SEATTLE — Neither a cross-country trip nor a tough starting pitcher has done much to cool off the Yankees’ bats.
And the contributions are widespread enough that they still can cruise even when Aaron Judge only hits one home run.
The Yankees continued to mash on Tuesday, with a four-hit, four-RBI night from Isiah Kiner-Falefa leading the way to a fourth straight win, 10-2, over the Mariners at T-Mobile Park.
Anthony Volpe and Greg Allen also joined Judge by going deep as the Yankees (34-23) hung 10 runs on their opponent for a third straight game — doing so for the first time since September 2020.
“It’s no small feat to throw up 10 more runs against that quality of a pitching staff,” manager Aaron Boone said.
Over the last three games — one in The Bronx on Sunday and the last two in the Pacific Northwest — the Yankees have piled up 30 runs on 42 hits. They have come in three games started by tough competition in Yu Darvish (who entered with a 3.67 ERA), Bryce Miller (1.15) and Logan Gilbert (3.60).
Coming off a game in which they pounded out a season-high 18 hits, the Yankees saved 12 more for Tuesday.
The latest outburst included a 4-for-5 effort from the red-hot Kiner-Falefa, a three-run home run from the slumping Volpe and even Allen’s first home run as a Yankee while starting in center field on the day Harrison Bader landed on the injured list.
“Good team at-bats,” Kiner-Falefa said. “Everybody’s chipping in right now and everybody’s passing the baton and good things are happening when you’re not afraid to pass it to the next guy.”
For good measure, Judge added yet another homer in the seventh inning, going deep for the 12th time in his last 16 games.
It was more than enough offensive support for Nestor Cortes, despite the left-hander again being plagued by late-outing issues, though he limited the damage this time.
Cortes carried a shutout into the fifth inning before giving up a pair of runs, but left runners on first and second by striking out Eugenio Suarez on his 101st and final pitch of the night to escape the jam.
“I think going 101 there with the pitches and finishing that inning was huge,” Cortes said. “The stamina’s there. I felt strong.”
The Yankees jumped out in front immediately with three runs in the first inning.
Gleyber Torres had his third straight multi-hit game, extending his hitting streak to 10 games with a leadoff single.
Then with the bases loaded and one out, Kiner-Falefa lined a two-run single to center field.
Kiner-Falefa is batting 13-for-34 (.382) with 12 RBIs over his last 11 games, warranting more regular playing time as he has started to find a groove in his super-utility role.
“I feel like this is what I can do. This is what I expected to do,” said Kiner-Falefa, who credited his turnaround to hitting the ball hard instead of trying to spray it. “I worked my butt off to make adjustments. … It’s starting to finally pay off.”
Volpe entered his at-bat in the third inning in a 5-for-41 slump with 17 strikeouts, including one that left a runner on third base to end the first inning.
But he came up with two runners on and clobbered a low slider from Gilbert for a three-run homer that traveled 413 feet to put the Yankees ahead 6-0.
“That was a big blow in the game to let us really breathe a little bit,” Boone said. “That was a big swing.”
Solo shots from Allen and Judge made it 8-2 before Kiner-Falefa capped off his strong night with another two-run single in the ninth inning.
