The New York Yankees scored 13 runs in an inning for the first time in nearly 21 years Sunday as their first 12 batters in the third reached safely against an overwhelmed pitching staff for the Athletics.
The game began well for A’s starter Jacob Lopez, who retired all six New York batters in the first two innings. But then trouble came quickly in the third when he failed to retire any of the seven hitters he faced, starting with a single by Anthony Volpe.
The totals in the inning were staggering as the Yankees had 11 hits and four walks. They sent 18 batters to the plate and faced 75 pitches during their most productive inning since scoring 13 runs in the eighth against Tampa Bay on June 21, 2005. It was one off the franchise record for an inning set July 6, 1920, against Washington.
Lopez walked two batters after Volpe’s hit and then failed to cover the bag on Paul Goldschmidt’s bases-loaded grounder to first, allowing a run to score on an infield single. Ben Rice followed with a two-run double, Aaron Judge blooped a single to center and Cody Bellinger hit an RBI single to knock out Lopez.
The next five batters also reached safely against reliever Michael Kelly, marking the first time in 17 seasons that a team started an inning with 12 straight batters reaching safely, according to Sportradar. The Boston Red Sox were the previous team to do it on May 7, 2009, against Cleveland.
This marked the first time the Yankees had 12 consecutive batters reach safely in an inning since the first game of a doubleheader on Sept. 11, 1949, against Washington. It was just two batters off the record since 1920 that came when Detroit had 14 straight reach in the sixth inning against the Yankees on June 17, 1925, with Hall of Famer Ty Cobb hitting a home run in that inning.
The Yankees scored 10 runs before the first out was recorded when Goldschmidt struck out. Rice followed with a two-run triple, giving him two multi-run extra-base hits in the same inning.
Bellinger capped the scoring with an RBI single, marking the first time since 1950 that the A’s allowed at least 13 runs in an inning. They gave up 14 in the first inning of the second game of a June 18 doubleheader that season.
In all, eight of the nine Yankees batters had at least one hit and one RBI in the inning, with Austin Wells the lone exception with two walks. All nine batters scored a run.
The inning went so long — lasting 43 minutes — that Yankees starter Will Warren had to go to the bullpen to get loose during the inning.
Reporting by the Associated Press.
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