The noise of Yankees bats kissing baseballs in an empty Yankees stadium on Sunday night pierced through a blanket of serious heat, and if Mets pitchers turned their heads to watch the balls take off, their necks they would have twisted.
Five home runs, two by Aaron Judge, reinforce that after more than three months away due to COVID-19, the Yankees are showing signs that they can use their muscles to earn a second consecutive AL Division Title.
Are You Making Too Much of a Spring Training Hydromassage Shower 2.0? Not when the season that opens Thursday in Washington has 60 games. Not all Yankees starters are going to dominate like Jordan Montgomery, who suffocated the Mets in a blister on Sunday night at Yankee Stadium. There will be games in which the Bombers must fulfill their nickname.
They certainly did on Sunday when Gary Sanchez, Luke Voit and Giancarlo Stanton also homered. Judge homered to left in the first inning against Corey Oswalt and Sánchez reached the second deck on the left against Oswalt in the fourth. Voit opened the sixth with a bang huddled in the net over Monument Park in the center of Drew Smith, Judge homered to the left in the sixth out of Smith and Stanton’s home run starting the seventh against former Yankee Chasen Shreve came to the stands in left field.
The power show followed Clint Frazier leading Rick Porcello of the Mets to the top deck of Citi Field on the left on Saturday.
The long ball act turned Montgomery’s gem into background noise. Throwing as an ace instead of a fourth or fifth starter, Montgomery played with a Mets lineup that housed Jeff McNeil, Pete Alonso, Robinson Cano, Yoenis Céspedes, Michael Conforto and JD Davis.
In five soft innings, Montgomery allowed two hits and stoked six. And he was not the main act.
Sánchez and Stanton hit the ball even more, but the judge who crushed two home runs had to calm some nerves in the Yankees universe about the stiff neck that until four days ago said it was not 100 percent.
Remember, Judge never played a game in spring training 1.0 due to an injury that was originally diagnosed as a shoulder problem, but it turned out to be a fractured rib in the upper right. Then the neck problem arose.
“I was sure he would be healthy. The time he was away served him well, ” Aaron Boone said of Judge taking advantage of the coronavirus shutdown that started on March 12. “It allowed him and the training staff to develop a smart development program for him. To be in a position where he is ready for opening day.”
None of the Mets pitchers on Sunday night are close to Max Scherzer, the Nationals right-hander who will be opposed by Gerrit Cole. Still, Scherzer will have to navigate a lineup whose eighth-place hitter Brett Gardner hit 28 home runs last year. Yes, the ball was live, but Gardner will probably hit eighth again.
Sánchez, Stanton, and Voit have deadly power for righties, but the Yankees’ lineup only seems completely complete when Judge is healthy and anchors him. Now they all look healthy, which was not the case almost every day last season.
“I think they continue to confirm what we were seeing at the beginning of summer camp when the boys were fit, a little nervous,” Boone said. “I think they have taken all the games within the squad and all the live replays and treated them as very important things. I think at the first opportunity to play against other teams we’ve seen several good at-bats for the boys, it was good to see that again tonight. ”
.
