Yankees 4, Nationals 2, and all four of those runs left the yard in the same half-inning. Down 2-0 since the first inning, the Yankees went quiet for six innings against Miles Mikolas and the Washington bullpen -- then turned the 8th into a fireworks show at Nationals Park, homering three times in a span of four batters to erase the deficit and steal Game 2 of this series.
Ryan McMahon started it. Trent Grisham finished it. By the time Paul Goldschmidt rounded the bases, Nationals reliever Clayton Beeter had faced three hitters and recorded zero outs.
The Inning That Decided It
Washington led 2-0 on solo shots from James Wood and Curtis Mead in the bottom of the first, both off Cam Schlittler, both fly balls that carried 388 feet to the gaps. Neither team scored again until the 8th.
Austin Wells popped out to open the inning (not the start anyone wanted), but McMahon followed with a 416-foot solo shot to right-center off Orlando Ribalta, the longest ball hit all day. Ben Rice worked a walk right after -- Jose Caballero came in to run for him -- and Washington turned to Beeter to face Grisham.
Bad move. Grisham turned on a 106 mph fly ball to right field, a two-run shot that scored Caballero and flipped a 1-2 deficit into a 3-2 lead. Goldschmidt kept it going one batter later, going deep to left-center for his first homer since June 24. Four batters, three home runs, zero outs recorded by the Nationals bullpen.
Star of the Game: Trent Grisham
Grisham finished 2-for-4 with the homer and two RBI, and by win-probability swing his shot was the single biggest play of the game -- worth roughly 46 points on its own. (Goldschmidt's homer one batter later, with the outcome basically decided, was worth a fraction of that.)
It's Grisham's 10th homer of the season, and it landed at the exact moment the Yankees needed a hitter to do damage with a runner already aboard. Not a solo shot to dress up a scoreboard -- a swing that changed who was winning.
Schlittler Held the Rope
None of the comeback happens if Cam Schlittler doesn't grind through a rough first inning. He gave up both Washington homers on his first ten pitches of the day, then didn't allow another run over his final 5.2 innings -- 6.2 IP total, 4 hits, 4 walks, 6 strikeouts, 99 pitches. No decision for him, which feels a little unfair given how the day started, but that's how it goes.
Brent Headrick got the final out of the 7th and was the pitcher of record when the Yankees broke through in the 8th, good for his fifth win of the season. Fernando Cruz followed with a scoreless 8th to protect the new lead, his 16th hold, and David Bednar closed it out in the 9th for his 18th save. Two shutout innings from the pen after the comeback -- that's the part that gets buried under three home runs, but it's the reason the lead actually held up.
Boone's Night
Somewhere in the noise of the 8th inning, Aaron Boone picked up his 750th career win as Yankees manager. Nobody was talking about it in the moment (understandably -- there were baseballs flying into the seats), but it's the kind of number that sneaks up on you over a decade in the dugout.
The Yankees are 53-42, winners of three straight, and they've taken the first two games of this series at Nationals Park. They're not catching anybody in the division standing still, but a win like this -- trailing for six-plus innings, gone in one wild frame -- is the kind that changes a clubhouse's mood on a random Saturday in July.
Go finish the sweep Sunday.
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.
