NEW YORK — Now that’s a Bronx cheer.
With their Yankees trailing by a run and on the verge of being swept by a National League team in Yankee Stadium for the first time in the history of interleague play, Yankees fans roused themselves in full throats as .082-hitting Trent Grisham came to the plate with runners at the corners and one out.
“We! Want! Soto!” they chanted, the call picking up steam around the stadium.
Juan Soto has not played during this series due to a forearm injury though Yankees manager Aaron Boone has tried to use him as a decoy. During Friday’s scoreless duel, Soto was on the top step of the dugout at one point, batting gloves on. After the game, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts was dismissive, saying he never believed Soto was a threat to bat.
He wasn’t Sunday night either.
Instead, Grisham slammed a 2-and-1 fastball that Tyler Glasnow left over the heart of the plate, sending it 394 feet into the right field seats for a three-run home that changed the fans’ preferences and lifted the Yankees to a 6-4 victory over the Dodgers in the series finale.
The Dodgers took two of the three games in the marquee matchup played in front of sold-out crowds and national television each night. The games were played in tight quarters – 19 of the 29 innings ended with the score tied or one team leading by just a run.
They scored twice off Yankees starter Luis Gil in the fifth inning Sunday. They were the first runs the Dodgers scored for Glasnow in 34 innings and five starts dating back to May 4.
That tied the game, 2-2, and Teoscar Hernandez gave the Dodgers the lead with a solo home run in the sixth. Hernandez also had a double in the game, capping a big weekend in the Big Apple – he went 6 for 12 with two doubles, three home runs and nine RBIs.
But Glasnow ran into trouble in the bottom of the sixth.
Back-to-back singles and a wild pitch put runners at the corners for Giancarlo Stanton. Glasnow struck him out, slipping a slider by him on the seventh pitch.
That brought up Grisham, playing in Soto’s spot – to the fans’ disapproval. That changed four pitches later. In his next at-bat, fans briefly chanted, “We want Grisham.”
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The Dodgers wasted one scoring opportunity in the seventh when Kike’ Hernandez couldn’t successfully bunt the runners over and Mookie Betts bounced into a double play.
But they made it a one-run game again in the eighth when Shohei Ohtani got just his second hit of the series, a soft double down the left field line. Will Smith drove him in with a sacrifice fly.
Judge got that run back in the bottom of the eighth with his third home run in two nights and MLB-leading 25th of the season. Even uncoupled from Soto, Judge went 7 for 11 in the series with two doubles, three home runs and five RBIs.