PHOENIX — The Yankees are coming home in style.
They had to work overtime before they could board their flight back to New York, but the Yankees finished off a strong season-opening road trip with a resilient effort on Wednesday afternoon.
After taking the lead in the top of the 10th and then seeing it evaporate, the Yankees came back to score two more runs in the 11th and this lead stuck for a 6-5 win over the Diamondbacks at Chase Field.
The Yankees scored the go-ahead run on a balk and then Aaron Judge provided some insurance with an RBI double to the gap for his first multi-hit game of the season.
Caleb Ferguson left the bases loaded in the bottom of the 11th to end it, striking out D-Backs reliever Scott McGough (they had lost their DH an inning earlier) to improve the Yankees to 6-1, tied for the second-best start in franchise history.
Alex Verdugo looked like he might play hero in the 10th, when he demolished the first pitch of the inning for a two-run home run that put the Yankees ahead 4-2.
Verdugo, the Arizona native who had plenty of family and friends in attendance, picked a clutch spot for his first home run as a Yankee.
Before coming to the plate in the 10th inning against Diamondbacks right-hander Kevin Ginkel, the left-handed Verdugo was just 3-for-24 with no extra-base hits on the young season, though he had made his impact felt defensively and with a go-ahead sacrifice fly on Opening Day.
But the Diamondbacks quickly got a run back in the bottom of the 10th on a pair of ground balls off Clay Holmes, courtesy of the automatic runner, and then put the tying run 90 feet away after an Anthony Volpe throwing error (the off-target throw popped out of Anthony Rizzo’s glove at first) and a wild pitch.
Holmes got the second out on a ground ball, with the Yankees using five infielders, but the speedy Corbin Carroll came up next and hit a chopper over the mound that he legged out for an infield single to tie the game.
Judge snapped an 18-inning scoreless streak for the Yankees by crushing his first home run of the season in the fourth inning, a two-run shot off right-hander Merrill Kelly. At the time, it put the Yankees ahead 2-1.
Carlos Rodon was solid in his second start of the season, giving up a pair of solo home runs across 5 ¹/₃ innings.
Of the 95 pitches he threw, he mixed in 13 cutters and got four of his seven whiffs on the pitch to help keep the Diamondbacks off-balance.
