Pitching? Who needs pitching?
After the Yankees spent the early part of Monday upgrading their rotation and bullpen prior to Tuesday’s trade deadline, they got four homers from their lineup in a 7-2 win over Seattle in The Bronx.
And of course, one of them came from Aaron Judge, who continued his record-setting pace by hitting his 43rd home run of the season.
But Judge wasn’t alone, as the Yankees also got a three-run homer in the first from Anthony Rizzo and a pair of solo shots by Jose Trevino.
Facing a Mariners team that lost three of four to the Astros and was without injured star rookie Julio Rodriguez, the Yankees jumped on left-hander Marco Gonzales in the first inning.
DJ LeMahieu led off with a single and Judge followed with a double lined to left-center, sending LeMahieu to third.
Rizzo then homered for a third straight game, as the Yankees brushed off Sunday’s blown game against the Royals and won for the fourth time in their past five. They have also scored at least six runs in each of their last four.
The three-run shot to right-center just three batters into the game was the 26th of the season for Rizzo.
Domingo German, whose fill-in spot in the rotation is tenuous after the addition of Frankie Montas from Oakland, was solid.
He gave a run back in the second when he allowed a leadoff homer to Kyle Lewis.
Judge, though, more than made up for it in the bottom of the inning, blasting a two-out, two-run homer to make it 5-1.
Judge now has seven homers in his past eight games, as well as 10 in 11, 12 in 14 and 13 in 16. You get the point.
German, who gave up two runs in five innings in his best outing since returning from right shoulder impingement, retired five straight following the Lewis homer before loading the bases with two outs in the third, with a walk to Eugenio Suarez, a single by Carlos Santana and a walk to J.P. Crawford.
Following a visit from pitching coach Matt Blake, German faced Lewis again and got the DH to ground out to end the 31-pitch inning.
Seattle made a bid to get back in the game when Jesse Winker’s fly ball to right nearly went out, but Judge made the catch on the warning track.
Trevino made it 6-2 with a solo blast in the fourth, his first homer in nearly a month.
He followed that up with his ninth of the year, sending one out to dead center in the eighth, for the first multi-homer game of his career.
After German left, the Yankees got four scoreless innings from a bullpen that was undermanned after roster moves earlier in the day, with Ron Marinaccio, Aroldis Chapman, Jonathan Loaisiga and Wandy Peralta holding down Seattle.
