After two lifeless offensive innings against the Athletics on Sunday at Sutter Health Park, Aaron Judge didn’t like what he was seeing. The Yankees had followed Saturday’s loss to the A’s with two hitless frames against lefty starter Jacob Lopez, and a first-inning error led to three A’s runs in the bottom of the first. The first-base visitors’ dugout felt flat, and Judge knew it. “I just felt like we were a little asleep there during the first two innings,” he said. “I expect more out of the guys. I know they expect more out of themselves.” Between innings, Judge delivered what he called “a couple choice words” to himself and his teammates. The gist, according to starting pitcher Will Warren? “Let’s wake up.” Boy, did they ever. The first 12 Yankees batters reached base to start an historic third inning, a 13-run frame featuring 18 batters, 11 hits and four walks that took more than 42 minutes from first pitch to final out. The highest-scoring inning by an MLB team in more than a calendar year, it powered the Yanks to a 13-8 win and a road series victory over the A’s. In other words? “The boys woke up,” Warren said. The Bronx Bombers’ bats broke out for eight hits and four walks to open the frame against Lopez, then reliever Michael Kelly. By the time Paul Goldschmidt was called out on strikes for the inning’s first out, the Yankees had 10 runs, tied for the second most scored by a team before recording an out in any inning in the Expansion Era (since 1961), according to the Elias Sports Bureau. Only two other teams in that span -- the Red Sox in 2009 and the Royals in 1986 -- had 12 straight batters reach to start an inning. All nine Yankees starters reached base safely in the third, with six doing so twice. Designated hitter Ben Rice had both a two-run double and a two-run triple in the inning, the Yankees’ highest-scoring frame since a 13-run eighth on June 21, 2005, against the Rays. The last time they went BIGGER? It happened only once: a franchise-record 14-run fifth inning on July 6, 1920, against Washington in which Babe Ruth drew an intentional walk and later hit a two-run single. Rather strangely, Sunday’s big inning was the only time the Yankees made their mark offensively in the series finale. All 11 of their hits came in their big third inning, making the Yankees the first team to score at least 13 runs in a game with all of their runs and hits coming in the same frame.
