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Try it freeOn the final night of their opening homestand, the Yankees teed off on Arizona.
And it’s a good thing they did, because a shaky Yankee bullpen nearly cost them again.
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But three more homers — including another by Aaron Judge — were enough to hold off the Diamondbacks, as the Yankees avoided a sweep in The Bronx with a 9-7 win on Thursday night.
Judge’s three-run homer just three batters into the bottom of the first set the tone against right-hander Merrill Kelly.
Trent Grisham called it a “character win” to prevent getting swept and Judge agreed, acknowledging the team may have gotten caught up in the torpedo bat craze.
“Especially after coming out, scoring all the runs and people talking about bats, [there were] just a lot of distractions,’’ Judge said. “We’ve got to go out and keep playing.”
No one has done that better than Judge, who had three more hits.
“He’s Aaron Judge,’’ Jazz Chisholm Jr. said. “Guys keep getting on for him and he keeps on performing and showing why he’s the MVP of the league and one of the best players ever to play the game.”
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The Yankees scored nine runs off Kelly in just 3 ²/₃ innings en route to a six-run lead — which seemed safe until Ryan Yarbrough nearly set a torch to it when he entered in the seventh and loaded the bases with no one out before Geraldo Perdomo hit a grand slam to cut the lead to two runs.
The lefty managed to retire the next two batters before Mark Leiter Jr. finished the inning, as the pen recovered behind Leiter and Luke Weaver’s scoreless 2 ¹/₃ innings, with closer Devin Williams on the paternity list.
The Yankees’ fast start held up, which began when Ben Rice opened the bottom of the first with a booming ground rule double to center.
Cody Bellinger followed with a walk and Judge hit a 112-mph rocket out to right-center to give the Yankees a 3-0 lead.
It was Judge’s fifth homer of the young season, and he became the third-fasted player in franchise history to get to 500 career extra-base hits, behind only Joe DiMaggio and Lou Gehrig.
“Last year, he hit 58 home runs and had a bad first month,” Chisholm said. “Imagine right now what he’s about to do.”
With two outs in the first, Grisham sent a double to the gap in left-center that just eluded left fielder Lourdes Gurriel Jr. to score Jasson Domínguez from first.
With an early lead, Carlos Carrasco pitched well enough to get into the sixth in his first start of the year.
And the Yankees tacked onto their lead in the third courtesy of Grisham.
Starting in center, with Judge serving as DH and Bellinger in right, Grisham hit his first homer of the season, a two-run shot to right to make it 6-1.
Chisholm added a homer in the fourth, the Yankees’ third homer of the night to extend their MLB record, with 22 homers in their first six games.
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No other team had more than 17.
Judge did more damage in the bottom of the fourth. After Rice walked and stole second with one out, Judge delivered a two-out, run-scoring single to center and then swiped second.
Carrasco, who struggled badly the last two years, got through 5 ¹/₃ innings and allowed just three runs.
After Adam Ottavino finished the sixth, Yarbrough entered in the seventh to face the bottom of the lineup, to little effect.
The Yankees loaded the bases in the seventh against lefty Jalen Beeks, but Rice — who had reached base three times — struck out.
Leiter was removed after a two-out single by pinch-hitter Ketel Marte in the eighth, leaving Weaver for a four-out save.
Weaver got another pinch-hitter, Gabriel Moreno, to ground out and then finished it in the ninth.
