Trent Grisham blasts late grand slam to top Braves in slugfest

ATLANTA — A high-scoring offense, particularly one that crushes home runs, has a way of putting Wite-Out on a team’s problems.

Exhibit A: the Yankees.

On a night when poor fundamentals and a leaky bullpen nearly cost them again, Anthony Volpe’s two-homer game fueled a comeback to tie it by the eighth inning after the Yankees had trailed by as many as five runs.

That set the stage for Trent Grisham, who delivered a grand slam with two outs in the top of the ninth off Braves closer Raisel Iglesias to lift the Yankees to a stirring 12-9 win on Saturday night at Truist Park.

At risk of losing a fourth straight game and falling a season-high four games out of first place in the AL East, the Yankees (54-44) began the ninth inning with a double from Paul Goldschmidt before the Braves (43-54) intentionally walked Aaron Judge with one out. Giancarlo Stanton then drew a walk to load the bases, but Jazz Chisholm Jr. followed by lining out to a leaping Nacho Alvarez Jr. at third base.

Grisham saved the day, though, clobbering a slider to right-center field for his 17th home run of the year to break an 8-8 tie in dramatic fashion.

Devin Williams gave up a run in the bottom of the ninth but then closed the door.

The Yankees trailed 5-0 after four innings when Volpe crushed his first home run of the night, a two-run shot in the top of the fifth. He came close to hitting a grand slam in the sixth inning, but settled for a sacrifice fly to the warning track as part of a four-run rally that pulled the Yankees within 7-6.

And then with one out in the eighth inning, the Yankees trailing 8-7, Volpe tied it up by going deep again for his first career multi-home run game.

After grounding out in his first at-bat Saturday, Volpe had fallen further into a 12-for-100 slump that began on June 15. During that skid, he had hit only two home runs as his offensive production dried up, but he matched that in a big way on Saturday.

A night after Jorbit Vivas’ baserunning mistake loomed over a 7-3 loss, Will Warren’s fundamental miscue put an exclamation point on a terrible four-run fourth inning that he did not survive. The right-hander had already given up a three-run home run to Ozzie Albies that made it a 4-0 game — Albies’ second in as many nights — but then put runners on first and second with two outs.

Nick Allen came up and hit a ground ball off of first base, where Paul Goldschmidt ranged to his right to collect it. Warren did not immediately race to first to cover the bag, allowing Allen to hustle down the line for an infield single. But while Warren was receiving the throw at first, Alvarez never stopped running around third base and came in to score from the back door, putting the Braves ahead 5-0.

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That marked the end of Warren’s night, as he got tagged for five runs in 3 ²/₃ innings, a day after the Yankees opened the second half with a bullpen game.

After Volpe’s two-run shot in the top of the fifth, the Braves quickly got the two runs back in the bottom of the frame off Tim Hill and Scott Effross to make it a 7-2 game.

From there, the Yankees began to claw their way back and nearly did it all in the top of the sixth. They loaded the bases with no outs off former Yankee Enyel De Los Santos — a trade deadline bust of last summer — and turned it into a four-run rally.

Chisholm had an RBI single, Grisham drove in another run on a fielding error by first baseman Matt Olson, Volpe hit a sac fly and then Austin Wells made it 7-6 on an RBI groundout.

Jonathan Loáisiga gave up another run in the bottom of the sixth, but Cody Bellinger got it back by leading off the top of the seventh with his 17th home run of the year.