The patchwork Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees just keep chugging along.
Fielding a lineup that was cut down to five regulars shortly before first pitch against Phillies ace Aaron Nola, the Yankees rallied for their third straight win, 6-4, Tuesday night in The Bronx.
Greg Allen, the 12th different outfielder the Yankees have tried this season, provided a spark with his speed to manufacture a pair of runs before Brett Gardner, Gary Sanchez, Giancarlo Stanton and the freshly called up Estevan Florial lowered the boom with solo home runs.
“It’s definitely been a fun brand of baseball here the last few days,” manager Aaron Boone said.
“It’s been really neat to see us, for the last couple games, [score] in some different ways. The home run ball showed up for us tonight … but the little ball was there [too].”
Aroldis Chapman closed the door in the ninth inning for his first save since June 20, despite giving up a solo home run to Andrew McCutchen. He struck out Bryce Harper, Rhys Hoskins and Didi Gregorius in his first save opportunity since July 4, after temporarily being removed from his role as closer.
The Yankees (49-44) came out of the All-Star break without Aaron Judge and Gio Urshela because of COVID-19, and Luke Voit because of his bad knee. Their issues were exacerbated less than an hour before Tuesday’s game started, when DJ LeMahieu was scratched with a stomach virus.
Still, the Yankees found a way to keep winning during a vital stretch of their season, coming back from a pair of one-run deficits to get within seven games of first place in the AL East.
“Just trying to be efficient, have good at-bats one through nine and be versatile in the way that we’re scoring runs,” said Allen, who was called up on Friday.
The Phillies (47-46) threatened in the eighth inning against Zack Britton and pushed one run across to make it 5-3, but the lefty limited the damage by getting a double play to end the frame.
Florial, promoted from Triple-A earlier in the day, gave Chapman some extra breathing room by crushing his first career home run in the eighth inning for the 6-3 lead.
Making his first start since June 30, Domingo German gave up two runs over four innings. Rhys Hoskins took him deep for a solo home run in the second inning — the 17th he has allowed in 19 games — and Ronald Torreyes added an RBI double in the fourth after German issued a walk and a balk.
But the Yankees answered each time thanks to Allen. In the third, he drilled a triple off the right-field wall and scored on Florial’s groundout to tie it 1-1.
Later, in the fifth inning, Allen drew a walk, stole second and tagged up to third on a Florial fly out. Tyler Wade then lined out to shortstop, but Gregorius’ throw to third for the double play was off target, allowing Allen to score to even the game at two.
Gardner quickly broke the tie, coming up next and cracking a solo home run to the short porch in right field for the 3-2 Yankees lead.
After Luis Cessa threw a scoreless fifth, Sanchez obliterated a Nola fastball 436 feet to left field to push it to 4-2.
Chad Green helped keep the two-run lead intact in the seventh inning. He entered the game and walked McCutchen on four pitches to load the bases, but then struck out Hoskins and Gregorius to escape the threat.
Stanton, after snapping an 0-for-14 skid earlier in the game, crushed a homer in the seventh — his first since July 6 — to make it 5-2.
“We have a lot of young players with a lot of talent,” Sanchez said. “It feels just like what I went through [in 2016]. I was called up and I started playing the game and helping the team and having fun. I think that’s what they’re doing now too.”