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Yankees rout Cubs as Cody Bellinger hits three home runs to support Carlos Rodon's gem - Newsday

Published 4 days ago5 minute read

Cody Bellinger got his first true Yankees moment on Friday night.

He had just rounded the bases on his third two-run home run of the night (and, incredibly enough, he had been robbed of yet another home run). He was back in the home dugout and heard the Stadium crowd rhythmically chanting his name. But it wasn’t until Jazz Chisholm Jr. grabbed him to redirect him back to the top step that it all washed over him.

It was his first Yankee Stadium curtain call. And it was completely apropos after his display of power, Aaron Judge’s three scintillating defensive plays in rightfield and lefthander Carlos Rodon’s finest performance of the season helped the Yankees post an 11-0 victory over the NL Central-leading Cubs before 46,327.

The Yankees (53-41) have won five in a row for the first time since they completed a three-game sweep of the Angels on May 28 in Los Angeles.

“I didn’t know at first, so once they kind of nudged me,” Bellinger said of the curtain call. “That was a cool moment.”

Bellinger had never had a three-homer game at any level, he said, and his six RBIs tied a career high. That it came against the team that traded him to the Yankees made for an interesting dynamic.

“Against [his] old team, too,” manager Aaron Boone said. “I know that’s always a weird feeling sometimes, and you certainly want to perform. And he did.”

Bellinger is the third Yankee this season — along with Judge and Jasson Dominguez — to hit three home runs in a game.

And the truth is he probably would have had four if Kyle Tucker hadn’t taken one away in the seventh inning, leaping and extending over the rightfield wall to rob him.

“He should have had four,” Judge said.

“It was a great catch,” Bellinger said. “I was watching it. He timed it up perfect. So I was a little sick about it, honestly, but it was a good catch.”

The third home run, in the eighth, also was a close call as it narrowly eluded the glove of Cubs centerfielder Pete Crow-Armstrong. Said Bellinger, “I’ve seen PCA rob so many homers — he’s a freak athlete out there.”

His first homer capped a three-run rally in the third to make the score 3-0. The second came with one out in the fifth inning and caromed off the side of the second deck and into the bleachers to make it 5-0.

Bellinger extended his hitting streak to 16 games and has batted .406 with six home runs and 16 RBIs in that span.

Bellinger led a 15-hit attack for the Yankees that backed an eight-inning outing by Rodon, who was announced by MLB as an All-Star earlier in the day. He allowed four hits, walked one and struck out eight.

Boone visited him on the mound with runners at the corners and two outs in the eighth but opted to let him face Tucker. The at-bat ended with Judge’s third sensational play, a diving catch of a hooking drive as he slid on his chest on the dirt along the rightfield foul line.

“When that last one came up, I was like, “I’ve got to run through this wall — I’ve got to make this catch for him,’ ” Judge said.

Judge drove in the first run of the third inning with a sacrifice fly and made a pair of spectacular catches in the fourth.

He robbed Crow-Armstrong of a home run by leaping at the wall and getting his glove over the top to snare the ball for the second out, then raced in and made a diving catch on a sinking liner by Dansby Swanson for the third out.

“I’ve got a job to do out there. That’s why they got me playing out there,’’ Judge said. “So doesn’t matter how tough it is. You know, if the ball is hit in your direction, you go get it.”

Boone was asked about the Yankees spotting a tell from Mariners closer Andres Munoz in Thursday night’s 10-inning win that indicated he was going to throw a slider. Runners on second obviously were signaling to hitters, and the Yankees scored twice in the ninth to force extra innings. Boone replied, “Munoz was? I don’t know anything about that.” . . . . Crow-Armstrong, a former Mets top prospect, has blossomed into a star with the Cubs this season and took a .271 average and .869 OPS with 25 home runs, 70 RBIs and 27 stolen bases into Friday’s game. The 2020 first-round pick was sidelined with a shoulder injury when the Mets sent him to the Cubs in the Javier Baez trade on July 30, 2021. Asked about it, he said, “That’s what you find: a lot of people needing just an opportunity, and it’s not that I didn’t have them with the Mets. I was in a really good situation there . . . What was really big with the Cubs] was I personally felt like it was a huge display of belief in me not really seeing that much of me in a professional baseball setting.” . . . The Yankees have sold out the Stadium 12 times.

Roger Rubin

Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.

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