Even on a night when they lost their starting pitcher after two innings, the Yankees avoided the double gut-punch of losing four straight games for the first time this season.
It took a wild 10th inning to make it happen.
After Luis Severino exited early with right shoulder tightness and a four-run deficit, the Yankees came all the way back and then came back again to snap a three-game losing streak with a 7-6, 10-inning win over the Reds in The Bronx.
DJ LeMahieu, on his 34th birthday, scored the winning run after back-to-back wild pitches from Reds reliever Alexis Diaz with one out and Giancarlo Stanton at the plate. The first wild pitch moved LeMahieu, who had been the automatic runner, to third base. The second one allowed him to race home for the win.
“It wasn’t easy tonight, it wasn’t pretty, but we got the job done and hopefully we keep it rolling,” LeMahieu said.
DJ Lemahieu scores the game-winning run on a wild pitch in the 10th inning of the Yankees’ 7-6 win over the Reds. Robert SaboMichael King had kept the Reds (33-55) off the board in the top of the 10th, using a strikeout and double play to strand the go-ahead run at third base. He was the last of six relievers who combined to cover eight innings, giving the Yankees (62-26) a chance to come back from deficits of 4-0 and 6-5.
“Not perfect — the season’s not going to be that way,” manager Aaron Boone said. “Just glad we were able to continue to grind and grind. Bullpen came in and did a really nice job for us to give us a chance and we were able to outlast them tonight.”
The Yankees trailed 6-5 in the eighth inning, but Stanton snapped a streak of 10 straight batters retired in a big way. He crushed his 23rd home run of the season, a solo shot to the short right-field porch, to tie the score off Reds reliever Ian Gibaut.
Luis Severino, tossing the ball into the crowd after the second inning, was forced to exit with right shoulder tightness after throwing one warm-up pitch before the top of the third inning. Robert Sabo
A night after blowing a 3-0 lead in the ninth inning of what became a 4-3 loss to the Reds, Clay Holmes was thrown right back in the fire. The Yankees’ closer entered Wednesday in the ninth inning of a 6-6 game, and despite some dicey moments, he got out of it unscathed.
Holmes issued a leadoff walk and gave up a one-out single, but unlike the night before, he made the pitches when he needed to: He got Tommy Pham to fly out on a 3-2 count and got Joey Votto to ground out on a 3-1 count to end the inning with the tie intact.
Severino left with a 4-0 deficit, after serving up consecutive home runs to Kyle Farmer, Mike Moustakas and Fairchild — the bottom three hitters in the Reds lineup — in the second inning.
But the Yankees were quick to pick him up. Their bats came alive in the third inning, and they also benefited from shoddy defense by the Reds to take a 5-4 lead.
Giancarlo Stanton hits a game-tying solo home run in the eighth inning of the Yankees’ comeback win. Robert SaboAfter the Reds committed a fielding error and then misplayed a rundown that gave the Yankees two extra outs, Isiah Kiner-Falefa delivered the big blow with a three-run double to the gap for a 5-4 advantage.
JP Sears, who provided 3 ²/₃ innings in relief of Severino while pitching for the first time in 10 days, ran into trouble in the fifth. Jonathan India led off with a double before Sears walked Brandon Drury. Both runs eventually came around to score — India on a ground-rule double by Votto and Drury on a sacrifice fly by Tyler Stephenson — to put the Reds back on top, 6-5.
But the Yankees rallied again for their MLB-best 27th comeback win of the year.
