Add The New York Post on Google The Yankees arrived at Game 145 of the season having crushed 194 home runs, good for the fourth most in the majors, despite missing Aaron Judge for three months.
And yet, somewhat inexplicably, none of those 194 blasts had come with the bases loaded.
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George Lombard Jr. changed that Wednesday night, delivering the kind of juice that typically comes with grand slams as the Yankees’ first of the season fueled a 6-1 win over the Rockies in The Bronx.
Judge, in his second game back from an extended stay on the injured list for a broken rib, recorded a pair of singles, one of which started the rally that led to Lombard’s first career grand slam.
Judge played eight innings in right field before giving way to a pinch runner in the bottom of the eighth as the Yankees (83-62) continue to build him up carefully while trying to chase down the division, remaining four games back of the Rays with 17 games to play while moving to four games clear of the Red Sox for the top AL wild card.
Luis García Jr. and Cody Bellinger added solo shots — the latter ensuring David Bednar did not have to pitch the ninth inning — as the Yankees won on a day that began with news that Jazz Chisholm Jr. would require a stint on the injured list due to a right thumb sprain.
Lombard’s long ball off Tomoyuki Sugano proved to be the difference on a night when Will Warren pitched well again, holding the Rockies (55-90) to one run across six innings while striking out eight. It came five days after Warren tossed 2 ¹/₃ scoreless innings of relief against the Padres — offering a preview of what may be to come in the postseason before he returned to a starting role Wednesday with an uptick in velocity for a third straight outing.
In an odd outing, Sugano retired the Yankees in order in four of his six innings. But in the other two, they made him pay.
After Sugano struck out the side in the bottom of the first, García led off the second inning by clobbering a solo shot to right field — his 29th of the year — to put the Yankees ahead 1-0.
In the third, Judge came up with two outs and worked an eight-pitch at-bat that ended in a soft line drive to left, which García followed with a double and Spencer Jones an eight-pitch walk to load the bases.
Lombard then got a 1-0 slider down the middle and took it the other way into the short porch for the grand slam, his third career home run and the 5-0 lead. In the process, he got the Yankees off the schneid as they threatened to become the first team in franchise history without a grand slam since 1990.
Lombard also became the second-youngest Yankee to hit a grand slam at 21 years and 99 days, only older than Mickey Mantle (who did it twice as a 20-year-old in 1952), according to MLB.com’s Sarah Langs.
Connor Norby pulled the Rockies within 5-1 in the fifth inning with a solo shot before they put runners on the corners with one out.
But Warren escaped the jam by getting a 3-6-1 double play, which fired him up as he screamed, pumped his arms and pointed to Lombard, the hero of the night.
