WASHINGTON — For seven innings Saturday afternoon, the Yankees lineup barely made a peep.
Then in the eighth, they added to their recent collection of stirring rallies — joining the third inning Thursday against the Rays and the ninth inning Friday against the Nationals — to capture a third straight victory.
Ryan McMahon, Trent Grisham and Paul Goldschmidt all homered in the eighth inning to turn a two-run deficit into a 4-2 win over the Nationals at muggy Nationals Park.
Leaning into the flair for the dramatic for a second straight day, the Yankees (53-42) took advantage of a terrible Washington bullpen — this was its 27th blown save — and got more contributions from all corners of the roster as they try to fully snap out of their recent funk and end the first half on a high note, with a chance Sunday for a sweep.
“I think it just doubles down on the belief for everybody,” Grisham said. “You have a tough week, when you do this every day, it can seem way bleaker than it is at times, especially in this city. So it just puts everybody back at ease and reminds everybody, ‘Oh yeah, we got this. We got a bunch of good players.’ I think it just puts everybody at ease and reminds everybody of who we are.”
On a day when it was a grind for Cam Schlittler, he still gave the Yankees a chance to win by giving up two runs, on a pair of solo homers in the first inning, across 6 ²/₃ innings.
Still, they trailed 2-0 entering the eighth inning before finally coming alive.
With one out, Ryan McMahon — who delivered the game-changing 12-pitch at-bat for an RBI double in Thursday’s win at Tampa Bay — provided another spark, belting a solo home run off Orlando Ribalta to pull the Yankees within 2-1.
“Got to two strikes kind of quick, so just trying to choke-and-poke one,” McMahon said. “He put one in a good spot and I got to it pretty good.”
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Then, after Ben Rice drew a walk to reach base for the fourth time, the Nationals countered by bringing in former Yankees prospect Clayton Beeter.
Grisham greeted him by clobbering a two-run shot to the second deck in right field that put the Yankees ahead 3-2.
Goldschmidt, who snapped out of an 0-for-34 skid Friday night, then made it back-to-back by drilling a home run to left field for the insurance run.
“It’s electric to come back,” Schlittler said. “We’re playing great baseball in the later innings, and that’s what it takes to win championships.”
It was McMahon’s first home run since June 18, Grisham’s first since July 3 and Goldschmidt’s first since June 24.
Fernando Cruz breezed through a seven-pitch bottom of the eighth before David Bednar — who threw two innings to finish off Friday night’s win but had little doubt that he would be available once he arrived at the park Saturday — closed it out with a scoreless ninth.
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“Going through that 10-day period where it was really hard, we’ve had some really good feel-good wins where a lot of people have been involved,” said Aaron Boone, who recorded his 750th career victory as a manager. “Lot of different contributions whether it’s guys in the pen, guys off the bench in some cases, whether it’s our central figures. That always feels good.”
It did not always look rosy for the Yankees on Saturday, as they spent most of the day being shut down by the Nationals, including bulk reliever Miles Mikolas, who entered the day with a 5.78 ERA in 19 games but tossed four shutout innings.
But they saved their best for last, keeping the good vibes alive after what had been a brutal few weeks.
“That’s what’s crazy about baseball,” McMahon said. “We feel good right now, obviously won a couple games late, that always boosts momentum. You just got to ride the waves of the season, can’t get too high, can’t get too low, just got to keep showing up and doing your job.”
