Yankees Finally Cracked 5 Runs. It Only Took 20 Games and One Big Inning.

The New York Yankees had gone 20 straight games without scoring more than five runs. That is a brutal stretch for any lineup, let alone one that was supposed to be a strength. On Wednesday night in Tampa, they finally broke through — with one massive inning that flipped the script.

It started the same way it has for weeks. The Yankees went down in order in the first inning. Ben Rice struck out. Paul Blackburn gave up a solo homer to Junior Caminero in the bottom of the first, and the Rays led 1-0. The top of the second looked like more of the same: another quick inning, another strikeout.

Then came the third inning.

Max Schuemann led off with a double. Ryan McMahon followed with another double to tie the game. Trent Grisham knocked in McMahon. Then Rice hit a two-run homer. Jasson Dominguez reached on an infield single and stole second. Cody Bellinger beat out an infield single of his own. Jose Caballero singled home a run and got Bellinger to third. Jazz Chisholm Jr. hit a sacrifice fly. By the time the inning ended, the Yankees had scored six times.

That’s more runs than they’d scored in any single game since June 17, when they put up 10 against the White Sox. Since that game, the Yankees had gone 5-15. Gerrit Cole said earlier this week that the team wasn’t playing like a first-place club. He wasn’t wrong.

The offense has been the main problem. It’s not like they’ve faced a gauntlet of aces every night, either. The bats just went quiet for weeks. Wednesday was the first time all month they scored more than five runs.

The game wasn’t over after three innings — the Rays still had six more at-bats to work with — but the Yankees finally looked like the team everyone expected them to be in that inning. Whether it carries over into Thursday’s series finale is the real question. They’re trying to split this four-game set with Tampa, and a win would give them some momentum heading into the weekend.

One big inning doesn’t fix everything. But for a team that had forgotten what six runs felt like, it’s at least something to build on.