Yankees hit five homers, including key blast by Gleyber Torres, in win over Rays

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — After the Yankees dropped three of four in Baltimore earlier this month, Aaron Boone again was asked about Aaron Judge’s continued struggles at the plate.

Judge had gone 1-for-13 against the Orioles, his batting average was down to .197 and Boone —  in a bit of unintended comedy — was asked about possibly moving the 2022 American League MVP from the No. 3 spot in the lineup.

After saying “he’ll get it going,” Boone added that when Judge inevitably did, “somebody’s going to pay, big time.”

At the moment, somebody is everybody.

Judge hit his 10th homer of the season and fourth in his last seven games in the Yankees' 10-6 victory over the Rays on Sunday at Tropicana Field. It was part of an 11-hit, five-homer barrage by an offense that had managed only two runs in each of the first two games of the series.

Judge, who gave the Yankees a 6-0 lead in the fifth with a two-run homer to rightfield and went 2-for-4 with a walk, is 18-for-52 (.346) with six homers, 14 RBIs and 11 walks in his last 15 games. He flied to the warning track in center his final two times up.

“He actually didn’t have that much to show for it, considering how he swung the bat in the series,” Boone said. “He hit two balls maybe 108 [mph] to the fence, [Richie] Palacios made a great play up the middle on him that first day. He’s walking, he’s getting on base. Yeah, that’s inevitable.”

Having that six-run lead erased also seemed inevitable at one point, but after Jose Siri hit a grand slam off Caleb Ferguson to ignite a five-run rally in the seventh that brought the Rays  within 6-5, Gleyber Torres hit a three-run home run and Jose Trevino added his second homer of the game in the eighth.

The victory, which featured six scoreless innings from Luis Gil — who improved to 4-1 with a rotation-best ERA of 2.51 — and the first major-league homer by Jahmai Jones, allowed the Yankees (27-15) to take two of three from the Rays (20-21).

Jones, with a team-low six at-bats coming into the day, hit a solo shot in the third that made it 2-0 after Anthony Volpe tripled and scored on Juan Soto’s sacrifice fly in the first.

The Yankees survived a rare hiccup by their bullpen, which brought the best ERA in the majors (2.36) into the afternoon. Ferguson gave up a single by Palacios, a double by Jonny DeLuca and a walk to Ben Rortvedt before Siri's grand slam in the seventh, and Nick Burdi walked two and then hit Randy Arozarena to re-load the bases. Luke Weaver hit Isaac Paredes to force home a run and make it 6-5 with one out, but he preserved the lead and Gil's eventual victory by getting Palacios to line out to Soto in shallow rightfield and Amed Rosario to ground into a forceout.

 With the Yankees back on their heels, Giancarlo Stanton singled with one out in the eighth and Anthony Rizzo doubled. Torres, hitting .207 with one homer entering the day and 0-for-3 to that point, fell behind 0-and-2 against Shawn Armstrong before crushing  a three-run homer to left-center to make it 9-5. The second of Trevino’s homers then improved the catcher to 21-for-57 (.368) with four homers in his last 19 games.

“That was a big, big blow,” Boone said of Torres’ blast, which caused players to flood out of the dugout to greet the slumping second baseman, who is immensely popular in the clubhouse.

Said Torres: “Just tried to put the ball in play, get a fly ball, anything, to score one run, especially in that situation during the game. Feels good, especially in the moment, because I did something for the team. You saw everybody on the field, it was amazing. All those boys waiting . . . Everybody was happy and that made me feel way better.”

The five-homer power display to a degree — though not completely — overshadowed more terrific work by Gil. He  didn't get as many swings-and-misses with his fastball-changeup-slider combination as he typically does, but Gil, who threw 51 of his 91 pitches for strikes, still allowed only three hits and two walks, striking out three.

“He’s on the attack the whole time,” Trevino said. “He doesn’t give in to anybody.”

And, at the moment, he has the best numbers in a rotation that has generally excelled in Gerrit Cole’s absence.

“First of all, I have to thank God for allowing me to be here and to keep me healthy and second of all to the organization for giving me this opportunity to be here,” Gil said through his interpreter. “Like I’ve always said, now it’s keep the focus and keep working.”