Tyler Austin stepped up for the first plate appearance of his major-league life and there it went, a homer just over the fence down the rightfield line at Yankee Stadium.
Aaron Judge followed him for his first trip to a major-league plate, and there was this big crack and then this soaring drive by the massive 6-7 rookie. The ball crashed off the facing above the black glass that serves as the batter’s eye in center and landed on the netting over the retired numbers in Monument Park.
Welcome to the Yankees’ future, loudly announcing its arrival on a back-to-back basis in the second inning Saturday.
Besides a celebration of the happy 20th anniversary of the Yankees’ 1996 championship, it was Life After A-Rod Day. After Alex Rodriguez’s pinstriped finale Friday night, the Yankees called up Austin and Judge and they became the first teammates in major-league history to homer in their first career at-bats in the same game -- an 8-4 win over Tampa Bay.
Both new guys also contributed a single, and Austin added a stolen base. The Yankees ended up belting a season-high-tying five homers. And Masahiro Tanaka improved to 9-4 after allowing the four runs and five hits and striking out eight across seven innings.
“It’s exciting to see what’s about to unfold here with the Yankees,” Judge said, talking about the youth movement before the game.
The Yankees began looking ahead by dealing several veterans before the trade deadline and then letting go of A-Rod. But they have now won four in a row and five of six to move to a season-high-tying four above .500, at 60-56. They also moved three behind Boston for the second wild card, pending its game against Arizona Saturday night.
“We felt that maybe with a (Gary) Sanchez and with a Judge and maybe an Austin sprinkled in here, we could get the offense improved, and that maybe we could stay in this thing and take a shot at it regardless,” Brian Cashman said. “… And we’re obviously still in this thing, which is tremendous.”
It was a 3-3 game in the fifth when Judge got the Yankees going again against starter Matt Andriese (6-4). The rookie led off with a single to left. One out later, Jacoby Ellsbury singled him to third. And then Aaron Hicks unloaded his sixth homer, a three-run drive to the second deck in right.
When Austin, who opened at first, and Judge, who’s taking over as the regular rightfielder, hit their homers, they became the fourth and fifth Yankees to do it in their first career at-bat or plate appearance. Judge also became the third player to either homer off the black glass or the facing above it.
Tanaka tossed away his 2-0 lead in the fourth, serving up a three-run homer to Brad Miller. Starlin Castro tied it in the home half with his career-high 14th homer, a shot to center.
After Hicks untied it, Tanaka yielded another homer to Miller, allowing the Rays (46-69) to cut the margin to 6-4 in the sixth. But Didi Gregorius tacked on a two-run homer in the seventh, his 15th.
Opening Day of this new A-Rod-less era went well.
“I think about all the great players that have walked not just through these days but the doors that were across the street that eventually retired,” Joe Girardi said. “It’s difficult. But you know that the game goes on and you move on and there’s a new set of faces and there will be new stars here and you get excited about that.”
..... - Newsday