michael Toglia’s two-out RBI triple, which set up the Yankees’ second 10-run inning of the season (the first came in the seventh inning of a 12-3 victory over the Padres on May 6).

The inning featured an element of comedy when Goldschmidt, up for the second time, lashed an RBI single to right. Second baseman Adael Amador, in a “to heck with this” moment, flung his glove about 10 feet in the air as the ball sailed overhead, though he said afterward, not especially convincingly, that it slipped from his hand.

Wells and Trent Grisham had two-run doubles and Bellinger and Dominguez had sacrifice flies in the inning.

Freeland allowed eight runs (four earned), nine hits and three walks in 4 2⁄3 innings. Angel Chivilli allowed three runs, three hits and a walk in one-third of an inning.

“Having a 10-run inning behind you, it’s something that allows you to just get a little more aggressive in the zone and being able to get contact,” said Fried, who upped his MLB-leading pickoff total to six by picking off two runners Saturday. “Had some unbelievable plays behind me. I think it was a really great team win in general.”

By Erik Boland

erik.boland@newsday.comeboland11

Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.