Matt Carpenter homered twice and tied his career-high with seven RBIs, powering an 18-4 rout of the Chicago Cubs on Sunday that completed a weekend sweep and gave the major league-leading Yankees their 11th win in 12 games.
Carpenter drew a tying bases-loaded walk as New York chased Keegan Thompson (6-2) in a five-run first and hit a three-run homer off Daniel Norris for an 8-1 lead in the second.
Carpenter added a two-run drive against Alec Mills in the sixth for his first multihomer game in four years and an RBI double in the seventh against Sean Newcomb as the Yankees sent Chicago to its sixth straight loss.
All the more impressive given Carpenter had gotten just two plate appearances since June 3.
Kyle Higashioka added his first two home runs this season, after hitting seven in spring training. Giancarlo Stanton and Isiah Kiner-Falefa had three RBIs each as the Yankees sprayed a season-high 17 hits and scored their most runs since beating Toronto 20-6 on Sept. 15, 2020.
Higashioka and Carpenter were late additions to the lineup because second baseman Gleyber Torres felt nausea and catcher Jose Trevino had back pain.
Carpenter raised his average to .333 with 13 RBIs. Signed on May 26 because of injuries to Giancarlo Stanton and Josh Donaldson, Carpenter became the first Yankees player to hit six home runs in his first 10 games and just the second major leaguer to have six homers among his first seven hits after Colorado's Trevor Story in 2016.
Jameson Taillon (7-1) remained unbeaten in 11 starts, giving up three runs and seven hits in five innings.
Chicago's six-game skid is its longest this year, dropping the Cubs a season-worst 13 games under .500 at 23-36. The Yankees outscored Chicago 28-5 in the three-game series and improved to 15-4 against the Cubs, 23-4 including World Series sweeps in 1932 and '38. The Cubs are 0-12 in the Bronx.
Cubs OF Seiya Suzuki, sidelined since May 26 with a sprained left ring finger, still has swelling and won't participate in baseball activities for at least five days. He called it a middle ground after speaking with Ross and president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer.
Justin Steele (1-5, 4.79) is to be on the mound for Monday's homestand opener against San Diego and Yu Darvish (5-3, 3.61).
