As Trent Grisham settled into the batter’s box, down a run with runners on the corners in the sixth inning, the Yankee Stadium crowd begged for him to be replaced.
“We want Soto,” a hearty portion of the 48,023 in attendance chanted as Juan Soto leaned on the dugout railing, sitting out a third straight game with forearm inflammation.
The Yankees’ offense had been a shell of itself all weekend without Soto and Grisham, batting fifth on Sunday, came to the plate batting .082 (4-for-49) on the season.
But with one swing, the backup outfielder sent the place into hysteria, the sellout crowd suddenly on his side. And before the end of the night, the chants had changed to “We want Grisham.”
Grisham clubbed a three-run home run off Tyler Glasnow to send the Yankees to a 6-4 win over the Dodgers that staved off a sweep.
In danger of dropping three straight and getting swept for the first time this season, the Yankees trailed 3-2 heading into the bottom of the sixth.
Alex Verdugo and Aaron Judge set the table with back-to-back infield singles and then with two outs, Grisham delivered his big swing to put the Yankees ahead 5-3.
Used sparingly through the first two-plus months of the season, Grisham now has five hits — three of them home runs.
Luke Weaver kept the two-run lead intact in the top of the seventh with some escape artistry, entering the game after Caleb Ferguson had put runners on first and second with no outs.
Kiké Hernandez’s first attempt at a sacrifice bunt went foul, and while Jose Trevino tangled feet with him on the way to trying to catch it, no interference was called.
Hernandez got the next bunt attempt down and Trevino fired to third. Andy Pages looked like he was going to be safe, but in his slide, his front foot bounced up over the bag, allowing Oswaldo Cabrera to catch the throw before Pages touched third.
Weaver then got Mookie Betts to hit a grounder up the middle, which Gleyber Torres fielded cleanly before stepping on second and throwing to first for the inning-ending double play.
After the Dodgers got a run back in the top of the eighth to pull within 5-4, Aaron Judge clobbered his MLB-leading 24th home run of the season in the bottom of the inning to make it a two-run lead again. The 434-foot shot landed in the second deck for Judge’s third home run in two days.
The comeback win came on a night when Luis Gil, by the lofty standards he has established for himself, had his “worst” start since April 26, though it was still plenty solid. T
he right-hander gave up three runs across 5 ²/₃ innings, snapping a stretch of seven straight starts in which he had pitched at least six innings and allowed one or zero runs.
The Yankees took their first lead of the series in the third inning when Cabrera crushed a solo shot off the right-field foul pole.
Cabrera, in the lineup at third base with DJ LeMahieu moving to first base for the struggling Anthony Rizzo, hit three home runs in his first 10 games of the season but had only one (on May 1) in his next 39 games before Sunday. Glasnow threw a 97 mph fastball on the inside edge and Cabrera turned on it for the 1-0 lead.
Then with two outs in the inning, Verdugo and Judge hit back-to-back doubles — Judge’s bouncing out of the glove of center fielder Pages just before he hit the wall in front of the Yankees bullpen — to make it 2-0.
Gil cruised through the first four innings before Betts tied it in the fifth with a two-run double.
Teoscar Hernandez, who spent most of the weekend tormenting the Yankees, did it again in the sixth with a solo shot off Gil that put the Dodgers up 3-2.