Yankees beat Athletics as Jasson Dominguez hits three home runs, drives in seven runs
New York Yankees' Jasson Domínguez celebrates after hitting a solo home run during the third inning against the Athletics on Friday. Credit: AP/Godofredo A. Vásquez
WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Jasson Dominguez stepped to the plate in the eighth inning, the only player in the ballpark at that point capable of overshadowing Will Warren’s best career start.
And Dominguez — aka “The Martian” — did just that.
An inning after notching the first two-homer game of his career, Dominguez made it three, swatting the first grand slam of his career.
It helped send the Yankees to a 10-2 victory over the A’s in front of a sellout crowd of 12,049 at Sutter Health Park, the season home for at least the next three years for the team formerly known as the Oakland A’s.
“Tonight was special,” said Dominguez, still grinning ear-to-ear. “I get a homer from the right side, my first grand slam, my first three-homer game. Today was a really special night that I will remember.”
Dominguez — learning leftfield on the fly this season, which may or may not have contributed to his slow start at the plate — went 3-for-3 with seven RBIs (he also had a sacrifice fly). He is hitting .250 with five homers and an .802 OPS.
“He’s capable of things like that,” Aaron Boone said. “Just a lot of good at-bats from everyone in the lineup and highlighted by what a night by Jasson.”
Dominguez became the youngest Yankee ever with a three-homer game at 22 years, 91 days. The previous youngest was Joe DiMaggio at 22 years, 200 days on June 13, 1937, against the Browns.
“It means a lot,” Dominguez said. “To be able to write your name in history is a really big deal . . . When I hit the third one, it was funny, I was just telling myself like, ‘No way, there’s no way.’ ”
Dominguez’s homer in the seventh made it 5-0 and represented the switch hitter’s first career homer from his weaker right side. He entered the game with 74 plate appearance and 63 at-bats while hitting righthanded.
He said he “felt good” during batting practice but “I didn’t feel like I was going to have a day like this, to be honest.”
He laughed and said the only previous time in his baseball life that he hit three home runs in a game was in “PlayStation.”
After each home run sailed over the wall, and especially after the grand slam, the Yankees’ dugout celebrated for one of its more popular players.
“That was incredible,” Aaron Judge said. “Just going back to spring training, the guy goes out there and wins a job [in left]. The work I saw him put in on the back fields when no one was really looking on the defensive side, the work in the cage. To see him have a game like tonight, with three homers, it’s just special. I think you see the excitement in the dugout on each homer. Happy for him. He’s going to have a fantastic year.”
The Yankees (22-16) outhit the Athletics 14-7, getting back-to-back home runs from Paul Goldschmidt (two hits) and Dominguez with two outs in the third inning to give Warren a lead that was never threatened.
J.C. Escarra had two hits, as did second baseman Jorbit Vivas and DH Ben Rice.
The pitch-efficient Warren, meanwhile, dominated throughout his longest career outing.
Warren, 1-2 with a 5.65 ERA coming in, took a shutout into the eighth before departing with a 10-0 lead, two on and one out. Mark Leiter Jr. allowed an inherited runner to score, giving Warren a final line of 7 1⁄3 innings, one run, four hits, one walk and seven strikeouts against a team that had reached double digits in hits in each of its previous five games.
“I’ve said it’s close, and I meant that,” Warren said of something he’s said repeatedly, even after some of his worst outings of the year. “I think it comes down to executing our plan and sometimes you miss a few inches outside and a guy gets on, it can change an entire game. Tonight I think we executed our plan and we stayed in control pitch to pitch and that’s why we got into the eighth.”
The Yankees took the lead for good in the third. After Judge (1-for-4 with a walk) and Rice struck out, Goldschmidt blasted an 0-and-2 slider to dead center for his fourth homer. Two pitches later, Dominguez rifled a changeup to right-center for his third homer of the season.
The Yankees tacked on in what turned out to be a bizarre fifth. Trent Grisham worked a leadoff walk and, after Judge flied to right, Rice stung a single to center. Goldschmidt then flared one to center, where JJ Bleday laid out and clearly trapped the ball, but third-base umpire Tom Hanahan ruled it a catch and a double play. Grisham, reading the play correctly, came around to score but was put back on third after the umpires convened and reversed the call on the field, always their prerogative.
Boone objected to Grisham being put back on third, but runner placement in itself is not reviewable, and the call stood. Dominguez’s sacrifice fly to left allowed Grisham to score for a 3-0 lead.
Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.
