BRONX, NY — Trent Grisham stood and emphatically tossed his bat to the side as the crowd rose around him.
The centerfielder’s 21st home run of the season — a no-doubter into right field in the eighth inning — incited a raucous cheer from the Yankee Stadium fans, who had just watched their team blow a two-run lead in the top of the frame.
Grisham’s 408-foot blast helped New York avoid another loss off a bullpen meltdown. The Yankees beat the Astros, 5-4, on Saturday.
“He really does slow the game down well, and I think he is able to really lock in those moments,” manager Aaron Boone said. “He knows what he’s looking for, he’s got a good plan. You’re seeing the power and just a big time at-bat right there.”
It was New York’s first round-tripper of the game after it entered with 182, the most in MLB this season. But it came at a crucial moment after newly-acquired Camilo Doval squandered the lead.
The former San Francisco Giant surrendered an RBI single to Jose Altuve before David Bednar entered and walked Christian Walker to even the score. Bednar, another deadline acquisition, struck out the next two, though, and worked a clean ninth inning to secure the victory.
The former Pirate threw only eight pitches in the ninth, finishing with 23 total. Boone said he wouldn’t have run him much past 30 pitches after he threw a season-high 42 on Wednesday.
Doval’s struggles stopped Luis Gil from earning his first win since Sep. 22 of last year. Gil, who missed the Yankees’ first 111 games due to a right lat strain suffered during spring training, racked up seven strikeouts and held the Astros to two runs across five-and-a-third innings.
“I thought he had a presence with everything,” Boone said. “His fastball, changeup and slider were all important pitches for him today. So it was really good to see, and big effort by him.”
The 27-year-old picked up where he left off in his first start in the Bronx this year. Last season — in which Gil became the fourth pitcher in Yankees history to win AL Rookie of the Year — he allowed three or fewer runs in 12 of his 15 starts at home.
The impressive performance came after Gil gave up five runs and failed to escape the third inning in his first start back on Aug. 3 in a loss against the Miami Marlins.
Gil threw his fastball about 41% of the time, an almost identical mark to his first start of 2025. He used it often in the early innings.
The Dominican Republic native threw four consecutive four-seamers to shortstop Jeremy Peña to start the game, the last of which the All-Star blasted for his fourth-career leadoff home run. Gil mixed in his slider-changeup combination as the game progressed, though.
He induced a groundout with his slider to escape the fourth frame with only one run conceded via a Carlos Correa single. Gil’s day ended in the sixth, when he didn’t throw a fastball to either of the two batters he faced.
New York’s offense supported him each time he allowed a run.
The Yankees, who entered the top five in first-inning runs, got the first three runners on base before Giancarlo Stanton walked and Ben Rice hit a sacrifice fly. Stanton started in the outfield for the first time since 2023.
“I thought he was really efficient, under control,” Boone said. “Talking to him, felt like he moved well … I thought he was comfortable and about what I expected.”
Aaron Judge played at designated hitter due to his elbow injury. The two-time AL MVP, who leads MLB in OPS, reached base three times, including a walk to start the bottom of the fifth.
Stanton drove in the 33-year-old with a single before Rice grounded into a double play, scoring another run and giving New York a 4-2 lead. A few innings later, Grisham drilled the game-winning home run, which was his 11th this season, that gave the Yankees a lead.
The round-tripper was key in New York evening the series, and helped atone for yet another bullpen collapse.
“Hopefully it still turns into what I think should be a really good [bullpen], but you got a ways to go to get there,” Boone said.
