ST. LOUIS — The Yankees have finally done what had become impossible over the past two-plus months: win back-to-back series.
Even on a night when Max Fried got hit around again, the Yankees just out-slugged the Cardinals, with Ben Rice’s seven RBIs leading the way to a 12-8 win on a sweltering Saturday at Busch Stadium.
Rice crushed a three-run homer in the fourth inning that regained the lead for good, then clubbed a three-run double in the sixth and an RBI single in the seventh that provided some breathing room.
Aaron Judge also turned in his best game since returning from the injured list, going 2-for-3 with his 39th home run, an RBI double and two walks.
Trent Grisham added a four-hit night, José Caballero scored three runs and Ryan McMahon drilled his first home run as a Yankee to help clinch a second straight series victory for the first time since late May.
In between, the Yankees played 20 series and won only seven of them, never consecutively as they struggled to gain any kind of momentum to snap out of their dive in the standings.
Saturday’s win — their fourth in five games and sixth in nine games — allowed the Yankees (66-57) to pick up a game on the Mariners in the AL wild-card standings (they trail them and the Red Sox by 1 ¹/₂ games) while creating more distance ahead of the Guardians, who are 2 ¹/₂ games back of Aaron Boone’s club for the third and final spot.
The high-powered offensive attack was enough support to get by with another rocky performance from Fried, who got tagged for a career-high-tying seven earned runs on eight hits across five-plus innings.
The left-hander owned a 1.92 ERA through his first 17 starts, but has pitched to a 6.80 ERA over his past eight starts since July 1.
After Fried gave up a three-run shot to Masyn Winn in the second inning that put the Cardinals (61-63) up 5-2, he retired 11 of the next 12 batters.
But that stretch came to a screeching halt in the sixth inning, when Fried allowed a bullet double and a two-run homer to Nolan Gorman that cut the Yankees lead to 9-7.
Devin Williams relieved Fried and struck out the side in the sixth inning before the Yankees added some insurance runs to give their highest-leverage relievers a break — at least until David Bednar entered to get the final out with a pair of runners on base, recording his third save as a Yankee.
Entering Saturday, Judge was batting just .172 with a .627 OPS in nine games since coming back from the injured list for a right elbow flexor strain.
But he looked more like himself against ex-teammate Sonny Gray, as the Yankees beat up on the Cardinals right-hander for six runs across five innings.
For the second straight night, the Yankees needed just three batters to take a 1-0 lead.
Grisham led off with a single, Rice walked and Judge roped an RBI double into the left-field corner.
After Jasson Domínguez added an RBI single to make it 2-0, the Cardinals got one of those runs back in the bottom of the inning with some help from Domínguez.
Alec Burleson sliced a fly ball down the left field line that Domínguez did not take the best route to, and then allowed it to bounce past him, trickling into the corner as Burleson legged out a triple.
One pitch later, it was a 2-1 game on Iván Herrera’s single.
The Cardinals then took the lead in the bottom of the second on Winn’s three-run shot off Fried.
But Judge led off the third inning with a home run to make it 5-3.
Then in the fourth, the Yankees got a bunt single from Caballero and another single from Grisham before Rice clobbered a 429-foot homer — his 18th of the year — to put the Yankees ahead for good.
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