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Five of the Yankees’ top six hitters in order have gone far tonight. Gerrit Cole wasn’t great, but he lowered his ERA and held on after leaving last week’s start against the Blue Jays with hamstring strain. Sal Romano was terrible in the ninth, but that didn’t matter as the Yankees played exactly as they should against a team like the Orioles, winning Game 1 of the series, 7-2.
The Yankees, of course, had only entered the season 9-7 against Baltimore, a major reason they’re still looking for a playoff slot rather than comfortably adjusting the rotation rollout in. thinking about October. They really need to sweep this series away, and it would make us all feel a little better if the games weren’t closed.
All of this to say that we can thank Aaron Judge for starting the game off on the right foot:
He was also a well-timed dinger, as Cole was terribly shaking in the first round. Cedric Mullins doubled up to start the frame, and ended up walking two more hitters in the inning, charging in for the bases before seating Ramón Urías down.
Cole had a much better second inning, before the Yankees unloaded in the third:
Jacks back to back in the third round and two home runs that are aesthetically as different as possible. Giancarlo Stanton’s two innings shot was a popup that continued to move towards right field, and Luke Voit followed it with a much more conventional moon shot to the left. The duality of slam.
Cole, meanwhile, had returned to his normal state after the first one. He scored eight Orioles in a row, including three via strikeout, coming just after an undernourished order down with his fastpitch. His bike and spin on number one were at normal levels, and after some first run control issues, looked like the leader from Cy Young.
The warts started showing up in the first one, though it was hard to put the blame entirely on Cole’s feet. Pat Valaika hit a duck snort to left field that just managed to drop for a single – you might even criticize Stanton’s range on the left – and Ryan Mountcastle doubled up two hitters later to get the Orioles on the board. Cole then accompanied Anthony Santander, conjuring up DJ Stewart with the potential to make it a one-pass game; he breathed in a fastball at 99 mph to end the threat.
Overall, it was a bit of a mixed bag for Cole. At his best he was excellent, but a long first and fifth exhausted his stride count and led to questions about his mastery, especially the curve of the joints and the slider. If the Yankees considered tonight a rehab outing to assess his bum hammy, I’m sure they weren’t disappointed, but if they were hoping Cole would gain some weight on a gas pen … he wouldn’t. did not really do. that either.
Gleyber Torres made a terrible mistake in the sixth inning, missing what should have been a double play. We and others may have already over-analyzed Torres’ season, but moving him to second was supposed to lighten up the pressure on his defense, but at least for tonight, that only added to that. (For what it’s worth, he turned a routine ground player into a double play in the next batting game. It wouldn’t normally be worth mentioning, but Torres needs to take the few positives he can. defense.)
For a while it looked like the Yankees offense was going to make the classic ‘score early, then never again’ move, but Joey Gallo continued his resurgence in the eighth:
Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, Luke Voit and Joey Gallo all scored in the same game. The biggest problem the Yankees have had this year is that they never seem to have multiple guys in the lineup all hot at the same time.
Michael King, meanwhile, is the hero of this game. Cole didn’t go as far as the Yankees wanted and the reliever box was completely depleted. Enter King, who, aside from the aforementioned Torres mistake, was nearly perfect in the innings’ sleeves. As seen earlier in the season, his number of strikeouts won’t alarm you, but his mastery of the strike zone and ability to overcome batters’ bats – his three flying balls over 35 degrees. negated some of the hard contact – led to quick, effective zeros, and saved the Yankees from having to deploy three or four extra raised arms.
Romano turned things upside down in the ninth, however, as he recorded just one out and allowed three goals, one of which scored. He left the game after removing a liner from his hand, and Aroldis Chapman came in to work his second straight day. He threw just two fastballs on a total of seven shots and struck out two batters to seal the victory. As an added bonus, the Blue Jays lost, which ties the Yankees with them atop the Wild Card race with Boston and Seattle to play later tonight.
This is exactly how the games against the Orioles should go, and exactly how tomorrow’s games should go. Five home runs, blocked shots, get the win and come back the next day – Néstor Cortes Jr. starts at 7:05 p.m. EST.
The score of the box
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