Jazz Chisholm Jr. homered twice as the New York Yankees produced one of their better showings at home of late in an 8-5 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Monday night.
The Yankees won for the third time in their past 12 home games. New York scored its most runs in a home game since a 10-5 victory over the Chicago White Sox on June 17 thanks to Chisholm, who also hit a tiebreaking homer in the eighth inning in Sunday’s 2-1 win over the Dodgers in the nightcap of a doubleheader.
Chisholm homered in the first and third off Pittsburgh’s Braxton Ashcraft (9-4) and produced his 10th career multi-homer game.
He lifted a 1-1 curveball into the right field seats for a three-run homer that gave the Yankees a 4-0 lead after the Pirates committed two errors on Paul Goldschmidt’s grounder.
Chisholm gave the Yankees a 6-5 lead with a two-run drive off Ashcraft’s slider into the second deck that just stayed fair.
Chisholm’s second homer occurred after rookie Esmerlyn Valdez hit a 431-foot two-run home run that gave the Pirates a 5-4 lead in the top of the third. Valdez’s drive to right gave him an RBI in eight straight games and 13 homers in the first 32 games of his career.
Jose Caballero hit a two-run bases-loaded double in New York’s four-run third when it had six hits and Ben Rice scored when Pittsburgh left fielder Bryan Reynolds committed a throwing error after third baseman Nick Gonzales misplayed Goldschmidt’s grounder.
Jared Triolo hit a two-run double in the second and scored on an RBI single by Gonzales as the Pirates were unable to tie a season high by moving five games over .500.
New York’s Ryan Weathers allowed five runs on seven hits in 4 2/3 innings. The left-hander struck out five and walked two before four relievers followed.
Angel Chivili (1-0) pitched 1 1/3 innings and Fernando Cruz notched the final four outs for his second save of the season.
In the eighth, benches briefly cleared after Caballero hit an inning-ending double play against Dennis Santana. Santana started yelling at Caballero and was restrained by teammates Rafael Flores Jr. and Bryan Reynolds before order was restored after a few minutes without an ejection.
