Yankees' bats make opener strategy look good this time

MIAMI — The Yankees dipped into the opener well for a second straight game on Friday night, using the same pitcher even, and experienced far more success this time.

It’s debatable just how sound the strategy ultimately was, but an effective offense can provide cover for just about anything.

The Yankees’ bats showed up early, making life far easier on opener Ian Hamilton and the pitcher who followed, Randy Vasquez. They had 14 hits — three by Kyle Higashioka and two each by Gleyber Torres, Giancarlo Stanton and Harrison Bader — and went 7-for-13 with runners in scoring position in a 9-4 win over the Marlins in front of 30,978 at loanDepot park.

“I feel like the past couple of games, we’ve gotten guys on base, just haven’t been able to get that big hit,” said Aaron Judge, who hit his longest homer of the year, 464 feet to dead center, in the third. “Today we were able to get a couple clutch hits.”

Through four innings, the Yankees (60-56), who pulled within four games of the Blue Jays for the American League’s third wild-card spot, scored seven runs and produced 10 hits.

“A lot of good things happened out there, starting with swinging the bats off of a really good starting pitcher,” Aaron Boone said, referencing lefthander Jesus Luzardo, who came in 8-6 with a 3.52 ERA. “That’s a guy that’s in the middle of a really good season, so that was really good to see, up and down guys hitting the ball hard against him.”

After Hamilton — who threw a scoreless inning in opening for Luis Severino on Wednesday before the evening unraveled in a 9-2 loss to the White Sox — struck out two in the first Friday night, Anthony Volpe hit a three-run homer in the second.

Stanton, who spent the first eight years of his career with the Marlins and earned NL MVP honors with them in 2017, and Bader had back-to-back singles to start the inning. Volpe then laid into a 2-and-2, 97-mph fastball and sent it 404 feet to left-center for his 15th homer and a 3-0 lead.

“When you struggle as a team offensively, each guy’s trying to go up there and do a little more than they need to,” Judge said. “Volpe going up there and giving us a three-run lead allowed everybody else in the lineup to go out and stick to your game plan. That kind of set the tone for everything.”

Said Volpe: “We’ve definitely had our opportunities the last week or so. Just to cash them in felt good and, hopefully, jump-started us . . . I think we really passed it along today and fed off each other.”

Hamilton was allowed to pitch a second inning, unlike Wednesday, and allowed two runs in the bottom half on a run-scoring triple by Jesus Sanchez and an RBI double by Jake Burger.

But Judge hit his 22nd homer (in only 62 games) in the third and his teammates tacked on three more runs in the fourth for a 7-2 lead, with Oswaldo Cabrera, Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Torres contributing RBI singles. Higashioka added a two-run single in the ninth for a 9-4 lead.

Vasquez, 1-1 with a 1.17 ERA in three spot starts this season, was merely OK in relief, allowing two runs and three hits — including a 407-foot solo homer by Josh Bell — in 3 2⁄3 innings before giving way to Jonathan Loaisiga with the Yankees holding a 7-4 lead.

Vasquez, along with Jhonny Brito (slated to start Saturday afternoon, though Boone raised the possibility of another opener being used), will be in the rotation for the foreseeable future with Nestor Cortes all but certain to be out for the season after aggravating the left rotator cuff strain that kept him sidelined for two months and Carlos Rodon landing on the IL earlier in the week with a hamstring strain.

“I feel confident that I can find a way to help the team,” Vasquez said through his interpreter. “Any time I’m given an opportunity to pitch here, I want to do my best and I want to find ways to help this team.”