Aaron Judge hits pair of two-run homers as Yankees storm back to beat Rays

The Yankees flipped the script on the Rays on Saturday.

Down by six runs against Tampa Bay ace Shane McClanahan going into the bottom of the fifth inning, the Yankees stormed back and ultimately took home a wild 9-8 victory in front of 44,714 at the Stadium.

Just six days earlier, the Rays had been down by six runs against Yankees ace Gerrit Cole going into the bottom of the fifth. But Tampa Bay stormed back and ultimately took home a wild 8-7 victory in 10 innings, perhaps the Yankees’ toughest loss of the season.

“It feels awful,” Cole said last Sunday. Now McClanahan knows exactly what he meant.

“We were kind of talking about that in the dugout,” Anthony Rizzo said of the previous game. “They did it to us, let’s do it to them.”

The Yankees (23-18) received a pair of two-run homers from Aaron Judge, a key two-run homer from Kyle Higashioka and more heads-up work from rookie Anthony Volpe in the batter’s box and on the bases. After a grand slam by Yandy Diaz ignited a five-run fifth that gave the Rays (30-11) a 6-0 lead, the Yankees scored four in the fifth and five in the sixth and barely held on in the teams’ fifth one-run game in six tries.

“We’ve got a lot of grinders in this clubhouse,” Judge said. “This was one of [the most fun] games we’ve played all year. You love facing the best and they’re bringing theirs every night and we’re bringing it every single night. Just a lot of gritty at-bats, grinding. It’s fun to be a part of.”

The offensive eruption by the Yankees, coming after Friday night’s comeback victory, overshadowed to a degree another outing in which Nestor Cortes wasn’t quite right. The lefthander allowed six runs and seven hits in 4 1⁄3 innings, bumping his season ERA to 5.53.

“They picked me up,” Cortes said.

There was no reason to believe that McClanahan, who entered the game at 7-0 with a 1.76 ERA and had a 3.26 ERA in his career against the Yankees, would allow a second straight comeback.

But Jake Bauers drew a walk to start the bottom of the fifth and scored on Higashioka’s homer to left to make it 6-2.

“Higgy’s at-bat was big to me,” Aaron Boone said. “I felt all day we were in the fight with him [McClanahan], even though we hadn’t scored until that point.”

Gleyber Torres then walked and Judge made it 6-4 with a two-run homer to right-center.

Volpe ignited the sixth-inning rally, creating a run all by himself. He reached on a bunt single toward third, stole second and, two outs later, stole third and scored on a wild pitch to make it 6-5. He is 13-for-13 in stolen bases.

Torres then walked and Judge sent a 2-and-1 slider into the second deck in left for a 439-foot two-run homer to give the Yankees their first lead at 7-6.

Rizzo shocked the Rays by bunting toward the third-base side for a single — “I was definitely inspired by him,” he said of Volpe — and DJ LeMahieu walked. In came righty Javy Guerra, and after Harrison Bader walked to load the bases, Oswaldo Cabrera poked a two-run single to right for a 9-6 lead.

The Rays got within 9-8 on Randy Arozarena’s two-out, two-run single up the middle off Clay Holmes in the seventh. Holmes stranded a runner at second in a scoreless eighth and Wandy Peralta pitched the ninth for his second save. After walking Arozarena with two outs, he retired Brandon Lowe on a fly to leftfield to cap a 10-pitch at-bat that featured six straight foul balls.

“Not ideal,” Boone said of falling behind McClanahan 6-0. “But again, with what I’ve been seeing with these guys, no matter what’s been going on, the [energy] in the dugout, the compete, has been there . . . Up and down, it was just a lot of really good, tough at-bats. Just a really good performance.”