Add The New York Post on Google WASHINGTON — For seven innings Saturday afternoon, the Yankees offense barely made a peep.
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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 win.
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 a muggy Nationals Park.
Leaning into the flair for the dramatic for a second straight day, the Yankees took advantage of a terrible Nationals bullpen — this was its 27th blown save — as they try to fully snap out of their recent funk and end the first half on a high note, with a chance for a sweep on Sunday.
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 (both solo homers in the first inning) across 6 ⅔ innings.
Still, they trailed 2-0 entering the eighth inning before finally coming alive.
With one out, Ryan McMahon — who delivered the game-changing at-bat for a 12-pitch RBI double in Thursday’s win at Tropicana Field — provided another spark, belting a solo home run off Orlando Ribalta to pull the Yankees within 2-1.
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 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 — closed it out with a scoreless ninth.
Schlittler, meanwhile, gave up a home run on the first pitch he threw and another two batters later.
But those were the only runs he gave up on a day when he did not have his best command, as evidenced by a season-high-tying four walks.
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But he retired six straight to end his day, putting the finishing touches on a terrific first half (2.05 ERA) that should earn him the start for the American League in Tuesday’s All-Star Game.
The Yankees had some chances to break the shutout before the eighth inning.
They had runners on first and second with no outs in the first inning against lefty opener PJ Poulin and could not score.
Then they led off the sixth inning with back-to-back singles against Miles Mikolas and could not score again.
Mikolas, who entered the day with a 5.78 ERA in 19 games this season, tossed four shutout innings as the bulk reliever.
