Yankees break out with 11 runs, take Game 4 of World Series

NEW YORK — To extend their season another day, the New York Yankees needed the big, momentum-changing hit that eluded them through the first three games of the World Series. They got it on the brink of elimination Tuesday night in Game 4 at Yankee Stadium.

Anthony Volpe hit a game-tying grand slam in the third inning, Austin Wells added a solo shot three innings later and Gleyber Torres capped an 11-4 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers with a three-run eighth-inning home run as the Yankees avoided elimination for at least one night.

Volpe’s breakthrough came on a first-pitch slider from Daniel Hudson, the second reliever the Dodgers deployed for their scheduled bullpen day, with two outs and Los Angeles leading 2-1. The grand slam, which landed a few rows over the left-field wall, electrified a sellout crowd that had been on edge after Freddie Freeman’s two-run home run in the first inning.

It was Volpe’s first career grand slam and the first by a Yankee since Tino Martinez in Game 1 of the 1998 World Series against the San Diego Padres. Volpe, 23 years and 184 days old, became the youngest Yankee with a grand slam in the World Series since Mickey Mantle in 1953.

“I’m busy,” Volpe said. “I didn’t know I was getting it. And then I blacked out.”

It was not a promising start for the Yankees. Freeman’s home run — a laser over the short porch in right field off starter Luis Gil that extended the first baseman’s World Series home run streak to a record six games — instantly deflated the crowd. That put the Yankees, who hadn’t led since Freeman’s walk-off grand slam in Game 1, in an early hole for the third straight game. But the Dodgers’ reliever carousel couldn’t hold down the Yankees.

“I don’t think anybody expected those guys to lay down,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “We had some at-bats that I thought could have been better, but we knew it was a bullpen game. As far as the results, having six guys in your pen that are good, rested, I have that’s fine.”

Five Yankees relievers, meanwhile, were not charged with a run over the final five innings of the game. Tim Hill, Clay Holmes, Mark Leiter Jr., Luke Weaver and Tim Mayza held the Dodgers hitless after the fifth inning. It was the formula the Yankees had been looking for in this series. It saved their season Tuesday.

Said Yankees manager Aaron Boone: “Good night to us, and we’ll get another opportunity tomorrow.”