Stay alive Yanks, break out with 3 HR on G4 route

NEW YORK — To extend their season by one more day, the New York Yankees needed the big, momentum-changing hit that eluded them in the first three games of the World Series. They got it to the brink of elimination Tuesday night in Game 4 at Yankee Stadium.

Anthony Volpe hit a go-ahead grand slam in the third inning, Austin Wells added a solo shot three innings later and Gleyber Torres put the finishing touches on an 11-4 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers with a three-run home run. By the eighth inning, the Yankees avoided elimination for at least one night.

Volpe's breakthrough blast came on a first-pitch slider by Daniel Hudson, the second reliever the Dodgers deployed for their scheduled bullpen day, with two outs and the Dodgers up 2-1. The grand slam, which landed a few rows beyond the wall in left field, electrified a sellout crowd after Freddie Freeman's two-run home run in the first inning.

It was Volpe's first career grand slam and a Yankee's first since Tino Martinez in Game 1 of the 1998 World Series against the San Diego Padres. Volpe, at 23 years and 184 days, became the youngest Yankee with a grand slam in the World Series since Mickey Mantle in 1953.

It was not a promising start for the Yankees. Freeman's home run — a laser over starter Lewis Gill's short right-field porch that extended a first baseman's home run streak in the World Series to a record six games — immediately fired up the crowd. That put the Yankees, who hadn't led since Freeman's walk-off grand slam in Game 1, in an early hole for the third straight game. But the Dodgers' reliever carousel couldn't keep up with the Yankees.

Meanwhile, five Yankees relievers were not charged with a run in the last five innings of the game. Tim Hill, Clay Holmes, Mark Letter Jr., Luke Weaver and Tim Mayza held the Dodgers hitless through the fifth inning. The Yankees were looking for that formula in this series. It saved their season on Tuesday.