The New York Yankees spent part of Monday afternoon wearing protective glasses to look at a solar eclipse above Yankee Stadium, and then they spent the rest of the day continuing their hot start.
After matching their best 11-game start in team history, the Yankees will shoot for a fourth straight win Tuesday night when they continue a three-game series against the visiting Miami Marlins.
The Yankees are 9-2 for the eighth time in team history and the first time since 2020, when they finished 33-27 in a shortened season. New York is attempting to win 10 of its first 12 contests for the first time since 2003 to also match the starts of the 1949 and 1922 teams.
New York’s two losses came via shutouts, and since a 3-0 loss in the home opener on Friday, the Yankees have scored 24 runs, raising their season average to 5.1 per game.
In a 7-0 rout of the Marlins on Monday, Anthony Volpe and Juan Soto continued their hot starts by hitting three-run homers in a six-run fourth inning. It was the Yankees’ biggest inning since an eight-run frame on June 29, 2023, at Oakland.
Volpe, who socked his second homer, is batting .417 this year after hitting .209 as a rookie last season. Soto is hitting .357 with two home runs and has reached base in nine of 11 games with his new team.
“It’s only been like 11 games, and we already feel like we are sticking together,” Soto said. “We’re pushing together. We all want the same thing.”
The Marlins, after snapping their season-opening, nine-game skid with a 10-3 victory on Sunday in St. Louis, were blanked for the first time and managed two baserunners on Monday. Bryan De La Cruz had both hits as Miami was held to two runs or fewer for the fifth time.
Miami took its sixth loss by at least three runs while matching the 1998 team for the worst 11-game start in team history.
“If you look at it as 1-10, you’re just going to dig yourself into a deeper hole,” Miami starter Jesus Luzardo said after yielding seven runs over 4 2/3 innings in an outing that increased the Marlins’ team ERA to 5.40. “It’s just more of going out there and trying to be your best every day.”
After Nestor Cortes pitched eight innings for New York’s longest outing of the season, Carlos Rodon (0-0, 2.79 ERA) will get the ball on Tuesday.
Rodon struggled through injuries last season when he was 3-8 with a 6.85 ERA. The left-hander opened this season by tossing 4 1/3 innings of one-run ball at Houston on March 29, then allowed two runs and seven hits in 5 1/3 innings at Arizona on Wednesday.
Rodon is 1-0 with a 1.64 ERA in two career starts against the Marlins. He last faced Miami on April 9, 2022, in his season debut for the San Francisco Giants, when he struck out 12 and allowed one run on three hits in five innings.
A.J. Puk (0-2, 9.00 ERA), who is off to a rough start in his transition to the rotation after 142 career relief appearances, will take the mound Tuesday for the Marlins. After posting a 3.97 ERA in 58 outings last season, the left-hander allowed four runs apiece in his first two starts against the Pittsburgh Pirates and Los Angeles Angels, lasting a total of six innings.
Puk is 0-1 with a 3.86 ERA in six lifetime relief appearances against the Yankees.
