Yankees pummel Pirates by blasting 6 homers, including a pair of grand slams

After scoring their first two runs by playing small ball, the New York Yankees reminded everyone what the Bronx Bombers do best.

Josh Donaldson and Joey Gallo hit back-to-back home runs in the sixth inning and Kyle Higashioka added a solo shot in the seventh but the biggest blast belonged to Aaron Judge, who crushed a grand slam for his major-league leading 30th home run in the eighth.

Then things just got silly.

With infielder Josh VanMeter pitching in the ninth, Aaron Hicks hit a grand slam and Giancarlo Stanton followed with a solo shot as the Yankees smacked six homers in a 16-0 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Wednesday night before a crowd of 32,414 at PNC Park.

“They can score runs in a hurry,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “We saw it. That’s why they have (59) wins or whatever. … When they get going, they’re hard to keep down.”

The Yankees recorded a season-high 22 hits, including eight in the six-run ninth, and increased their MLB-leading home run total to 139. The Pirates hit the midpoint of the season with a 33-48 record and in fourth place in the NL Central (12 1/2 games behind Milwaukee) after giving up double-digit runs for the eighth time this season and second time in six days, after a 19-2 loss to the Brewers last Friday.

After the start of the game was delayed 69 minutes by rain, both teams came out swinging hot bats. Eight of the first 14 batters made contact with exit velocities of 100.7 mph or higher, per Statcast.

Judge topped them all with his 114.7-mph slam off lefty Manny Banuelos, who made a forgettable Pirates debut after being acquired from the Yankees in a trade on Sunday.

Yankees right-hander Luis Severnino threw six scoreless innings, holding the Pirates to four hits while striking out three.

“I thought he had a little bit of everything,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “Really in control. He used his changeup, his different breaks on his slider and I thought he had a good fastball, command and everything. He certainly set the tone for us.”

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Severino did so by thwarting the Pirates’ best scoring chance in the first inning. After Ke’Bryan Hayes hit a leadoff single through the middle and Bryan Reynolds followed with a double to center to put runners on second and third with no outs, Severino got Jack Suwinski to hit a pop fly to second, Daniel Vogelbach to go down looking at a called third strike and Yoshi Tsutsugo to ground out to first to leave both runners stranded.

“It changes the complexion of the game,” Shelton said. “Ke’ stumbles around second or he probably scores. And then we don’t get a guy in. So, yeah, it definitely changes the momentum of the game. Those are situations where we have to capitalize.”

The Yankees also stranded a pair in both the second and third innings, as Pirates starter Mitch Keller got Isiah Kiner-Falefa to ground into a 4-6-3 double play to end the second and Matt Carpenter to do the same in the third.

Keller got into trouble in the fifth, which started with a leadoff walk to Gallo. Then Gallo broke for second and Oneil Cruz darted left to cover the bag, only to see Kiner-Falefa to swing late and hit a grounder to Cruz’s right and into left field. Kiner-Falefa stole second to put runners on second and third, and DJ LeMahieu singled through the middle to drive in both for a 2-0 Yankees lead.

“That fifth inning was tough,” Keller said. “They had a hit-and-run, which we’d been making double plays all night, so if they don’t hit-and-run there, double play and who knows how the inning goes? They just capitalized on the two mistakes I made and made me pay.”

Then the Yankees flipped their power switch.

Judge drove Keller’s next pitch 103 mph to deep center, where it sailed past Reynolds and bounced off the wall. As LeMahieu rounded the bases and headed home, right fielder Ben Gamel hit the cutoff man, VanMeter, whose relay throw home allowed Michael Perez to tag the sliding LeMahieu in the back before he touched the plate.

Cruz hit a grounder to second that registered an 113.8-mph exit velocity — the hardest hit ball for a base hit by a Pirates player this season — and sprinted at 30.3 feet per second to beat the throw by Gleyber Torres. Cruz was then called out on a pickoff play by first base umpire Nestor Ceja, but the Pirates challenged the call and it was overturned after video review. Severino retired the next three batters to preserve the lead.

With two outs in the sixth, Keller served up the back-to-back home runs on 1-1 pitches, as Donaldson crushed a curveball 417 feet to left for his seventh homer and a 3-0 lead, and Gallo followed by blasting a fastball 426 feet onto the concourse in center to make it 4-0.

“That was the game plan to Joey: Fastballs up. I just left it down,” Keller said. “If that ball’s two inches higher, it’s a pop-up. He capitalized on a mistake pitch that was left over the heart, and you tip your cap.”

The two homers kept Keller from earning a quality start, as he allowed the four runs on 10 hits — eight of which had exit velocities of 102.5 mph or higher — and one walk while striking out seven.

The home run parade continued against Tyler Beede in the seventh, as Higashioka drilled his 1-0 fastball 420 feet to dead center for his fifth home run and a 5-0 Yankees lead.

Beede’s problems compounded when first baseman Tsutsugo dropped Cruz’s throw from short on a LeMahieu grounder for an error and Judge drew a walk, then they executed a double steal to put runners on second and third. Torres drew a two-out walk to load the bases for Donaldson, who fouled off three consecutive 3-2 pitches before going down swinging at Beede’s 96-mph fastball.

After striking out Gallo to start the eighth, Banuelos loaded the bases with a Kiner-Falefa single and walks to Higashioka and LeMahieu. Judge sent his 1-0 sinker 419 feet to left for his MLB-best 30th homer and third career grand slam.

“The guy is probably gonna be the MVP of the American League, or is the leading candidate to be MVP of the American League,” Shelton said. “Last night, we did a good job holding him down. It’s tough to hold this lineup down; you don’t see it happen very often. They score a bunch of runs, and he’s the catalyst for that.”

VanMeter started at second base before making his third pitching appearance of the season, when he served up batting practice to the Yankees while facing 12 batters in the ninth.

“It was kind of scary,” VanMeter said. “When Stanton stepped in the box, I didn’t feel real comfortable out there. But you just try to throw strikes. It feels like any one of those guys could hit a homer at any point.”