The Yankees blasted off once again on Thursday night, crushing three more home runs in a rout of the lowly White Sox to hang double digits on an opponent for the second straight game, and third time in their last four contests.
The Bronx Bombers have been swinging a collectively hot bat in their recent five-game winning streak, but their long ball prowess stretches back even further than that, sending balls out of the park at a dizzying rate. According to MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch, the Yankees have hit 33 home runs over their last 10 games, tied for the most in league history by any team over a 10-game span. The only others to match that mark were the 1977 Red Sox (with their power bats of Jim Rice, George Scott, Carlton Fisk, Butch Hobson, and Carl Yastrzemski), the 2006 Braves (with Andruw Jones, Adam Laroche, Chipper Jones, Jeff Francoeur, and Brian McCann), and the 2019 Dodgers, who matched that mark with a little help from the infamous “juiced ball” from that MLB season and the potent bats of Max Muncy, Joc Pederson, Justin Turner, and Cody Bellinger.
Bellinger went deep for the Yanks for his 26th of the year on Thursday night, while Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Trent Grisham also left the yard. The homers increased the team’s comfortable league lead, now holding 228 home runs on the year, well ahead of the second-place Dodgers and their 201 big flies.
This 10-game stretch began with the Yanks tying a franchise record for home runs in single game with nine, routing the Rays in a 13-3 win that saw Bellinger, Jose Caballero, and Giancarlo Stanton all hitting two home runs in the all-out assault. The Yankees have finished with double digit runs five times in the past two weeks, dating back to a 12-8 win over the Cardinals on Aug. 16.
The Yanks will still be under the microscope when better teams like the Astros and Blue Jays arrive on the schedule, but against lesser opponents, New York has undeniably been taking care of business.