Yankees suddenly on fire as they hang on to complete sweep of Phillies

PHILADELPHIA — The Yankees have emerged from the trade deadline as the hottest team in baseball. 

A road trip that began in devastating fashion Friday night in Boston, when they served up their latest candidate for worst loss of the year to fall further into a 10-23 skid, finished with a resurgence. 

It was culminated by a sweep of the team that began the series with the best record in baseball, as the Yankees beat the Phillies 6-5 for their fifth straight win on Wednesday afternoon at Citizens Bank Park. 

“We’re playing well, we know we’re good,” manager Aaron Boone said. “When we play well, we can beat anyone. But the past is the past and the reality is we’ve got two months of baseball to hopefully put us in position to play for something meaningful in October. You keep the blinders on and keep going.

“But definitely when you win a day game [on a] getaway day to get a sweep against a club like that into an off day, that’s one of those good feelings in a baseball season.” 

DJ LeMahieu, who has essentially been relegated to reserve duty, took advantage of a start by putting together his biggest game of the season, driving in all six runs — a new career-high — with a grand slam and a two-run double. 

That staked the Yankees (65-45) to a 6-3 lead before they hung on late as the Phillies (65-43) chipped away at the deficit.

Tommy Kahnle escaped a seventh-inning jam when Alex Verdugo caught Austin Hays’ fly ball to left field while banging into the wall before Mark Leiter Jr. — who allowed a run on a one-hopper to the right side that Gleyber Torres likely should have turned into an out — left the bases loaded with a strikeout of Brandon Marsh. 

Then Clay Holmes, who fell victim to soft contact Tuesday night while blowing a one-run lead in the ninth inning of a 12-inning win, survived the ninth.

He gave up a leadoff single to Kyle Schwarber, but got Hays to fly out to the warning track and Bryce Harper to ground into a double play to end it. 

The Yankees returned to 20 games over .500 for the first time since they were 54-34 on July 3, and remained a half-game back of the Orioles for first place in the AL East with Tuesday’s trade deadline now in the rearview mirror. 

“I liked what we had before we made the moves and I know we’ve improved since these moves,” GM Brian Cashman said shortly before first pitch Wednesday. “I think we have a really good team already and it will get better over the course of time when certain guys come back from the IL. And then think with the imports too we got better.” 

While Chisholm and Leiter have made immediate impacts as external additions, the Yankees have seen internal improvements from their non-Aaron Judge/Juan Soto hitters lately that would be a huge boost if they can sustain it.

That was headlined by LeMahieu on Wednesday, but also included Giancarlo Stanton picking up his first two hits in his second game back from the IL. 

The Yankees also got a bounce-back performance from Nestor Cortes, who spent the days leading up to his start trying to block out the noise from his name being involved in trade discussions.

The left-hander retired the first nine batters he faced on the way to his best start since July 5.

He entered the game having allowed 15 runs across 13 ¹/₃ innings in his last three starts, but limited the Phillies to three runs across 5 ¹/₃ innings. 

“I think the stretch was pretty long, but I think it was only a matter of time where we were going to turn it on again,” Cortes said. 

“We have a special group here. Feel like we got better after the trade deadline. I think it’s up to the starters now to put up good starts and keep rolling with that because when we were at our best, our starters were going long and giving good opportunities for our hitters to come around. That’s who we are.”