Guardians outslug Yankees to claim series with 5-4 victory
- Davis Cornell
- Jun 3
- 4 min read
The Guardians took down the Yankees 5-4 to win the series. Gerrit Cole got the starting nod for the Yankees and faced off against Gavin Williams.
Cole worked a 1-2-3 top of the first inning on just eight pitches. In the bottom of the inning, Trent Grisham worked a leadoff walk, but that would be all for the Yankees in the frame.
The Guardians kicked off the scoring in the top of the first inning with a solo shot to right field from Kyle Manzardo to give them a 1-0 lead. The first run Cole has allowed this year on a really nice Knuckle Curve outside of the strike zone.
“Impressive swing,” Cole said. “He was able to beat it to the spot and lift it in the air. The pitch was out of the strike zone, and we'd thrown some fastballs up and away before that, but clearly he put a better swing on a good pitch.”
In the bottom of the second inning, Jazz Chisholm Jr. crushes a solo homer into the second deck in right field to tie the ballgame.
Cole worked a 1-2-3 shutdown top of the third inning. Then in the fourth inning, Rhys Hoskins crushed a two-run bomb to give the Guardians a 3-1 lead.
José Caballero got one of those runs back in the bottom of the inning with a solo shot that just cleared the wall in left field.
The Guardians extended their lead back to two runs in the top of the sixth inning thanks to a solo home run from José Ramírez. Cole then served up a one-out double and walked a batter to end his night. Fernando Cruz took over and picked up a strikeout as well as a lineout to strand runners on first and second.
Final line for Cole: 5.1 innings pitched, six hits allowed, four earned runs, walked one, and struck out two on 83 pitches. He threw his fastball 47% of the time, the changeup 19%, the sinker 12%, the knuckle curve 12%, and the slider 10%. He topped out at 98.5 mph on his heater, averaging 96.8, and produced three swings and misses.
“For the entirety of the night, the command stayed really sharp and continued to push through jams late in the game,” Cole said. “I really liked a lot of the efficient outs. I really liked a lot the stuff we threw, I mean, we were really executing pitches all night... But clearly, they're good pitches, but they're better swings. And sometimes that's baseball.”
Ben Rice led off the bottom of the sixth inning with a double into the right field corner. Rice moved up to third on a lineout to right off the bat of Paul Goldschmidt. Rice then came around to score on a sacrifice fly from Cody Bellinger to make it a 4-3 ballgame.
Cruz came back out for the seventh and struck out both batters he faced. Tim Hill replaced Cruz and induced a groundout to end the frame.
Hill stayed in the game for the top of the eighth inning and gave up a single as well as a double, putting two runners in scoring position with one out. Paul Blackburn came in relief for Hill and gave up an RBI single to Hoskins to extend the Guardians lead to 5-3. Blackburn then induced a double play to limit the damage.
Blackburn remained in the game for the top of the ninth and retired the Guardians and recorded a strikeout to keep the Yankees' deficit at two runs.
In the bottom of the ninth, Goldy led things off with a double into the left field corner, then moved up to third on a wild pitch. Belli drove in Goldy with a sacrifice fly to make it a one-run ballgame. However, Jazz struck out, and Caballero flew out to end the game, giving the Guardians the series win.
The Yankees will look to salvage the series tomorrow with Carlos Rodon on the bump, facing off against Slade Cecconi. First pitch is scheduled for 1:35 p.m. ET on the YES Network.
My thoughts on the game: Welp, the Yankees fall to 0-2 in the month of June and 3-10 against teams above .500. June is quickly becoming my least favorite month of the year, since the Yankees always seem to forget how to play baseball this month. Cole had his worst start of the season so far as he gave up three home runs and only had three whiffs tonight, but that's going to happen throughout the season. Cruz was great, as he has been for most of the season. Hill gave up another run, which ended up being the difference tonight. Blackburn picked up five outs and is quietly having a solid season with a 3.12 ERA. Cabby and Jazz each hit solo home runs, and Belli had a pair of sacrifice flies accounting for the Yankees' four runs. Just five hits on the night for the Yankees, two of which were from Cabby. Hopefully Judge will be back this weekend; this lineup looks so much worse without him. Giancarlo Stanton also should hopefully be back soon, as he was taking batting practice today. On to tomorrow, as the Yankees will hopefully avoid being swept.
“So the specialist got back to us, confirmed what we've seen to this point,” Aaron Boone said of Judge. “He's gone back, though, for some more imaging. They just want to get some more specific spots. And, so we'll have more on that, you know, later tonight or tomorrow.”
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