From the depths of despair, the Yankees remained in second place, at least for a night.
One out away from being shut out and allowing the blazing-hot Red Sox to leapfrog them in the division standings, the Yankees’ bats finally woke up in time to stop their slide for the time being.
Trailing by two runs entering the bottom of the ninth, the Yankees came back to tie it before winning it in the 10th on Ryan McMahon’s walk-off sacrifice fly for a 3-2 win over the Braves in a game delayed two hours by inclement weather on Friday night in The Bronx.
In the kind of tight, low-scoring game that has become so familiar of late because of their futile offense and outstanding pitching — and on Friday, game-saving defense — the Yankees found jubilation before heartbreak came their way again.
“Obviously it’s tough for us, but these guys, they’re gritty and they’ve played in a lot of these games,” manager Aaron Boone said. “I feel like we’ve had a lot of these, where it’s one run either way. It’s been tough for us offensively now for a while, so we’re in these close games it feels like night in and night out. In a lot of them, we’ve done things that allow us to win a game, and that was certainly the case tonight.”
After José Caballero failed to get a bunt down and struck out on a foul attempt to lead off the bottom of the 10th against righty Tyler Kinley, the Braves (70-46) intentionally walked Spencer Jones to bring up George Lombard Jr., who drew a full-count walk to load the bases.
McMahon, who had two of the Yankees’ four hits entering the ninth inning, then fell behind 0-2 before working the count full and then delivering the game-winning fly ball to right field, deep enough to score Luis García Jr. from third.
“We got to figure that out,” McMahon said of the offense that was shut out for eight innings Friday. “We got to get going a little bit more. It’s not from a lack of work or effort, but we got to figure out a way to get going.”
And so the Yankees (65-51) staved off third place in the AL East — for what would have been the first time this season — and dropping into the second AL wild card, staying a half-game ahead of the Red Sox, who won their ninth straight game and improved to 32-5 over their past 37.
Winning in extras for only the second time in 10 games this season, the Yankees snapped the Braves’ eight-game winning streak.
Of their past 23 games, 17 have been decided by two runs or fewer, with the Yankees going 12-5 in those contests, which they hope will serve them well if they can survive this and make it to October.
“Especially when you come down to the end of the year in playoff baseball, it’s important to be able to play these tight games and be comfortable playing in tight games,” said Max Fried, who turned in 6 ¹/₃ shutout innings in an emotional first start against his former team. “So we embrace it. I know everyone in this room is comfortable and confident, going out there and trying to do whatever they can to win the game.”
When the Yankees stranded a pair of runners in the bottom of the eighth — after being shut out for six innings by righty Tyler Mahle, who came into the night with a 5.13 ERA — it appeared to be their last gasp. But then with one out in the bottom of the ninth, Lombard, in his third career game, reached on a swinging bunt and raced all the way to third on Braves closer Raisel Iglesias’ wild throwing error.
One out later, Austin Wells roped a double to right field to make it 2-1. Amed Rosario then drew a walk before Ben Rice — who came to the plate in a 2-for-33 skid — laced a single off the right-field wall to tie it and put the winning run at third. Heliot Ramos, who reached base four times, was hit by an 0-1 pitch to load the bases, at which point the Braves replaced Iglesias with lefty Dylan Dodd, who got García to ground out, sending the game to extras.
David Bednar tossed a scoreless top of the 10th, thanks to terrific defense from Lombard on a play in the hole and García, the first baseman who made an over-the-shoulder catch on a pop up to no-man’s land in right field.
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“We’ve been in a tough stretch where we’re facing a lot of teams in playoff position right now, and we haven’t scored a lot, but we’ve more than held our own,” Boone said. “That’s a credit to them and they continue to find ways to win games and win these close games. … We got to fight our way through this.”
