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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 series win of the season, they came 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.
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 screamed as he walked off the mound.
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 DomÃnguez from third base.
Minutes after Bellinger’s game-tying blast in the seventh, the Padres took the lead right back in the top of the eighth in front of a crowd of 42,302. 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 the game 3-3.
The Yankees have become used to seeing the unhittable on nights Max Fried starts this season.
The problem Wednesday was that it was the pitcher he was dueling that could not be touched.
Bellinger finally changed that in the seventh inning, breaking up Cease’s no-hit bid with a booming solo shot to the second deck in right field.
Cease had Bellinger 0-2 and threw a 98 mph fastball just above the strike zone that the lefty hitter pounced on.
Two batters later, Cease left the game with a trainer in the middle of an at-bat against DomÃnguez.
It was a sour end to a superb night in which the Padres right-hander struck out eight and walked two.
Fried, who flirted with a no-hitter last month at Tampa Bay and gave up one hit against the Rays in his most recent start, was plenty good himself.
The left-hander allowed just one run across seven strong innings to continue a dominant stretch of pitching, even as his ERA ticked up slightly to 1.05 through eight starts.
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.
