Clutch early HRs by Volpe, Judge (464 feet!) power Yanks' victory

MIAMI -- Anthony Volpe was pleased by the results of his second-inning swing, launching a three-run homer that provided the Yankees with a much-needed early advantage. But it was Aaron Judge’s blast the next inning that truly impressed the rookie shortstop.

“That’s a different type of home run, that’s for sure,” Volpe said after the Yankees rolled to a 9-4 victory over the Marlins on Friday evening at loanDepot park. “It’s so easy when it just jumps off the bat, like everyone knows. It’s fun to watch.”

On a night in which the Marlins celebrated their 2003 World Series-winning team, Judge’s third-inning blast off Jesús Luzardo offered a throwback to a different season: 2017, when Judge won his only Home Run Derby to date on these very grounds, stealing the show from hometown favorite Giancarlo Stanton by blasting ball after ball toward Biscayne Bay.

Judge’s homer off Luzardo only counted for one run, but at a Statcast-projected 464 feet, the poke into the center-field batter’s eye marked the longest of his 22 blasts this season. It was also the longest homer hit in Miami this season.

“Any time we can add more runs, they feel great,” said Judge, who is hitting .256 with three homers and five RBIs since returning from the injured list on July 28. “The past couple of games, we’ve had guys on base. We just haven’t been able to get that big hit. Today we were able to get a couple of clutch hits.”

Oswaldo Cabrera, Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Gleyber Torres added on with run-scoring knocks in the fourth inning as the Yankees pelted Luzardo for seven runs and nine hits over 3 1/3 innings.

“A lot of good things happened out there,” said manager Aaron Boone. “It started with swinging the bats off a really good starting pitcher. We were able to hit him hard, and that’s a guy that’s in the middle of another really good season. So that was really good to see.”

And yet, the Yankees offered reminders that there is higher ground they aspire to. They flushed a bases-loaded, one-out opportunity in the fifth that Boone said “could have put it away early,” while Torres and Volpe also made ill-advised outs attempting to advance to third base.

“That part wasn’t great tonight,” Boone said. “I don’t want these guys getting scared to make mistakes on the bases. That’s what I don’t want. There were a couple of plays tonight where I felt like we could have been a little more aggressive, and that sometimes is that fear of making a mistake. You can’t play like that.”

Overall, however, the Yanks chalked this one up as a success.

For the second time this week, Ian Hamilton served as the Yanks’ opener, permitting two runs in two innings. Rookie Randy Vásquez served as the bulk reliever, doing -- in Boone’s words -- “everything that we needed him to do” by holding the Marlins to two runs over 3 2/3 innings in his fourth big league appearance.

“The changeup was big for me tonight,” Vásquez said through an interpreter. “It allowed me to execute with that pitch in the strike zone and outside of the strike zone.”

Since allowing two runs over 4 2/3 innings in his May 26 debut, Vásquez had thrown 10 2/3 scoreless innings over his previous two big league starts. Now he figures to get an extended opportunity in the rotation, with Nestor Cortes landing on the injured list pregame Friday with an inflamed left rotator cuff that likely will end his season.

“I feel confident that I can find a way to help the team,” Vásquez said. “I’m still developing, so I feel like every start is an opportunity for me to learn more and feel more comfortable at this level.”

Kyle Higashioka thumped a two-run single in the ninth inning, part of a three-hit performance that put the game on ice for the Bombers, who have won five of their past 12 games and are 15-20 over their past 35 contests.

“I think we’ve definitely had our opportunities the last week or so,” Volpe said. “Just to cash them in felt good and can hopefully kickstart us. I think we really passed it along today and fed off each other.”