The patchwork Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees just keep chugging along.
Fielding a lineup that got cut down to five regulars shortly before first pitch against Phillies ace Aaron Nola, the Yankees rallied for their third straight win, 6-4, Tuesday night in The Bronx.
Greg Allen, the 12th different outfielder the Yankees have tried this season, provided a spark with his speed to manufacture a pair of runs before Brett Gardner, Gary Sanchez, Giancarlo Stanton and the freshly called up Estevan Florial lowered the boom with solo home runs.
Aroldis Chapman then closed the door in the ninth inning for his first save since June 20, despite giving up a solo home run to Andrew McCutchen. He struck out Bryce Harper, Rhys Hoskins and Didi Gregorius in his first save opportunity since July 4 after temporarily being removed from his role as closer.
The Yankees (49-44) came out of the All-Star break without Aaron Judge and Gio Urshela because of COVID-19, and Luke Voit because of his bad knee. Their issues were exacerbated less than an hour before Tuesday’s game started, when DJ LeMahieu was scratched with a stomach virus.
Still, the Yankees found a way to keep winning during a vital stretch of their season, coming back from a pair of deficits to get within seven games of first place in the AL East.
The Phillies (47-46) threatened in the eighth inning against Zack Britton and pushed one run across to make it 5-3, but the lefty limited the damage by getting a double play to end the frame.
Florial, promoted from Triple-A earlier in the day, gave Chapman some extra breathing room by crushing his first career home run in the eighth inning for the 6-3 lead.
Domingo German, who was making his first start since June 30 after pitching in relief in each of his previous three appearances (due to an emergency root canal and a game postponed by the Yankees’ COVID-19 outbreak), lasted four innings. He gave up two runs, including a Rhys Hoskins homer in the second inning — the 17th long ball German has allowed in 19 games this season.
The Yankees tied it up in the third inning thanks to two of their newly recalled outfielders. Allen led off the inning by rocketing a triple off the right-field wall. Florial then grounded out to first, scoring Allen to tie the game 1-1.
But the Phillies took the lead back in the fourth inning. A walk and a balk from German came back to hurt when former Yankee Ronald Torreyes roped an RBI double to right field, putting the Phillies up 2-1.
Allen put his speed on display once again in the fifth inning to re-tie the game. After drawing a walk, Allen stole second and later tagged up and went to third on a Florial fly out. Tyler Wade then lined out to shortstop, but Didi Gregorius’ throw to third for the double play was off-target, allowing Allen to score.
Gardner quickly broke the tie, coming up next and cracking a solo home run to the short porch in right field for the 3-2 lead.
After Luis Cessa threw a scoreless fifth, Sanchez obliterated a Nola fastball 436 feet to left field to push it to 4-2.
Chad Green helped keep the two-run lead intact in the seventh inning. He entered the game and walked McCutchen on four pitches to load the bases, but then struck out Hoskins and Gregorius to escape the threat.
Stanton, who snapped an 0-for-14 skid coming out of the break with a fifth-inning single, then crushed a home run in the seventh for some more breathing room. It was Stanton’s first homer since July 6 in Seattle.