ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The Yankees have had plenty of games this season when their big boys carried them.
On Sunday afternoon, most of the heavy lifting came from the bottom of the order.
Aaron Judge did get in on the fun with a two-run shot, but the Yankees’ home run parade also included two from Jose Trevino, the first of Jahmai Jones’ career and a much-needed blast from Gleyber Torres that capped off a 10-6 win over the Rays at Tropicana Field.
The Yankees (27-15) needed every bit of that offense on a day when their bullpen — a strength through the early going — had a meltdown that nearly spoiled the game.
After Luis Gil delivered six scoreless innings, Caleb Ferguson, Nick Burdi and Luke Weaver combined to turn a 6-0 lead into a 6-5 advantage in the bottom of the seventh.
But Torres allowed the Yankees — and himself — to breathe a little easier in the next half inning.
The scuffling second baseman fell behind in the count 0-2 and then worked a tough at-bat before crushing a three-run home run, just his second of the season, to make it a 9-5 game.
One out later, Trevino followed with his second home run of the day to help the Yankees take the rubber game against the Rays (20-21) and win another series against their AL East foes.
Gil turned in another strong start, tossing six shutout innings despite not having his best command.
He gave up only three hits and walked a pair while striking out three.
He has allowed just one run over his last 18 ¹/₃ innings, lowering his ERA to 2.51 in the process.
The Yankees provided him plenty of run support early.
Anthony Volpe led off the game with a triple and came in to score on Juan Soto’s sacrifice fly.
Jones, making only his second start of the season, hit his first career home run in the third inning from the nine-hole, a solo shot to left field.
The next inning, Trevino drilled a two-run homer as he continued to swing a hot bat, putting the Yankees up 4-0.
Ferguson entered in relief of Gil to start the seventh inning but quickly let the Rays back into the game.
The lefty gave up a pair of hits and a walk to load the bases for Jose Siri, who clobbered a 1-2 fastball for a grand slam.
Burdi then entered and walked two batters and hit another to reload the bases.
Weaver relieved him and hit Isaac Paredes on the brim of the helmet with a 3-2 pitch that forced in a run to make it a 6-5 game.
But Weaver rebounded by retiring the next two hitters to finally stop the bleeding just in time.
Yandy Diaz hit a solo home run off Ian Hamilton in the bottom of the ninth, but the bullpen drama ended there.