For the first time this season, the Yankees looked vulnerable. Not only had they lost five of six games before Saturday night, but they had played mediocre for most of the past two weeks.
In the two games prior to that, they suffered consecutive big losses to the Orioles and Braves.
But the Yankees returned to the form they’ve had for most of the year on Saturday with an 8-3 win over Atlanta at the stadium, thanks to a familiar formula of strong starting pitching and a strong batting lineup.
Marcus Stroman pitched well through the seventh inning, and Aaron Judge hit his MLB-leading 28th home run.
“Everything’s in tip-top shape after the first couple months of the season,” coach Aaron Boone said before the game. “It’s never easy. It’s not, but remembering that sometimes you get handed your lunch or you get punched in the mouth helps you stay sharp and sharp in the long run. It helps you think deeply about how teams are going to attack you and how to limit that.”
Stroman and Judge did their jobs Saturday.
Atlanta, riding a four-game winning streak and seven of eight, took an early lead on a solo home run to right-center field by Marcell Ozuna with two outs.
Judge gave the Yankees a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the inning with a two-run homer to right-center field following a one-out walk by Juan Soto.
The team had a chance to load the bases with no outs in the third inning with a single by Oswaldo Cabrera, a walk by Anthony Volpe and a hit by Soto, but Judge followed with a double play.
Cabrera scored to make the score 3-1, but Morton escaped without further damage after that.
Giancarlo Stanton opened the bottom of the fourth with a hard fly to center field, but Kelenic fumbled it to second and Stanton scored on Gleyber Torres’ double.
But Stanton immediately left the game with what the Yankees described as “left hamstring tightness.” He is scheduled to undergo imaging tests on Sunday.
The Yankees added another run in the sixth inning when Cabrera hit a two-run single to right-center field with two outs, bringing in Austin Wells from first base.
Stroman pitched comfortably after Ozuna’s home run.
The right-hander at one point got 10 straight outs before being replaced after giving up a home run to Travis d’Arnaud with two outs in the seventh inning.
Stroman has underperformed in two of his past three starts, seeing his ERA jump from 2.60 to 3.08 during that time.
Just as important was the amount of time Stroman pitched after Lewis Hill and Carlos Rodon were knocked out early in their previous two games and Gerrit Cole pitched just over four innings in his season debut on Wednesday.
Even before the win, Boone was confident his team wouldn’t be fazed by a recent poor performance that put their lead in the AL East against Baltimore in jeopardy.
“Even in the best of seasons, stumbles are inevitable,” Boone said. “I think we’re absolutely capable of handling them. I like the makeup of our team.”
And they were put to the test for the first time against tough opponents like Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Kansas City and the Dodgers.
“This group is in really good shape and we feel like we’re prepared to get through this short period that we’re going through,” Boone said.
