MILWAUKEE — With the Yankees offense yet to take off in full, Aaron Boone changed up the middle of his lineup Saturday, wanting to “stir it up a little bit.”
At least for one game, the result was essentially a chef’s kiss.
New cleanup hitter Alex Verdugo got things started with a three-run home run in the first inning, setting the tone for what was to come the rest of the night as the Yankees cruised past the Brewers, 15-3, at American Family Field.
The 15 runs marked a season-high for the Yankees, with all nine members of the starting batting order reaching base at least once.
They pounded out a season-high 19 hits, including four home runs — three of them coming before the Brewers used a position player to pitch the final two innings — with the rearranged middle of the order right in the heart of all the scoring.
A struggling Gleyber Torres, bumped down to batting seventh Saturday, eclipsed his season RBI total in one at-bat, going the other way for a three-run double in the third inning that was one of his three hits on the night.
Aaron Judge and Anthony Rizzo, the latter batting sixth for the first time this season, added two-run home runs in the sixth inning to blow the game open.
Verdugo, who was batting fourth for the first time as a Yankee, continued to swing a hot bat, matching Rizzo with a three-hit effort — Verdugo’s third of the season.
And Giancarlo Stanton capped off the offensive explosion with a three-run home run in the ninth off infielder Owen Miller to make it 15-1.
All of it was more than enough run support for Carlos Rodon, who struck out a season-high eight — seven via the slider — across six dominant innings. He gave up just two hits, one of them a solo home run by Rhys Hoskins in the first inning.
Through six starts this season, Rodon owns a 2.48 ERA across 32 ²/₃ innings.
The Yankees’ first real laugher of the season, which came a day after a crushing 7-6 loss in 11 innings, allowed them to get Judge, Rizzo and Juan Soto off their feet for the final two-and-a-half innings during a stretch of 17 games in 17 days.
While the lineup Boone wrote out Saturday featured the same hitters as usual, he shook up the middle of the lineup.
Verdugo went from batting sixth or seventh to the cleanup spot.
The inconsistent Rizzo went from batting fourth or fifth to sixth.
And Torres was dropped to seventh, marking the lowest he had hit in a starting lineup since Sept. 3, 2022.
The switches immediately paid off as Verdugo crushed his second home run in as many nights.
Torres then doubled the lead in the third inning.
He came to the plate with two RBIs through 27 games, but with the bases loaded and one out, he worked a full count before roping a double to the gap in right-center field.
Oswaldo Cabrera got in on the fun in the fifth inning, shooting a single through the right side to score Rizzo for the 7-1 advantage.
Then, in the sixth against reliever Thyago Vieira, Judge and Rizzo both crushed two-run shots to make it 11-1.
It marked Judge’s fifth home run of the season and second of the week, while Rizzo’s was his fourth of the season and third of the week.
Verdugo had spent most of the first month of the season batting sixth or seventh, with Rizzo (against righties) and Giancarlo Stanton (against lefties) splitting cleanup duties.
But the left-handed hitting Verdugo had been one of the Yankees’ more consistent bats of late, hitting .290 with a .912 OPS in his last 21 games before Saturday.
“I feel like [Verdugo] has been having really consistent at-bats here over the last couple weeks,” Boone said before the game. “Just stirring it up a little bit there in the middle and essentially flipping him and Rizz, at least for now.”
