CLEVELAND — Marcus Thames acknowledged Friday afternoon the Yankees were in a “funk’’ offensively.
But the hitting coach added they were “coming out of it.”
They certainly looked healthy in a 5-3 win over the Indians on Friday night at Progressive Field, hitting four homers in their most impressive display of power of the season.
Giancarlo Stanton led the way with two home runs — both lasers — and for a second straight night, the Yankees survived their starting pitcher giving up three runs in the first inning.
Like Domingo German on Thursday, Jordan Montgomery struggled in the opening frame, and the Yankees found themselves in a quick 3-0 hole.
The left-hander went to three balls on the first three batters of the game, walking two of them.
With two on and one out, Franmil Reyes ripped a double over Clint Frazier’s head in left for an RBI double, scoring Cesar Hernandez and sending Jose Ramirez to third.
After a visit from pitching coach Matt Blake, the Yankees brought the infield in and Eddie Rosario grounded out to the right side of the infield, driving in Ramirez to give Cleveland a 2-0 lead.
At that point, Nick Nelson started warming in the bullpen.
Former Met Amed Rosario followed with a single to left to make it 3-0.
Just as they did Thursday, the Yankees’ offense got their starter off the hook almost immediately.
This time, Aaron Hicks sparked the comeback with a one-out homer from the right side.
Gary Sanchez singled to center, and after Frazier flied out to deep center, Rougned Odor — whose two-run single gave the Yankees the lead on Thursday — homered to right to tie the game.
Also as German did, Montgomery turned things around, retiring 11 of 12 after Rosario’s RBI single in the first.
Stanton then put the Yankees ahead with a leadoff homer in the third, sending a 118 mph missile into the left-field seats, as they homered three times off left-hander Logan Allen.
Allen then walked Aaron Judge and Gleyber Torres lined to third to knock Allen out of the game. Phil Maton entered and got Gio Urshela to line to right and Judge got hung up off first for a double play.
But Stanton added another blast in the fifth off Trevor Stephan, a 418-foot homer to make it 5-3.
Montgomery should have made it out of the fifth. He gave up a one-out double to Jordan Luplow and then fanned Hernandez. Ramirez hit a grounder that Torres didn’t come up with and Odor dropped it once it got by Torres. It was ruled a hit and Montgomery left with runners on the corners.
Lucas Luetge entered to face Reyes and the lefty got out of the inning with a strikeout to preserve the two-run lead.
Luetge also tossed a scoreless seventh before giving way to Chad Green.
Aroldis Chapman followed Green’s shutout eighth with his fourth save of the season as the red-hot bullpen combined to throw 4 ¹/₃ scoreless innings.