By the time the Yankees take the field next, their roster may look different for the third straight day.
But the one they rolled out on Monday night on the eve of the trade deadline looked plenty potent against the National League’s best as the Yankees won a third straight game for the first time in over a month.
In the midst of what Aaron Boone described as an “unsettling time” for his players, there was of course one Yankees constant: Aaron Judge, who crushed his 38th and 39th home runs of the year.
But Judge had plenty of help from a lineup that is beginning to look deep and dangerous again, this time in a 14-4 win over the Phillies in front of a sellout crowd at Citizens Bank Park.
And the captain hopes there may be more help on the way before Tuesday’s 6 p.m. deadline.
“Other teams are making moves, so hopefully we start making moves too,” Judge said. “We’ll see.”
After clobbering a season-high six home runs on Monday — three against Phillies ace Zack Wheeler — the Yankees (63-45) have now scored 40 runs over their last four games.
That includes three straight wins for the first time since winning four straight from June 9-12, shortly before their six-week slumber began.
“At the end of the day, it’s still July — we got a long way to go,” manager Aaron Boone said. “We’re working to get complete and better. It’s definitely nice to see, especially with what we’ve gone through. But we got to keep it going and keep the vibes going. But there’s no question you get a glimpse of what we can be.”
Jazz Chisholm Jr., in his second game with the team and looking right at home in his first career start at third base, crushed his first two home runs as a Yankee (one off a position player).
Ben Rice belted his first homer of the second half. A surging Austin Wells drilled a two-run triple to help knock Wheeler out of the game.
Anthony Volpe ripped a two-run shot, his third in the last seven games after going 56 games without one.
And Judge’s co-star, Juan Soto, added a pair of doubles and three RBIs in another ho-hum night.
The Yankees got an internal addition on Monday as Giancarlo Stanton (0-for-4, one walk) returned to the lineup from a five-week IL stint. He was the only starter without a hit as the Yankees piled up 14.
And the one external move the Yankees have made so far, Chisholm, has brought an immediate jolt of energy, with Judge describing him as “electric.”
“It’s super exciting,” Chisholm said. “Who doesn’t want to come over and help a playoff-contending team win? These guys have been welcoming me with open arms and I can’t do much more except go out there and play my best.”
The Phillies (65-41) are suddenly in a rut, losing for the ninth time in 13 games on Monday, but at their expense the Yankees tried to claw further out of theirs.
The two wins the Yankees picked up over the weekend against the Red Sox at Fenway Park were all well and good, but any talk of momentum had to be cautioned by the fact that they were about to face the National League’s ERA leader on Monday.
Then they teed off on Wheeler, racking up seven runs and seven hits across five innings against the right-hander, who entered the night with a 2.55 ERA over 20 starts.
Judge got it started with a solo shot in the first inning before Chisholm and Rice followed with homers in the second to give Luis Gil an early lead.
Gil took it from there, striking out eight and allowing three runs across 5 ¹/₃ innings while his offense continued to pile on and look more like it did earlier in the year.
“The guys in this room have never faltered,” Judge said. “You can ask us, ‘How’s it feel? Are you worried?’ But this team stayed true. We’ve been hit on the chin a couple times this year, but this team didn’t get knocked down. We’re locked and loaded, ready to go.”