Yankees make some history in 10-5 win over Rangers | Rapid reaction

The Yankees hit five more homers in a road win over the Texas Rangers on Monday night, two of them coming from rookie second baseman Gleyber Torres.

ARLINGTON, Texas — The Yankees aren’t just still the hottest team in baseball.

They’re now doing things they’ve never done before.

Why Rangers’ Cole Hamels is sure Yankees fans like him

In outslugging the Texas Rangers 10-5 on Monday night for their 21st win in their last 25 games, the Yankees made history hitting five homers and five doubles.

This was their third game in a row hitting at least four homers, a first in franchise history.

This also was their third game in a row with at least eight extra-base hits, also a franchise first and done just three previous times in Major League history (by the 1935 Washington Senators, 1999 Cleveland Indians and 2003 Boston Red Sox).

“That shows you how difficult that is and obviously how rare that is,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “When I heard about it, it was a little bit surprising.”

There was more history:

Second baseman Gleyber Torres, a 21-year-old rookie, became the second youngest Yankee ever behind Mickey Mantle to have a two-homer game.

Torres hit a two-run shot to left in the second and a solo blast to center in the sixth to give him six in his first 25 big-league games.

It wouldn’t be accurate suggesting the Yankees are on such a roll that they can do no wrong. It’s just that whatever adversity that they get usually doesn’t matter because they frequently have people making up for it in a big way.

This blueprint played out in their series opener against Texas when right-hander Masahiro Tanaka wasn’t close to his best once again.

Didn’t matter.

As usual, there were a bunch of heroes.

Making the cut this time besides Torres were: 

— Right fielder Aaron Judge, who was 2 for 5 with a leadoff homer in the fifth that broke a 5-5 tie and ended an 0-for-17 slump.

— Neil Walker, who was 2 for 5 with his first homer as a Yankee plus an RBI double in his first start of the season at third base.

— Shortstop Didi Gregorius, who was back in the Yankees’ lineup after being benched for two games and ended a 1 for 45 with a two-run double to center that capped the Yankees’ three-run sixth.

— Center fielder Aaron Hicks, who basically sealed the victory with a two-run homer in the ninth that put the Yankees up five runs.

The starting pitching in this one was terrible.

Tanaka was bad despite getting the win and Rangers old-man righty Bartolo Colon was worse.

Tanaka allowed four runs over five innings on three hits, four walks and a hit batter. By winning his won-loss record is up to 5-2, but with a 4.95 ERA that is the second highest among Yankees starters.

Colon, 44, went into the game with a 2.82 ERA in nine outings, but looked like he was throwing BP with his low-to-mid 80s fastball getting crushed all night long in a six-run, five-plus-innings outing in which he was tagged for four homers.

The Yankees were up 4-1 through 3 1/2 innings, but Tanaka issued back-to-back walks with one out in the Rangers fifth and Rougned Odor followed with a game-tying, three-run homer into the right field second deck.

The Yankees immediately reclaimed the lead, as Judge led off the fifth with a homer to dead center, his 12th of the season.

NOTABLE

— The 31-13 Yankees regained sole possession of first place in the AL East by a half-game over the idle Boston Red Sox.

— The Yankees’ bats have 14 homers over their last three games, as their five on Monday followed games in Kansas City over the weekend in which they hit five on Saturday and four on Sunday.

— The Yankees went back to 13 pitchers by calling up rookie reliver Giovanny Gallegos from Triple-A to replace outfielder Clint Frazier, who was farmed out after Sunday’s win in Kansas City.

— Injured No. 5 starter Jordan Montgomery still hasn’t started playing catch. The second-year left-hander went on the DL on May 2 with an elbow flexor strain that is expected to sideline him for 6-to-8 weeks.

— Reliever Tommy Kahnle began what is expected to be a two-outing rehab stint with low A Charleston on Monday night by allowing a run on three hits over two innings in  a start against Augusta. The righty allowed a second-inning solo homer in a 29-pitch outing. On the DL since April 17 with right shoulder tendonitis, Kahnle is expected to pitch again for Charleston on Wednesday and be activated on Friday.

LOOKING AHEAD

Tuesday: Yankees at Texas Rangers, 8:05 p.m., EST, YES. RHP Domingo German (0-1, 4.26) vs. LHP Cole Hamels (2-4, 3.48).

Wednesday: Yankees at Texas Rangers, 7:05 p.m., EST, YES. LHP CC Sabathia (2-1, 2.40) vs. RHP Doug Fister (1-4, 3.43).

Randy Miller may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @RandyJMiller. Find NJ.com on Facebook.