Yankees narrowly survive bullpen implosion to beat Rangers behind four home runs

Another explosive day for the Yankees offense nearly wasn’t enough.

But four homers — and a rough, four-out save by Clay Holmes — allowed the Yankees to hold on and beat the Rangers, 8-7, on Sunday in The Bronx.

Juan Soto homered twice, Aaron Judge smashed his 42nd home run and reached base four times, and Giancarlo Stanton added a three-run shot to build what seemed to be a comfortable lead.

That was before Mark Leiter Jr. gave up three runs in the eighth and Holmes a run in the ninth before Holmes finally closed the door.

With two outs, Holmes allowed three straight baserunners before he got Leody Taveras to ground out to finish the 45-pitch save.

“That was a grind it out win,” manager Aaron Boone said.

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And it came with another edition of what’s likely the greatest show in the sport right now: Soto and Judge hitting back-to-back in the same lineup.

“It’s special,” Marcus Stroman said. “I truly think we’re witnessing history. We take for granted a little bit since we see it every day, but it’s incredible.”

The duo has gone back-to-back four times this year — including in the seventh inning on Sunday — and homered in the same game eight times.

“It’s easy to think that’s expected,” Stroman said of the production of Soto and Judge. “It’s hard to put into words what they’re doing this year. I think it creates a lot of havoc in the lineup for opposing pitchers.”

Yankees batters also pounded out a dozen hits, which became more important when the bullpen struggled for a second consecutive game.

As Stanton said, “We needed every last one of them.”

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Stanton’s homer came after Judge was intentionally walked, which may cause other teams to avoid the increasingly popular tactic.

After getting Corey Seager on a grounder with a man on second to end the eighth, Holmes, protecting a two-run lead, struck out Marcus Semien and Josh Jung to start the ninth.

But walks to Wyatt Langford and Nathaniel Lowe extended the inning and a single by Adolis Garcia made it a one-run game.

Holmes said his sinker wasn’t as effective as it typically is and acknowledged he “hit a wall” during the lengthy outing.

Boone acknowledged it was “not easy” to see Holmes’ pitch count rising.

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“I felt like he still had it,” Boone said. “His stuff was real sharp. They were putting up tough at-bats and I was uncomfortable with it, without a doubt, but I also felt we had to ride it out.”

The shaky save came after Stroman held the Rangers scoreless into the sixth inning. He’d been pushed back in the rotation to work on his mechanics following consecutive disastrous outings in which he’d allowed 12 runs — 10 earned — over just six innings.

Stroman still wasn’t at his sharpest, walking three in five-plus innings, but he was mostly effective.

And with Soto and Judge clicking on all cylinders, it was good enough.

Soto, just 25, has now homered against all 30 MLB teams and has topped 30 homers for the third time in his career.

It was all part of what was shaping up to be a relatively easy win, as the Yankees used an unearned run in the first, a Soto solo homer in the third and Stanton’s three-run blast in the fifth to build a 5-0 lead.

Soto and Judge’s homers in the seventh made it 8-3, but Leiter’s splitter didn’t have its typical bite and the Yankees suddenly found themselves in a close game.

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