WASHINGTON _ Aaron Boone, baseball lifer, called the circumstances "a first rodeo for me." He wasn't the only one.
At 5:07 p.m. Monday, the Yankees and Nationals resumed a May 15 game that was tied at 3 before it was washed out. Less than 10 minutes later, Juan Soto, a 19-year-old rookie who introduced himself rather loudly to the Yankees with a two-homer game Wednesday at the Stadium, got them again.
Soto hammered a two-run homer off Chad Green with one out in the sixth, and his sixth home run in less than a month helped send the Yankees to a 5-3 defeat.
But the Yankees, getting four hits and two RBIs from Giancarlo Stanton, a double and a two-run homer from Aaron Hicks and more dominant work by the bullpen, rebounded in the nightcap with a 4-2 victory.
Down 2-1 in the fifth in the second game, Hicks blasted a two-run shot off Erick Fedde to give the Yankees (47-22) a 3-2 lead. Stanton's double in the seventh, a laser off the wall in left-center off lefty Sammy Solis, made it 4-2.
Sonny Gray was mostly solid but left a first-and-third, none-out mess for Jonathan Holder in the sixth, the Yankees leading 3-2. Holder won a 12-pitch battle with Mark Reynolds, striking him out with a slider. Holder struck out pinch hitter Daniel Murphy and made it 20 straight appearances without allowing an earned run when Pedro Severino popped out.
Dellin Betances struck out the side in the eighth and Aroldis Chapman earned his 21st save in the ninth after allowing a leadoff double to Murphy and walking Michael A. Taylor with one out. Aaron Judge tracked down a tracer by Trea Turner near the track in right to end it.
In the first game, Soto, who started the season in Low-A before being plucked from Double-A May 20, was the story.
"I wish he was climbing the ladder more routinely and was in Double-A now," Boone said with a smile. "What can you say? Nineteen and doing really well and has hurt us a couple of games."
Adding to the game's odds and ends: According to Elias, Soto's debut still will be noted as May 20, though an asterisk will record his appearance in a suspended game that began May 15 and ended 34 days later.
The second game began roughly 30 minutes after the conclusion of the resumed game. It originally was to be made up before a regularly scheduled game the night of May 16, but unrelenting rain in the D.C. area also postponed that game, pushing the two contests to Monday.
As Boone said beforehand: "It's been an odd day."
Such as:
Tyler Austin started May 15 and hit a two-run homer and a sacrifice fly for the Yankees' first three runs. He was optioned over the weekend, so Neil Walker took over at first. Greg Bird, on the DL May 15, was a bench option Monday, as was Clint Frazier. He was on the bench in mid-May, called up specifically for that series as a right-handed pinch-hitting option. On Monday, Frazier was recalled from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, replacing Ronald Torreyes, who was optioned there.
Carlos Mendoza coaches the Yankees' infielders. He's also one of the safety nets for Boone so he can avert the kind of lineup error that befell the Mets' Mickey Callaway last month.
"Mendy came into my office when we first got here and was like, 'Do you have your old lineup cards? Do we just cross this guy out or whatever? Frazier was here before but [today] we're calling him up, how does that work?' " Boone said. "Yeah, so there was some comedy there with it, but eventually we worked it out. Definitely a little bit unique."
