13 ways Yankees' offense just made history

September 18th, 2020

The Yankees have a rich history of offensive excellence, but the current club is accomplishing the sorts of hard-hitting feats that even the many great Bronx Bombers lineups of years past never could.

New York completed an emphatic three-game sweep of the Blue Jays at Yankee Stadium on Thursday night, following up blowouts of 20-6 and 13-2 with a 10-7 victory. The Yankees also smashed six home runs, becoming the first Major League team to hit at least six home runs in three consecutive games.

Here are 13 ways the Yanks’ lineup has made history over the past few days.

A three-game thrashing

• The Yankees’ 43 runs against Toronto were their most in any three-game series in 90 years. The only time in franchise history that New York scored more runs in any three-game set, its lineup featured a couple of guys named Ruth and Gehrig. From June 14-17, 1930, the Yanks beat the Indians 11-7, 17-10 and 17-2, for a combined 45 runs scored.

• What about any three-game span? The only other time since 1940 that the Yankees scored at least 43 runs over three games -- regardless of series boundaries -- came in 2007.

• The Yankees’ 43 runs over the three games are more than they scored over their previous 10 games combined (41), when they hit a grand total of 12 homers.

• On Sept. 8 -- just nine days ago -- the Yankees suffered a 2-1 loss to this same Blue Jays club, dropping to .500 (21-21) with a mere plus-3 run differential. This slump is now firmly in the rearview mirror. With their lineup once again healthy and intact, New York has reeled off eight straight victories, outscoring the opposition by a crooked 71-20 (plus-51) in that time.

Home Run Derby in the Bronx

• The Yankees pounded six homers in the series opener, seven on Wednesday and six more on Thursday. Not only are they the first team in big league history to hit at least six homers in three consecutive games, but they’re only the third club to go deep even five times in three in a row.

• The Yankees’ 19 home runs in the series are the most by a team in a series of any length in the modern era (since 1900). The prior record was 17, by the Twins in a four-game series against the Senators in August 1963. Altogether, the 19 home runs traveled a combined projected distance of 7,496 feet, according to Statcast, or 1.42 miles.

• The 19 homers also are a record for any three-game span by a single team.

A ferocious fourth

• The Yankees hit five home runs in the fourth inning Thursday, setting a franchise record and tying the Major League record for a single inning. It was the seventh time a team hit five home runs in an inning, and first since the Nationals hit five in the third against the Brewers on July 27, 2017. It hadn’t happened in an American League game since June 9, 1966, when the Twins -- including Tony Oliva and Hall of Famer Harmon Killebrew -- did it in the seventh inning against the Kansas City A’s. Hall of Famer Catfish Hunter allowed the first two.

• Included in the Yankees’ power surge Thursday were back-to-back-to-back home runs by Brett Gardner, DJ LeMahieu and Luke Voit. It was the first time the Yankees had hit three consecutive homers since June 3, 2017, also against the Blue Jays -- though that time in Toronto. In the eighth inning of that game, Matt Holliday, Starlin Castro and Didi Gregorius did the honors.

• Later in the same inning, Giancarlo Stanton and Gleyber Torres also went back-to-back. According to James Smyth of YES Network, this was the 12th game in Yankees history in which they went back-to-back multiple times, and the first in which the pair came in the same inning.

Voit’s 20th in ‘20

• Voit's blast was his MLB-leading 20th home run of the season, making him the third player in franchise history to reach that mark within the first 50 games of a season. The other two are Babe Ruth (1926, ’28, and ’30) and Mickey Mantle (1956). The last player with any team to hit as many as 20 homers in his team’s first 50 games was the Rangers’ Josh Hamilton in 2012.

• Though the schedule is 60 games long this season, over a full 162-game schedule, Voit’s pace would be 70 home runs.

• In 2019, Voit launched 21 home runs in 510 plate appearances, sending No. 20 over the wall in his 105th game. Home run No. 20 this year comes in Game No. 46, and he reached that figure in his 188th plate appearance.