Yankees darken Marlins' day with three-run homers from Anthony Volpe and Juan Soto
Juan Soto of the Yankees follows through on his fourth-inning three-run home run against the Marlins at Yankee Stadium on Monday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
The Yankees spent mid-afternoon staring up at the sky, watching as the moon intercepted the sun’s path high above the first-base line at the Stadium. Then they spent the early evening creating some celestial phenomena of their own.
The blundering Marlins were no match for the Yankees’ high-powered offense, which received a pair of three-run homers from a red-hot Anthony Volpe and Juan Soto in a six-run fourth inning en route to a 7-0 win at the Stadium in a game that was pushed back four hours because of Monday’s solar eclipse.
After a rough two first starts, Nestor Cortes was devastating, holding the Marlins to two hits and no walks with six strikeouts in eight innings. It was the longest outing by a Yankees starter this year. Josh Maciejewski threw a perfect ninth in his major-league debut.
Giancarlo Stanton continued his recent spate of dominance, going 2-for-4, scoring twice and hitting a screaming single that clocked in at 116 mph. Volpe, who owns the highest batting average in baseball at .417, also stole two hits away at shortstop.
The Yankees improved to 9-2, which matches the best start through 11 games in franchise history.
“Family — we all feel like a family right now,” Soto said. “It’s only been 11 games and we already feel like we’re sticking together, we’re pushing together. We all want the same thing.”
Miami fell to 1-10 in a game that lasted only a minute longer than two hours.
Cortes relied on a devastating changeup and cutter to unmoor the Marlins. It was a promising bounce-back after his injury-shortened 2023 season, particularly after he allowed four earned runs in five innings against the Astros in his first outing of the year and three earned runs in five innings against the Diamondbacks last Tuesday.
“These guys have big swings so it felt there were a couple guys I was able to [throw the changeup to] and I got into counts where I was able to throw it and I executed really well,” Cortes said. “I think that was the biggest thing today — executing the changeup down and away was pinpoint, so it was good.”
Added Aaron Boone: “The one thing with Nestor, if he’s healthy and going, I don’t worry about his confidence. He knows he’s good. He’s now had success in this league — extended success for a couple years as a starter . . . He’s done a really good job with his daily commitment to do everything he can to be healthy and to build properly.”
Volpe, who won the Gold Glove in his rookie year, made two excellent plays at shortstop in the second and third innings, robbing the Marlins of singles both times. In the second, he made a sliding catch to nab Tim Anderson’s liner on the fly. In the third, he slid to his right to corral Emmanuel Rivera’s hard-hit grounder on a short hop and threw across his body to get the out at first.
“I feel like that’s my job out there,” Volpe said. “Nestor was grinding so hard, and you just want to back him up.”
Volpe, who’s hit safely in eight of his 10 games, made his presence felt on the other side of the ball in the fourth. Stanton and Anthony Rizzo led off with back-to-back singles off Jesus Luzardo before Volpe golfed a low 84.7-mph slider 388 feet to left-center for his second homer of the year and a 3-0 lead.
After Alex Verdugo doubled and Jose Trevino walked, with two outs, Soto hit a high fly ball to right that just stayed fair for his second home run of the season and his first in the Bronx, good for a 6-0 lead.
The Yankees tacked on another in the fifth, again keyed by Stanton, who led off with a double and scored on a two-out single by Verdugo. Luzardo then walked Trevino to end his evening.
Stanton, a traditionally streaky hitter who batted .125 in his first six games, is 6-for-12 with four runs, two homers and five RBIs in his last three games.
“It was fun,” Cortes said. “When you’re out there and you’re giving guys zeros and you just keep them in the game long enough to score like that — that’s what you hope for as a starting pitcher.”
Laura Albanese is a reporter, feature writer and columnist covering local professional sports teams; she began at Newsday in 2007 as an intern.
