Yankees offense busts out again in blowout win over Astros

The Yankees lineup finally opened well.

And closed well.

And amid all the injuries, it sure seems wide awake all of a sudden.

The Yankees ended their first-inning drought, poured on six runs in the seventh and eighth innings to seize control of the game and ran away with a 9-3 victory over the Astros in front of 40,269 in The Bronx.

With a seventh win in nine games, the Yankees (75-57) remained 3 ½ games back of the Rays and gained a game on the Red Sox, who now are 2 ½ games back of the top wild-card spot.

They did so with a series of pitchers: Elmer Rodríguez (six innings, three runs) with the best start of his career, and Paul Blackburn, Michael Fulmer and Tim Hill excelling behind him.

They did so with an offense that finished with 13 hits and suddenly has scored 24 runs in three games.

Finally, they scored a run (and finished with two) in the first inning for the first time in 23 games.

A lineup that no longer features Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton had been silenced during a span in which Yankees first-inning hitters went 7-for-73 (.096) with nine walks and 25 strikeouts.

And, of course, zero runs scored.

At least until Wednesday, when Ben Rice smacked a solo shot and the Yankees used some ingenuity to score again.

With Luis García Jr. on first, Cody Bellinger poked a ground ball to Christian Walker at first, who tried for a double play but hit García — who was running on the grass — in the back.

The runners wound up on second and third, and García then scored on a George Lombard Jr. groundout.

The game was tied 3-3 entering the bottom of the seventh, when they sent nine men to the plate against the Houston bullpen, getting run-scoring knocks from Bellinger, Spencer Jones and Jazz Chisholm Jr.

When García swatted a two-run shot in the eighth, the Yankees could do something they virtually never can even in victories: breathe easily.