Yankees homer Pirates to death in 16-0 blitzing | Rapid reaction

PITTSBURGH —The Yankees thought they’d get a bunch of homers from Joey Gallo when trading four prospects to get the slugging corner outfielder from Texas last July. They were wrong, late last season and again this year.

They thought the same thing when dealing with the Twins for third baseman Josh Donaldson last March. So far, they’ve been wrong again.

The Yankees were optimistic they’d see more of Kyle Higashioka’s right-handed power with his role behind the plate expanding. Hasn’t happened yet.

All three showed the Yankees what they’ve been missing by homering Wednesday night at PNC Park.

Later, the Yankees put three more in the seasons to put exclamation marks onto a 16-0 blitzing, two of them grand slams by Aaron Judge and Aaron Hicks. Giancarlo Stanton also went deep to make it a six-homer game, the last two coming in a five-run ninth with Pirates second baseman Josh VanMeter pitching.

This was a slaughtering that gave the Pirates a split in the two-game interleague series and sent them to Boston for four against the Red Sox with some momentum.

Yankees starter Luis Severino had a good night, too, pitching four-hit ball over six shutout innings with three strikeouts and no walks.

The Pirates’ first started with Ke’Bryan Hayes singling to center and Bryan Reynolds’ doubling to right-center to put two runners in scoring position with nobody out, but Severino got out of the jam with a popup to second, strikeout looking and grounder to first to start a run of 12 hitters in a row set down.

With two down and nobody on in the sixth inning of a 2-0 game, the Yankees’ homer parade began.

Donaldson blasted a 1-1 hanging curve from Pirates righty Mitch Keller into the left-field seats at PNC Park for his seventh homer to make it 3-0. Gallo was up next and made it back-to-back by lining a 96-mph heater over the left-center wall for homer No. 10 and hit No. 2 in his last 34 at-bats.

Higashioka hit No. 5 the next inning, his seventh-inning blast to center off reliever Tyler Beede landing below the batter’s eye in the letter E of the shrubbery that spells out Pirates.

In the eighth, Judge cleared the bases, his third career grand slam and 30th homer of the season capping a five-run inning.

Hicks’ slam came in the ninth off VanMeter, then Stanton followed with a homer to give the Yankees their second six-homer game of the season, the first coming in an 8-0 win over the Cubs on June 11.

NOTABLE

— Matt Carpenter started one game in right field for the Cardinals in 2013, then never played outfield again until making a one-inning cameo in right last weekend. He started in right Wednesday because Aaron Boone wanted his bat in the lineup and was 1-for-4 with a double at the plate and no chances in the field.

— The 16 runs were two shy of the Yankees’ season high in an 18-4 win over the Cubs on June 12.

— Gallo made the first and last outs in the Yankees’ five-run eighth and finished the night 1-for-4 with a homer, two walks and two strikeouts. He’s 2-for-36 with a homer and 20 strikeouts in his last 14 games.

–The start of the game was delayed one hour and nine minutes due to an early evening shower.

LOOKING AHEAD

Thursday: Yankees at Red Sox, 7:10 p.m., YES & MLB Network. RHP Gerrit Cole (7-2, 2.99) vs. RHP Josh Winckowski (3-2, 3.12).

Friday: Yankees at Red Sox, 7:10 p.m., Amazon Prime & MLB Network. LHP Nestor Cortes (7-3, 2.44) vs. TBA.

Saturday: Yankees at Red Sox, 7:15 p.m., FOX LHP Jordan Montgomery (3-2, 3.19) vs. TBA.

Sunday: Yankees at Red Sox, 7:08 p.m. ESPN. RHP James Taillon (9-2, 3.63) vs. RHP Nick Pivetta (8-6, 3.68).

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Randy Miller may be reached at rmiller@njadvancemedia.com.

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