The New York Yankees came home from a 2-7 road trip that felt longer than it actually was, took a 90-degree Tuesday night game against the Toronto Blue Jays, and did what good teams do at home. Final score, 5-4 -- their 11th win in the last 12 home games.
Ryan McMahon and Ben Rice each went deep. The pen held. A bullpen that spent most of the road trip surrendering leads didn't surrender this one.
From Three Down to Even
Will Warren cruised through the first three innings. Then the fourth happened.
Yohendrick Piñango singled in a run. Jesús Sánchez singled in another. Andrés Giménez did the same. Three run-scoring singles, three runs off Warren, and Toronto owned a 3-0 lead before the Bronx had time to exhale.
Then McMahon changed everything. Aaron Judge had walked. Jazz Chisholm Jr. had walked. Two on -- and McMahon worked into a 0-0 count before Dylan Cease threw a first-pitch fastball and it was gone. Opposite field, over the left-field wall, all three runs coming home.
Worth knowing: McMahon had gone 0-for-24 before that swing. (Zero for twenty-four. That's the kind of slump that makes a guy question every twitch of his hands.) The three-run shot wiped the slate. Tie game, 3-3.
Ben Rice's 16th
One inning later, Cease's pitch count was climbing toward 100 and he wasn't going to see the sixth. Rice stepped in with one out and a man on. He got a 2-0 fastball and sent it to right-center -- 16th homer of the year, a two-run shot, and the Yankees led 5-3.
Rice's 16th ties Judge for the team lead. The two of them are now the only Yankee teammates to both hit 16 home runs before the 50th game since Yogi Berra and Mickey Mantle did it in 1956. That's a real stat. (And it'd be genuinely wild if it were fake.)
He's been locked in for a while now -- four home runs in his last eight games, eight in his last 20 contests. He also made a diving pick at first base in the seventh inning that didn't show up in the box score but mattered.
Warren and the Pen
Warren gave you five innings -- 6 hits, 3 runs, one genuinely rough fourth. His record goes to 6-1. You want five innings out of your starter when the bullpen needs the game; Warren delivered it.
Cease struck out nine but walked four and needed 100 pitches to work through five. A nine-strikeout line with four walks and 100 pitches doesn't win a lot of games, and it didn't win this one. He's 3-2 on the year after tonight.
Tim Hill, Jake Bird, and Brent Headrick followed Warren with three scoreless innings on one hit combined. That bullpen had been inconsistent the whole road trip. Three clean frames from three different arms -- without Bednar -- is not a small thing.
Doval Closes It, Barely
David Bednar got the night off after Monday's save. Camilo Doval handled the ninth and made it very interesting -- he walked Andrés Giménez, gave up an Ernie Clement single and a Vladimir Guerrero Jr. sacrifice fly that cut it to 5-4, and had runners at the corners with the game still alive.
Kazuma Okamoto grounded to Anthony Volpe. Volpe made the play. Save, Doval -- his first of the 2026 season. He pounded his chest after the last out, which seemed proportionate.
Aaron Boone got ejected at some point in the middle of all this, because Aaron Boone.
The Yankees are two-up in this series now. McMahon's bat is apparently awake, Rice keeps doing Rice things, and if the pen can give Bednar a rest day here and there without self-destructing, this homestand could get interesting fast.
Jimmy writes the Bronx Pinstripes game recap after every Yankees game. Beat-reporter pacing, fan's heartbeat. He calls opposing players by last name and has no patience for dead-air innings.
