Anthony Volpe’s night of redemption keys Yankees’ win over Rays to start second half

As the Yankees broke for the first half last Sunday, Anthony Volpe stood at his locker at Camden Yards looking a bit shell-shocked after his fielding error cost his team a win .

Five days later, the young shortstop was central to the Yankees starting off the second half with a win.

On a Friday night when the club’s three biggest stars all enjoyed big games, it was Volpe who delivered the clutchest hit, a three-run double on the way to a 6-1 win over the Rays in front of a sellout crowd of 47,036 in The Bronx.

“He came out ready to go tonight and it was a game-changer for us,” said Gerrit Cole, who tossed six innings of one-run ball for a second straight start.

After a first-half finish to forget, both for Volpe and the Yankees (59-40), they began the second half on a much better note to make sure standout efforts by Juan Soto, Aaron Judge and Cole did not go to waste.

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The Yankees have now won four of their last six games, inching further toward putting a brutal 6-17 stretch behind them.

“I think this is what we’re capable of and it’s obviously a big boost,” Volpe said. “When you got Gerrit on the mound pitching the way he’s pitching, it gives everyone a lot of confidence.”

Luis Severino may have been right when he quipped on Friday that the Yankees “only have two good hitters” right now — his response to a group chat with his former teammates who were giving him grief for missing them in next week’s Subway Series — in Judge and Soto.

Though the two All-Stars combined for a monster night on Friday — Soto went 4-for-4 with a pair of doubles and a walk while Judge went 2-for-4 with a walk and an RBI — they at least had some help in the series opener against the Rays (48-49), namely Volpe and Austin Wells (three walks) .

Volpe had gone into the break batting just .171 with a .433 OPS in his last 35 games, largely undoing his strong start to the season, and then made things worse Sunday with an error in the bottom of the ninth that led to a crushing loss to the Orioles.

But the 23-year-old took two days to fully disconnect over the break, then got back to work and came out strong on Friday.

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“It’s who he is,” manager Aaron Boone said. “Obviously a tough way to end the half. He’s just such a good pro and cares so much. … A big two-out hit. As we’ve gone through this, I feel like we’ve had a lot of games where we’ve had traffic, we’ve pressured them and we didn’t get that one big hit. That was that big, back-breaking hit that we needed.”

After a line-drive single in his first at-bat, Volpe came to the plate in the third inning with the bases loaded, two outs and the Yankees up 1-0.

They had wasted prime chances to score in each of the first two innings and looked like they might let Rays right-hander Zach Eflin off the hook again in the third after pushing only one run across on an Alex Verdugo groundout.

Eflin got ahead 1-2 before Volpe roped a double down the third-base line to clear the bases and stake the Yankees out to a 4-0 lead.

“Huge for us, huge for him,” Wells said.

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That was plenty of run support for Cole, who looked strong for a second straight start while striking out eight.

Wells helped him keep his cool after he received a pitch-clock violation entering the second inning for throwing his last warm-up pitch too late, with the catcher afraid Cole might get tossed for arguing, though home plate umpire Quinn Wolcott showed some patience.

The Yankees later added a pair of insurance runs thanks to Soto, who hit a little league home run — smacking a double the other way and scoring after a pair of errors on the play — and then doubled again and scored on Judge’s single.

But the Yankees have come to expect nights like this from Soto and Judge.

If they can get Volpe back on track in the second half, it would be a critical boost to their lineup.

“Having a break, take a step back and work on some stuff,” Volpe said. “I feel like when I’m in control of myself and my movements, I feel like I can be dangerous.”

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