Hours before the game, Brian Cashman surveyed a struggling Yankees offense and essentially shrugged.
The general manager had watched many of the club’s best bats go silent in the first weeks of the season and expressed zero concern in a sport in which consistency is near impossible.
“We’d like them all firing on all cylinders at all times all season,” Cashman said, “but that’s not realistic.”
Maybe it’s realistic for those bats to all wake up and fire on all cylinders at the same moment.
Several struggling hitters, notably Aaron Judge and Anthony Rizzo, smacked home runs and a sizzling one in Juan Soto added his own dinger as the Yankees smacked around the A’s, 7-3, in front of 31,179 in The Bronx on Wednesday.
The Yankees (17-8) have won five of seven and can take a series from the A’s on Thursday, a task that would be easier if Oakland plays like it did Wednesday.
The Yankees’ offense continually took advantage of poor defensive and fundamental play from the hopeless opponent, beginning immediately.
Judge was punched out by home-plate umpire Nick Mahrley in the first inning and offered no fight, beginning to trudge back to the dugout.
But he quickly returned to the plate as a balk had been called, A’s starter Joe Boyle failing to come set, which allowed Judge another chance that he took advantage of.
The very next pitch Judge demolished into the right-field seats for a two-run shot and for the 261st homer of his career, surpassing Derek Jeter for ninth on the club’s all-time list.
The miscues continued: Oswaldo Cabrera saw extra pitches after a would-be foul out blew away from second baseman Abraham Toro in the second inning; Oakland got no outs on a third-inning, would-be double play off Rizzo’s bat, first baseman Ryan Noda throwing wildly to second.
But the Yankees didn’t score again until yet another misplay in the fourth inning.
After a gorgeous bunt from the struggling Austin Wells, Anthony Volpe smacked a sinking liner to right field. Lawrence Butler tried to shoestring the catch, but the ball skipped past his glove and rolled to the wall for an RBI triple.
Soto’s sac fly made it 4-0, and his solo shot in the sixth — his sixth homer of the year, this one just clearing the center-field wall — added some cushion.
Judge, who as recently as Monday was hitting .174 with a .645 OPS, is up to .191 and .702 after his 2-for-5 night. Rizzo, who smacked one home run in his first 23 games, now has two in his past two.
Wells, who entered play with four hits and an .086 average in his first 14 games, added two singles and is up to .132.
Volpe, who has struggled since being bumped up to the leadoff spot, added a pair of hits for his first multi-hit game since April 14.
Gleyber Torres, who entered the at-bat in a 1-for-17 funk, blasted a single in the seventh inning that helped lead to a run.
Every Yankees hitter in the starting lineup apart from Cabrera reached base.
A seven-run, 11-hit performance qualifies as an explosion for this offense and was more than enough for Clarke Schmidt and the Yankees’ bullpen.
Schmidt was excellent through five scoreless innings then got touched up.
Trying to pitch deeper into games, Schmidt attempted to escape the sixth inning for the first time and could not, watching Brent Rooker blast a three-run homer into the seats in left field.
It was the worst and final pitch of Schmidt’s night.
Luke Weaver was perfect in 2 ²/₃ innings of relief before Ian Hamilton finished it off.