Perhaps an extra night’s rest was all this Yankees offense needed to recover from their lethargic performance in Houston. The bats struck early and often, providing much-needed cushion as Gerrit Cole and Aroldis Chapman (particularly the latter) looked far from invincible during this contest’s stretches. Thanks in part to two outbursts from Matt Carpenter, it was a bit of a joke in the end with the Yankees smashing their way to a 13-4 win, but there was plenty of storyline to get us there.
The Yankees made sure Guardians starter Kirk McCarty knew what to expect from the start, putting a pair in the first via a DJ LeMahieu first walk and a Gleyber Torres single. However, a late-inning GIDP from Giancarlo Stanton gave the rookie pitcher a temporary reprieve. In the bottom half, Amed Rosario walked with one out but was thrown by Jose Trevino trying to steal second.
The afternoon briefly took a bad turn for Cole in the second, giving up back-to-back homers to Josh Naylor and Franmil Reyes to open the frame. One could be forgiven for fearing another Minnesota-style meltdown — the now infamous contest where he gave up seven runs on five long balls in just 2.1 innings (including three straight bombs to open the ball game).
The thing about that fateful game against the Twins is that the Yankees won, with the offense taking their ace. They seemed determined to replicate the feat this afternoon, with LeMahieu putting the Bombers on the board with one out in third. After committing three consecutive two-strike pitches, he powered an elevated 3-2 fastball in prototypical DJ fashion.
The floodgates opened for the Yankees after that preliminary hit. Aaron Judge and Torres followed LeMahieu’s home run with back-to-back walks, and doubles 27th man Miguel Andújar picked old home on a soft left liner.
Richie Palacios’ off-target shot moved Torres and Andújar up to second and third, and both scored on a single from Aaron Hicks. punch in the opposite field. While I’m sure it’s far from the start to the season Hicks had hoped for, he’s provided the Yankees with some timely hits with runners in scoring position over the past few weeks. And while I’ll stop short of calling it a full-fledged RISP revival, it’s nonetheless an encouraging development to see the veteran’s production ramp up.
Throwing with a 4-2 lead allowed Cole to settle into the exit, and he navigated around a walk in the third and doubled in the fourth to record a scoreless pair of frames before pulling the team in order in the fifth and sixth.
The Guardians brought in Anthony Gose for the sixth and the Yankees had a feast. Hicks started with a walk before Carpenter smashed a 1-0 fastball to center right for a two-point bomb.
Carpenter is now the owner of an absurd home run by seven board appearances rhythm after averaging one home run every 60 APs in 2020-21. He also became the first player in MLB history to have seven of his first ten hits in a season over the fence. His afternoon wasn’t over yet either.
New York was far from finished in the frame, putting the runners in second and third thanks to a two-out walk from LeMahieu followed by a Judge double. Torres continued his hot day at the plate, fielding his third single of the game — this time off reliever Anthony Castro — to tackle LeMahieu and Judge and give the Yankees an 8-2 lead.
Even with that six-point cushion, the Bombers sticks didn’t give way. Andújar started the seventh when reaching an error from Andrés Giménez – his fourth line drive of the game. Hicks and Carpenter followed with a pair of singles, the latter tackling Andújar. A double-play ball from Trevino allowed Hicks to score, giving the Yankees roster its 12th double-digit performance this year after recording just six such efforts throughout last season.
Cole’s outing ended after six innings. Even though the start of the game felt like deja vu less than a month after that Twins game, to Cole’s credit, he made the necessary adjustments to get the start back on track – which he didn’t. could do in Minnesota. He continues to have issues with his cutter running alongside the arm instead of cutting, which is exactly what happened on the pitch Naylor hit. He didn’t throw another cutter the entire game, instead relying on the slider and knuckle curve for puffs. The last line of the ace: six innings, three hits, two runs, three walks and six strikeouts on 107 pitches.
Aaron Boone replaced him with Aroldis Chapman, making his first appearance in 41 days after suffering an inflamed Achilles in late May. Even while pitching with an eight-run cushion, Chapman did his best to torpedo the Yankees’ lead, stepping on all three batters he faced before being unceremoniously fired for Ron Marinaccio. Chapman’s exit reflected the issues he faced before the injury. He has no idea where the fastball is going, forcing him to rely exclusively on the cursor to just throw strikes, except this time he couldn’t even find the area with it. bender it.
Although Marinaccio struck out all three batters he faced (while dealing with “dead arm“, according to Boone), the Guardians were able to get through a pair of runs to cut the Yankees’ lead to 10-4. The Yankees scratched one of those in the eighth on Torres’ third RBI of l LeMahieu and Judge hit a single and a walk, respectively, and a Torres defenseman pick tackled LeMahieu to make it 11-4, Bombers.
The bullpen made sure we didn’t disconnect early, with Lucas Luetge working in and out of a mess in the eighth. He loaded the bases with two outs, but was able to take out Sandy León to let them juice.
The Yankees gave us one last shootout, with Carpenter and Trevino back-to-back with solo blasts in ninth-position Ernie Clement. Make 8 of Carpenter’s 11 hits as a Yankee leave the court, taking his pace to an even crazier hit of a homer by just over six plate appearances.
This team continues to prove they can win games in multiple ways. Early in the season, it was a stellar pitch that gave a sometimes-missing offense a boost. This time it was the offense that got their pitchers back, which will hopefully be a shot in the arm for the rest of this series and the longest road trip overall. It’s the Yankees’ 25th win of the season, and they remain the only team in baseball with a winning record in games where they trailed.
Be sure to stick around for Game 2 of the doubleheader later today. The first pitch is scheduled for 6:10 p.m. with Nestor Cortes set to face Aaron Civale.
The score of the box
