From the depths of despair, the Yankees remained in second place, at least for a night.\u00a0<\/p>\n
One out away from being shut out and allowing the blazing-hot Red Sox to leapfrog them in the division standings, the Yankees\u2019 bats finally woke up in time to stop their slide for the time being.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Trailing by two runs entering the bottom of the ninth, the Yankees came back to tie it before winning it in the 10th on Ryan McMahon\u2019s walk-off sacrifice fly for a 3-2 win over the Braves in a game delayed two hours by inclement weather on Friday night in The Bronx.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the kind of tight, low-scoring game that has become so familiar of late because of their futile offense and outstanding pitching \u2014 and on Friday, game-saving defense \u2014 the Yankees found jubilation before heartbreak came their way again.\u00a0<\/p>\n
New York Yankees third baseman Ryan McMahon (19) celebrates with his teammates after his walk-off sacrifice fly to beat the Braves in the series opener on Aug. 7, 2026. Jason Szenes for the New York Post<\/p>\n
New York Yankees third baseman Ryan McMahon (19) is doused with water. Jason Szenes for the New York Post<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously it\u2019s tough for us, but these guys, they\u2019re gritty and they\u2019ve played in a lot of these games,\u201d manager Aaron Boone said. \u201cI feel like we\u2019ve had a lot of these, where it\u2019s one run either way. It\u2019s been tough for us offensively now for a while, so we\u2019re in these close games it feels like night in and night out. In a lot of them, we\u2019ve done things that allow us to win a game, and that was certainly the case tonight.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
New York Yankees first baseman Luis Garc\u00eda Jr. scored the winning run. Robert Sabo for NY Post<\/p>\n
After Jos\u00e9 Caballero failed to get a bunt down and struck out on a foul attempt to lead off the bottom of the 10th against righty Tyler Kinley, the Braves (70-46) intentionally walked Spencer Jones to bring up George Lombard Jr., who drew a full-count walk to load the bases.\u00a0<\/p>\n
McMahon, who had two of the Yankees\u2019 four hits entering the ninth inning, then fell behind 0-2 before working the count full and then delivering the game-winning fly ball to right field, deep enough to score Luis Garc\u00eda Jr. from third.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe got to figure that out,\u201d McMahon said of the offense that was shut out for eight innings Friday. \u201cWe got to get going a little bit more. It\u2019s not from a lack of work or effort, but we got to figure out a way to get going.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
New York Yankees first baseman Ben Rice (22) hits an RBI single to tie the game during the ninth inning on August 7, 2026. Jason Szenes for the New York Post<\/p>\n
New York Yankees catcher Austin Wells (28) reacts after he hits an RBI double in the ninth inning. Jason Szenes for the New York Post<\/p>\n
And so the Yankees (65-51) staved off third place in the AL East \u2014 for what would have been the first time this season \u2014 and dropping into the second AL wild card, staying a half-game ahead of the Red Sox, who won their ninth straight game and improved to 32-5 over their past 37.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Winning in extras for only the second time in 10 games this season, the Yankees snapped the Braves\u2019 eight-game winning streak.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Of their past 23 games, 17 have been decided by two runs or fewer, with the Yankees going 12-5 in those contests, which they hope will serve them well if they can survive this and make it to October.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cEspecially when you come down to the end of the year in playoff baseball, it\u2019s important to be able to play these tight games and be comfortable playing in tight games,\u201d said Max Fried, who turned in 6 \u00b9\/\u2083 shutout innings in an emotional first start against his former team. \u201cSo we embrace it. I know everyone in this room is comfortable and confident, going out there and trying to do whatever they can to win the game.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
New York Yankees pitcher Max Fried (54) throws a pitch during the first inning. Robert Sabo for NY Post<\/p>\n
When the Yankees stranded a pair of runners in the bottom of the eighth \u2014 after being shut out for six innings by righty Tyler Mahle, who came into the night with a 5.13 ERA \u2014 it appeared to be their last gasp. But then with one out in the bottom of the ninth, Lombard, in his third career game, reached on a swinging bunt and raced all the way to third on Braves closer Raisel Iglesias\u2019 wild throwing error.\u00a0<\/p>\n
One out later, Austin Wells roped a double to right field to make it 2-1. Amed Rosario then drew a walk before Ben Rice \u2014 who came to the plate in a 2-for-33 skid \u2014 laced a single off the right-field wall to tie it and put the winning run at third. Heliot Ramos, who reached base four times, was hit by an 0-1 pitch to load the bases, at which point the Braves replaced Iglesias with lefty Dylan Dodd, who got Garc\u00eda to ground out, sending the game to extras.\u00a0<\/p>\n
David Bednar tossed a scoreless top of the 10th, thanks to terrific defense from Lombard on a play in the hole and Garc\u00eda, the first baseman who made an over-the-shoulder catch on a pop up to no-man\u2019s land in right field.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe\u2019ve been in a tough stretch where we\u2019re facing a lot of teams in playoff position right now, and we haven\u2019t scored a lot, but we\u2019ve more than held our own,\u201d Boone said. \u201cThat\u2019s a credit to them and they continue to find ways to win games and win these close games. \u2026 We got to fight our way through this.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From the depths of despair, the Yankees remained in second place, at least for a night.\u00a0 One out…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":989900,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[41],"tags":[1280,58813,27065,1266,2228,62,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-989899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-atlanta-braves","tag-ben-rice","tag-max-fried","tag-mlb","tag-new-york-yankees","tag-sports","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117062412940169005","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/989899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=989899"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/989899\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/989900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=989899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=989899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=989899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}