OAKLAND, Calif. — The Bronx Bombers are back.
The Yankees rolled to their 13th straight win and blasted four homers in an 8-2 victory over the A’s at Oakland Coliseum on Friday night.
They’ve hit 10 homers in their past three games and scored at least five runs in their last eight. It adds up to the franchise’s longest winning streak since 1961, when they also won 13 in a row.
“Any time you push records with this organization, you’re probably doing something special,’’ Gerrit Cole said of the streak. “But there’s a lot left out there for us.”
Their biggest bats — Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Judge — both went deep and their best pitcher, Cole, pitched like an ace, with six shutout innings.
Chad Green got five huge outs before the Yankees tacked on three runs in the ninth against the A’s, who are going in the opposite direction, losing six in a row.
“This is what we thought we’d do all year,’’ Luke Voit said. “We’re finally getting to that point.”
And because the Rays also refuse to lose, the Yankees remained four back of first-place Tampa Bay in the AL East.
“We know every game is still a must-win,’’ said Kyle Higashioka, who also homered. “It’s going to be hopefully that way until the end of October.’’
And for a change, they pulled away late.
“It was good to see us continue to add on,’’ Aaron Boone said. “It’s something we haven’t done a lot of. We put the team away.”
Stanton gave them the lead with another titanic homer to lead off the top of the fourth. He’s homered in four straight games for the third time in his career.
“Watching ‘Big G’ hit homers is my favorite thing in all of baseball,’’ Higashioka said of Stanton’s prodigious home runs.
Two batters after Stanton’s 472-foot shot, Voit, still in a limited role following the arrival of Anthony Rizzo, hit one out to center to make it 2-0.
Since his return from an IL stint due to left knee inflammation, Voit has looked like the hitter who led the majors in home runs last season.
The Yankees got a three-run homer from Judge in the fifth, his 28th of the season.
It knocked left-hander Sean Manaea out of the game and unlike on Thursday — when the Yankees blew a 6-0 advantage — Cole helped them hold onto this one.
Cole allowed consecutive singles to Elvis Andrus and Tony Kemp to start the bottom of the fifth before Marte popped out. Matt Olson walked to load the bases, but Cole got Jed Lowrie swinging for the second out.
Josh Harrison then hit a liner that seemed destined for left field for a two-run single, but Gio Urshela, in just his second game back from a strained hamstring, made an excellent leaping grab to his left end the threat.
Cole has been superb since his return from the COVID-19 IL. He’s given up just one run in 17 ²/₃ innings in three outings.
Joely Rodriguez replaced Cole to start the seventh and was shaky.
He walked pinch-hitter Chad Pinder with one out and allowed a single to Marte. After a visit from pitching coach Matt Blake, Olson singled to left to score Pinder and a throwing error by Joey Gallo allowed another run to come in.
Chad Green took over for Rodriguez and walked Lowrie, but then got Harrison to ground into an inning-ending double play.
The offense prevented any further drama with three runs in the ninth, with Higashioka hitting his ninth of the season and Judge adding an RBI single.
