WEST SACRAMENTO -- After two lifeless offensive innings against the Athletics on Sunday at Sutter Health Park, Aaron Judge didn’t like what he was seeing.
The Yankees had followed Saturday’s loss to the A’s with two hitless frames against lefty starter Jacob Lopez, and a first-inning error led to three A’s runs in the bottom of the first. The first-base visitors’ dugout felt flat, and Judge knew it.
“I just felt like we were a little asleep there during the first two innings,” he said. “I expect more out of the guys. I know they expect more out of themselves.”
Between innings, Judge delivered what he called “a couple choice words” to himself and his teammates. The gist, according to starting pitcher Will Warren? “Let’s wake up.”
Boy, did they ever.
The first 12 Yankees batters reached base to start an historic third inning, a 13-run frame featuring 18 batters, 11 hits and four walks that took more than 42 minutes from first pitch to final out. The highest-scoring inning by an MLB team in more than a calendar year, it powered the Yanks to a 13-8 win and a road series victory over the A’s.
In other words?
“The boys woke up,” Warren said.
The Bronx Bombers’ bats broke out for eight hits and four walks to open the frame against Lopez, then reliever Michael Kelly. By the time Paul Goldschmidt was called out on strikes for the inning’s first out, the Yankees had 10 runs, tied for the second most scored by a team before recording an out in any inning in the Expansion Era (since 1961), according to the Elias Sports Bureau. Only two other teams in that span -- the Red Sox in 2009 and the Royals in 1986 -- had 12 straight batters reach to start an inning.
All nine Yankees starters reached base safely in the third, with six doing so twice. Designated hitter Ben Rice had both a two-run double and a two-run triple in the inning, the Yankees’ highest-scoring frame since a 13-run eighth on June 21, 2005, against the Rays.
The last time they went BIGGER? It happened only once: a franchise-record 14-run fifth inning on July 6, 1920, against Washington in which Babe Ruth drew an intentional walk and later hit a two-run single.
Rather strangely, Sunday’s big inning was the only time the Yankees made their mark offensively in the series finale. All 11 of their hits came in their big third inning, making the Yankees the first team to score at least 13 runs in a game with all of their runs and hits coming in the same frame.
That almost posed a problem when the A’s responded with four runs in the seventh and another in the eighth, cutting what had been a 10-run Yankees lead in half.
“We needed all 13 of those runs, because the A’s kept swinging and kind of came back there,” Judge said.
While Brent Rooker and Jonah Heim crushed dingers for the home team, the Yankees managed their massive scoring output without a single home run, a relative rarity. It was just the fifth time in the Expansion Era that a team totaled 13 or more runs in an inning without leaving the yard.
“Today was just a strange day all around, so add that one to the list,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said.
The Yankees’ big inning was so unusual -- and so long -- that Warren had to make a move. Stationed in the dugout while the top of the third inning dragged on, the righty was “maybe freaking out,” according to shortstop Anthony Volpe, about staying warm.
Eventually, Warren trotted down the right-field line to the bullpen, throwing seven or eight warmup pitches while he waited for his offense to wrap things up. He was sharp after returning to the game, completing six innings without allowing an earned run.
Warren wasn’t the only one who locked in for the Yankees. After Judge’s impromptu address, the captain noticed a change in energy within the dugout: His teammates were focused on every pitch and cheered wildly with every walk or base hit.
“When we have energy and we’re pressing on the gas against all these teams, we’re the best team in baseball,” Judge said. “I just wanted the guys to remember that and not forget that.”
For at least one historic inning on Sunday, that statement was hard to dispute.
“You go out there and put [up] 13 in one inning there, it’s kind of tough to come back from,” Judge said.