With bunt called off, clutch Bader goes bye-bye

NEW YORK -- Harrison Bader has played in only 52 games so far in his pinstriped career, but he seems to have a knack for showing up when the spotlight is brightest.

The center fielder, who missed the first month of the season with a left oblique strain and then went on the injured list again with a right hamstring strain one month later, has been a sparkplug in a Yankees lineup that has been lacking without the presence of All-Star Aaron Judge.

On Monday night, in the opener of a key four-game series against the Orioles, Bader proved it once again -- this time with a feat he had yet to accomplish in his big league career.

With the game tied in the bottom of the eighth, Bader launched a go-ahead three-run home run off Orioles reliever Danny Coulombe to power the Yankees to a 6-3 win. It marked the 29-year-old’s first homer to give his team the lead in the eighth inning or later. The victory moved the Yanks (47-38) to within three games of Baltimore for second place in the American League East and into a tie with the Astros for the AL’s second Wild Card spot.

And to think, it almost didn’t happen.

With men on first and second and nobody out, Yankees manager Aaron Boone called for Bader to bunt the runners over, setting up a potential go-ahead sacrifice fly. But after Bader took a sinker for strike one, Boone removed the sign. So after the second pitch of the at-bat was a harmless ball in the dirt, Bader swung away on a hanging sweeper at the top of the zone.

“I wasn’t going to take the bat out of his hands completely there, and once there was a strike gone, I didn’t want to mess with it,” Boone said. “Felt like the hole was open there at the very least, with them playing it pretty aggressively on the bunt. I was only going to play it for one pitch probably there. Then he did the rest.”

Bader’s Statcast-projected 415-foot rocket to left field was his seventh home run of the season, and it electrified the crowd of 46,015 in the Bronx, the club’s 11th sellout of the year. He now boasts a .356/.360/.622 slash line with 29 RBIs with runners in scoring position as a Yankee.

“The smaller you think about the result and the quieter you are in the box, I think you get some pretty good results,” Bader said. “And two, I just like feeding off the energy in the Bronx, especially in those big situations as I’m coming to the plate -- it kind of zones me in a little bit. So yeah, I love when it goes our way.”

Bader’s blast capped a Bombers comeback that began with the efforts of shortstop Anthony Volpe, who blasted a solo shot to left field to open the scoring for New York in the fifth -- the first of back-to-back Yankees homers after catcher Kyle Higashioka followed suit with one of his own.

Volpe also scored the tying run in the seventh, racing home on a wild pitch by Orioles reliever Yennier Cano, to continue his tear since the now-famous chicken parm dinner that may have jump-started his rookie campaign. Volpe is in the midst of a career-high eight-game hitting streak, during which he is slashing .500/.516/.733 with eight runs scored.

“He’s been great,” Boone said. “You’re seeing a guy that’s maturing at this level and making adjustments -- now game after game, stringing together a lot of really good at-bats and playing the kind of defense he is. It’s been big for us, and we need it.”

Monday night’s win was just as needed coming off a 3-3 road trip that ended with a series loss to Bader’s former team in St. Louis. The Yankees are in the middle of a 14-game stretch without an off-day leading into the All-Star break, making it a good way to start their final homestand of the season’s first half.

“The Bronx showed up tonight with the energy,” Bader said. “We’re in the middle of the season, right in the thick of it, so to get a win for them is great. I just wanted to round the bases and get back to my team, go out there and play defense and finish that game off [in the ninth]. …

“It’s a big win for us, and we’re just going to continue to move forward with that energy.”