Juan Soto blasts first Bronx homer, Nestor Cortes fires gem in Yankees' rout of Marlins
NEW YORK -- Juan Soto and Anthony Volpe each hit a three-run homer in the fourth inning off Jesús Luzardo, and the New York Yankees romped over the Miami Marlins 7-0 on Monday night.
New York improved to 9-2 and matched the best 11-game start in team history.
Soto was cheered by fans extending into the top of the following inning following his first Yankee Stadium home run in pinstripes. He turned to applaud them.
"Amazing how the crowd reacted. It was really cool. They really surprised me with that one," Soto said. "They're giving you a lot of love, so you got to give them some love back. Whenever I can, I just try to cheer for them, too."
Soto is hitting .357 with two homers and 10 RBIs in his first season with the Yankees, who acquired the three-time All-Star from San Diego in December.
Soto was signing autographs before the game until just before Nestor Cortes threw his first pitch.
"I was thinking, hesitating, because the game was supposed to start at 6:08," Soto said. "I have two minutes and turned around and Nestor is almost moving."
A day after winning in St. Louis, the Marlins dropped to 1-10 for the first time since they lost 11 in a row after an opening victory in 1998 -- when a selloff followed the team's first World Series title.
"If you look at it as 1-10, you're just going to dig yourself into a deeper hole," Luzardo said. "It's just more of going out there and trying to be your best every day."
Cortes (1-1), pitching against his hometown team for the first time, allowed two hits, struck out six and walked none over eight innings. Cortes had his longest outing since May 2022 and the longest by a Yankees starter this year. After his 2023 season was cut short by a shoulder injury, Cortes won for the first time since May 30.
Josh Maciejewski, a 28-year-old left-hander, got three groundouts on four pitches in his major league debut as Miami was shut out for the first time this year.
Volpe put the Yankees ahead when he drove a flat slider over the fence in left-center, and Soto doubled the lead when he sent a first-pitch changeup high over the right-field wall.
Alex Verdugo added an RBI single in the fifth off Luzardo (0-3), who allowed seven runs, eight hits and five walks in 4 2/3 innings. Luzardo has a 7.20 ERA this season and an 18.36 ERA in three career appearances against the Yankees.
"The walks just really killed me," Luzardo said.
Bryan De La Cruz had both Miami hits.
First pitch was pushed back four hours last week to 6:05 p.m. to avoid the solar eclipse. At 3:30 p.m., several Yankees players stood on the field to watch an eerie light illuminate the diamond.
"The advice is we can't be on the field for BP and that's, from 2:10 to 4:40," Yankees manager Aaron Boone said earlier. "I don't know if that's advice or a mandate."
"Eclipse" from Pink Floyd's "The Dark Side of the Moon" was played a few minutes before the national anthem.
WORTH NOTING
Boone said Major League Baseball told him Toronto's Bowden Francis should have been charged with a quick pitch to Gleyber Torres in the first inning Sunday by umpire Ángel Hernández, who instead called strike three.
TRAINER'S ROOM
Marlins: OF Jazz Chisholm Jr. was out of the starting lineup a day after banging into the center-field fence in an unsuccessful attempt to deny Nolan Gorman a home run.
UP NEXT
LHP Carlos Rodón (0-0, 2.79 ERA) starts Tuesday night for the Yankees and A.J. Puk (0-2, 9.00 ERA) for the Marlins.
