1. Finally. Finally the Yankees won a game in which they trailed later than the sixth inning. It took until the 36th game of the season (22 percent of the season), but the Yankees overcame a one-run deficit in the seventh inning on Tuesday with a 10-run outburst — their most runs scored in an inning in nearly 10 years — in a 12-3 win over the Padres.
For the first six-plus innings on Tuesday, it was more of the same from the Yankees. Defensive issues, a run forced in by a balk and a whole lot of nothing against a dominant starting pitcher other than an Aaron Judge solo home run and a run produced by a throwing error.
When the Padres took a 3-2 lead in the the top of the seventh, I figured that was it. In every other instance in which the Yankees trailed at any point after the sixth inning this season, they went on to lose. Going out against the best bullpen in the majors figured to be their latest such loss.
2. The latest comeback the Yankees had staged prior to Tuesday was on April 15 against the Royals. They trailed 2-o in the sixth inning of that game before Jasson Dominguez, hitting right-handed, cleared the bases with a double to left field. Dominguez served as the rally starter on Tuesday with a hustle double to lead off the seventh.
“It’s fun to watch him run,” Aaron Boone said. “He can really go.”
It’s so fun for Boone to watch Dominguez that he only plays him half the time. Dominguez doesn’t play every day so that Cody Bellinger can. Why? Owed money.
3. Anthony Volpe followed Dominguez with a single to put runners on the corners with no outs. Austin Wells drove in Dominguez with a single to tie the game at 3.
Maybe Boone is a reader of Yankees Thoughts based on some of his decisions to put pressure on the Padres in the seventh. After what I wrote about him on Tuesday and always waiting around for the multi-run home run, Boone called for a sacrifice bunt and double steal in the same inning.
After Wells’ single, Boone had Oswaldo Cabrera bunt, but Cabrera popped up the bunt for an easy out. Instead of sitting back after the failed sacrifice bunt, Boone called for a double steal with Volpe and Wells, and they were both successful. The Baseball Gods then went on to reward Boone for his managerial creativity with the Yankees’ highest-scoring inning in nearly a decade.
4. Paul Goldschmidt was intentionally walked to load the bases with one out and the Padres turned to former Yankee Wandy Peralta. It’s almost a guarantee a former Yankee will perform exceptionally well against the Yankees. Almost. There’s the example of Nestor Cortes getting bombed in the second game of the season, and there’s Peralta on Tuesday. Michael King did his part against his former team (6 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 2 K, 1 HR), but Peralta had nothing.
5. With the bases loaded, Peralta walked Trent Grisham on four pitches. Then came a Ben Rice two-run double followed by an intentional walk of Judge. Bellinger singled in Grisham and Dominguez (batting for the second time in the inning) flew out. Volpe hit his second single of the inning to give the Yankees a five-run lead and Wells ended the game with the first grand slam of his career. (Cabrera ended the inning with a ground out. The Yankees sent 13 batters to the plate in the inning and scored 10 runs, and somehow, Cabrera made two of the inning’s outs.) Peralta’s line: 0.2 IP, 4 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 2 BB, 0 K, 1 HR.
6. This is what the Yankees do. They struggle to score runs for a week then blow a team out to prop up their run differential and give postgame quotes about how good and deep their lineup is (it isn’t). The Yankees have a plus-60 run differential on the season and lead the American League in runs scored with 202. But that plus-60 is a mostly a product of four games: a 20-9 win over the Brewers, a 12-3 win over the Brewers, a 15-3 win over the Orioles and a 12-3 win over the Padres. The Yankees outscored the opposition by 41 runs in those four games.
7. The Yankees are 20-16 on the season, though their expected record suggests they should be 24-12 based on their run differential. The problem with expected record is it treats the offense as if it’s playing in one long continuous game instead of 162 games. Look at last week’s series against the Orioles. The Yankees outscored the Orioles 22-12. They lost the series because while they blew the Orioles out in one game, they lost two one-run games.
8. A blowout win is always fun. Scoring 10 runs in an inning is fun. Hitting grand slams is fun. Consistent offense is the most fun though, and the Yankees haven’t been that. Far from it. If you were to have not watched a game this season and looked at the standings and run totals, you would think the Yankees were some offensive juggernaut, which simply isn’t the truth.
9. The offense will see Dylan Cease on Tuesday, who has struggled this season. Cease has made it to the sixth inning in one of his seven starts, pitching to a 5.61 ERA and 1.604 WHIP. In his two most recent starts he couldn’t get through five innings against the Pirates or Rays and a month ago the A’s scored nine runs off of him in four innings. If the Yankees’ offense is to be believed to be anything other than a lineup that gets mostly held in check and goes off once every couple of weeks, this would be the matchup and game to show it.
10. Max Fried gets the ball for the Yankees for his eighth start of the season. The Yankees have won all seven of his starts to date, as he has averaged 6 1/3 innings per start to go along with a league-best 1.01 ERA and 0.940 WHIP. How about Fried for eight and Luke Weaver for the ninth for a nice, easy Yankees win going into the day off on Thursday?
Last modified: May 7, 2025
