The Yankees had one job against the Colorado Rockies.
Sweep them.
At this point in September, there are no style points and no excuse for giving away games against a team sitting at the bottom of the National League West. With the Tampa Bay Rays still within reach in the American League East, these were three games the Yankees needed.
They got all three.
New York finished off the sweep Thursday night with a 10-3 win, improving to 84-62 and pulling within three games of the Rays for the division lead.
And there was a lot to like about how they got there.
Aaron Judge returned. Cam Schlittler was dominant again. George Lombard Jr. made Yankees history. Will Warren continued to make his case for a postseason role. Luis García Jr. reached 30 home runs. Spencer Jones stayed hot. Anthony Volpe returned from Triple-A and drove in five runs.
This was not one storyline.
It was three days of them.
Schlittler Just Keeps Getting Better
Judge’s return from a stress fracture in his right rib was understandably the biggest headline entering Tuesday’s series opener. He had not played since May 31 and missed 84 games before finally returning to the Yankees lineup.
But once the game started, Cam Schlittler stole the show.
Schlittler allowed one earned run on three hits across seven innings in the 5-3 win, striking out 10 without issuing a walk. The outing lowered his ERA to 2.01 through 30 starts and gave him 220 strikeouts on the season.
It was his Major League-leading 20th start allowing one earned run or fewer, already a franchise record.
Ryan McMahon broke a 1-1 tie with an RBI double against his former team in the fifth before Heliot Ramos gave New York some breathing room with a three-run shot in the eighth.
The win also guaranteed the Yankees their 34th consecutive winning season, a streak dating back to 1993.
The Kids Are Making Their Mark
Then there’s George Lombard Jr.
The 21-year-old came to the plate with the bases loaded and two outs in the third inning Wednesday and sent a 1-0 pitch into the right-field seats for his first career grand slam.
It was somehow the Yankees’ first grand slam of the entire season.
Lombard became the second-youngest Yankee ever to hit one at 21 years and 99 days old.
The only Yankee to do it younger?
Mickey Mantle.
Not bad company.
The slam gave the Yankees a 5-0 lead and was more than enough for Will Warren, who gave them six innings of one-run baseball with eight strikeouts in the 6-1 win.
Warren improved to 10-6 and has posted a 2.22 ERA over his last five appearances dating back to Aug. 19.
With October approaching, Warren continues to make a convincing argument that he belongs somewhere on the postseason staff.
Spencer Jones is making his own argument for playing time.
Jones reached base three times Wednesday and followed that with three hits and two RBI Thursday, including a two-run single in the seventh inning of the finale that gave New York some separation.
The Yankees have spent most of this season talking about their young players.
Now those players are helping them win games in September.
García Has Quietly Become a Huge Part of This Lineup
It might be time to talk more about Luis García Jr., too.
García homered in both of the final two games against Colorado, including his career-high 29th on Wednesday. He entered Thursday hitting .364/.400/.636 over his previous 19 games.
Then he hit No. 30.
His two-run homer in the first inning Thursday immediately gave the Yankees a 2-0 lead and continued what has been one of the more important developments in this lineup down the stretch.
Judge is back. Cody Bellinger has been hitting consistently. Jones is producing. And García has become another legitimate power threat in the middle of the order.
That depth matters even more now with Jazz Chisholm Jr. sidelined by a sprained right thumb. The Yankees placed Chisholm on the 10-day injured list Thursday after he was injured sliding into second base Tuesday.
And Then There’s Volpe
Of course, we do need to talk about Anthony Volpe.
Volpe was recalled Thursday to take Chisholm’s roster spot after spending more than a month in Triple-A, where the Yankees had him working at shortstop, second and third base.
His first game back could not have gone much better. He literally made his own history.
Starting at second, Volpe singled home a run in his first at-bat. Then, with the Yankees holding a 6-2 lead in the seventh, he stepped to the plate with the bases loaded and sent one into the right-field seats.
Grand slam.
One night after Lombard hit the Yankees’ first grand slam of the season, Volpe hit their second.
Volpe finished 3-for-4 with five RBI, the first five-RBI game of his career.
It was a great night for a player who has had a very difficult year, and another example of someone stepping up when the Yankees needed it.
Three Games Back
This is where the sweep matters most.
The Yankees are now just three games behind Tampa Bay in the AL East with 16 games remaining.
Three games.
The division is very much alive.
The Yankees cannot control what Tampa Bay does every night. But they can control what happens on their side, and sweeping a home series with 16 games left is exactly what they needed to do.
The race is on.
The Rays and Yankees still have four games against each other at Yankee Stadium from Sept. 22-24.
What’s Next: More Than Baseball
Next up is the Mets.
But Friday night will be about much more than another chapter of the Subway Series.
The Yankees and Mets will meet at Yankee Stadium on Sept. 11, the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
It will be the first time the two teams have played each other on the anniversary since Sept. 11, 2021, when they met at Citi Field for the 20th anniversary. Friday will bring the remembrance to Yankee Stadium.
The Yankees and Mets will wear first responder caps, and Yankee Stadium will hold a pregame ceremony beginning at 6:30 p.m. honoring those lost, their families and the first responders who answered the call that day.
For most of the year, the Yankees and Mets are divided by boroughs, colors, fan bases and a rivalry.
Tomorrow, none of that matters.
Twenty-five years later, New York will never forget.
And for one night, the two teams that represent this city will unite.
