The loudest roar of the night at Yankee Stadium may have belonged to the Knicks.
But Devin Williams and J.C. Escarra rivaled it by the 10th inning of a game the Yankees had to have.
After Williams left the bases loaded in the top of the 10th, Escarra delivered a walk-off sacrifice fly in the bottom of the inning to lift the Yankees to a stirring 4-3 win over the Padres on Wednesday night in The Bronx.
In what may have been the Yankees’ best win — and series win, building off Tuesday’s comeback victory — of the season.
They fought back twice with game-tying home runs from Cody Bellinger in the seventh (which broke up Dylan Cease’s no-hit bid) and Trent Grisham’s two-run shot in the eighth before finishing it off in the 10th.
“Just a lot of fight, a lot of grit,” Grisham said. “This series was kind of the epitome of the guys that are in this locker room: a lot of fight. Every game we were down and fighting back. We were in every single one of them. To come away with the last two is huge.”
Williams, who blew a three-run lead in the eighth inning of Monday’s loss, redeemed himself in the top of the 10th with a high-wire act.
Facing the top of the Padres order, he walked a batter and hit a batter to load the bases with two outs, but then he struck out Xander Bogaerts — his third punch-out of the inning — on a full count and let out multiple screams as he walked off the mound.
“Getting out of that without giving up any runs, I felt like our guys were going to come through and the game was going to be over,” Williams said. “And it was.”
Oswaldo Cabrera, who failed to get a bunt down in Tuesday’s seventh inning before it turned into a 10-run rally, laid down a successful sacrifice bunt to lead off the bottom of the 10th.
Escarra then pinch hit for Oswald Peraza and worked a 2-2 count off Jeremiah Estrada before lifting a fly ball to left field that was deep enough to score Jasson Domínguez from third base to win it for the Yankees (21-16).
“Man, a lot was going through my mind,” said Escarra, who was driving an Uber just a few years ago. “My heart was pounding through my chest, standing there hitting. But my story, what happened today, it makes it all worth it.”
Minutes after Bellinger’s game-tying blast in the seventh, which made sure Max Fried’s seven terrific innings did not go to waste, the Padres (23-13) took the lead right back in the top of the eighth in front of a crowd of 42,302.
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In a bizarre scene, the crowd — most of whom were apparently following the Knicks-Celtics playoff showdown on their phones — erupted in a huge roar when the game went final, just as Jackson Merrill lifted an RBI single to left field to put the Padres up 2-1.
Ian Hamilton had relieved Fried to start the eighth and issued a pair of walks around an out before giving way to Luke Weaver.
Merrill’s single came off Weaver, as did Bogaerts’ sacrifice fly that made it 3-1.
But Grisham delivered yet again in the bottom of the eighth.
After Cabrera led off with a walk, Grisham pinch hit for Jorbit Vivas and clobbered Jason Adam’s changeup to right field for his 10th home run of the season that tied it 3-3.
Fried allowed his first earned run since April 15 in the fourth inning when Merrill crushed a sweeper into the Yankees bullpen to put the Padres up 1-0.
It snapped a stretch of 27 ¹/₃ straight innings without allowing an earned run.
On a night when Cease had no-hit stuff — before leaving the game with a trainer two batters after Bellinger’s homer — Fried matched him while striking out eight across seven innings of one-run ball.
Aaron Boone said it was the best command Fried had all season, which the lefty agreed with as he ended the night with a 1.05 ERA through eight starts.
“We have a lot of fight,” Fried said. “That’s a great team over there. They’ve been a playoff team and they’ve got a lot of the same core. … We went out there and played our brand of baseball. It was really big. We went down, but the offense always came back and answered. It was a really good series win.”