Yankees edge Guardians 3-2, become first AL team to 40 wins
- Davis Cornell
- Jun 9
- 4 min read
The Yankees took down the Guardians 3-2 to win the series and become the first AL team to 40 wins this year. Gerrit Cole got the starting nod for the Yankees and faced off against Slade Cecconi.
Paul Goldschmidt dunked a two-out bloop single into center field in the top of the first inning. However, Cody Bellinger grounded out to strand Goldy.
Cole worked a nice and easy 1-2-3 bottom of the first inning and recorded his first two strikeouts of the ballgame.
Jazz Chisholm Jr. led off the second inning with a walk. Spencer Jones followed with a two-run bomb to dead center field, 443 feet away, his first career home run.
“I think for me it started with the hitting coach's, good approach, kind of knew what I was looking for, and just got a pitch,” Jones said. “I felt like I saw it well and put a good swing on it.”
Cole quickly picked up the first two outs of the bottom of the third inning. Then it looked like he picked up the third out, but a tough hop ate Anthony Volpe alive, leading to an RBI single by Chase DeLauter and Angel Martinez to tie the game.
“That was pretty tough,” Cole said. “There's no real way to prepare for that. Just give it your best effort and try to survive the inning. It's the first time we've gone over 30 pitches in an inning, and it was sticky out there.”
In the top of the fourth inning, Jones and Ryan McMahon each singled to put runners at the corners with one out. But J.C. Escarra struck out, and Tren Grisham grounded out as the Yankees failed to cash in.
Paul Blackburn replaced Cole in the bottom of the fifth inning and navigated around a couple of singles. Blackburn also made a great play on a bunt to prevent the go-ahead run from scoring to help work a scoreless inning.
Final line for Cole: four innings pitched, five hits allowed, two earned runs, walking two, and striking out four on 83 pitches. He threw his fastball 47% of the time, the slider 19%, the knuckle curve 17%, the changeup 13%, and the sinker 4%. Cole topped out at 100 mph, averaging 97.6 on his heater; he had just four swings and misses.
Blackburn came back out for the bottom of the sixth inning and picked up the first two outs, then allowed a single to end his outing. Tim Hill took over and picked up the third out on just one pitch.
Camilo Doval came in relief for Hill in the bottom of the seventh and faced the minimum, thanks to a 4-6-3 inning-ending double play.
Jazz was being showered with overrated chants to lead off the eighth inning and responded a no-doubt solo shot to give the Yankees a 3-2 lead, a little left on left crime for his ninth homer of the season.
“I think I swung at the first pitch and realized, like that's going to be a tough pitch to hit, the slider on the outside corner,” Jazz said. “So I was literally just waiting on a ball to start right at me and I got one and handled it.”
Jake Bird was the next man out of the bullpen for the Yankees in the bottom of the eighth and allowed a single and walked a batter. Fernando Cruz took over with one out and picked up a strikeout and got José Ramírez to fly out on a rare slider from Cruz to end the inning.
With David Bednar unavailable tonight, Cruz remained in the game for the bottom of the ninth inning. Cruz walked the leadoff batter to bring the winning run to the plate, but Cruz dialed in and struck out three straight to pick up his third career save and give the Yankees the series win.
“He knows, I'm ready,” Cruz said of Boone trusting him to close out the game. “Just get the ball in my hand and go pick up my guy and do my job like, but I knew it was a little earlier today and a little longer than what we are accustomed to.”
The Yankees will look to complete the sweep tomorrow with Carlos Rodon on the mound, facing off against Parker Messick. The first pitch is slated for 1:10 p.m. ET on the YES Network.
My thoughts on the game: Cole didn't have the best start today, but it also could have been a lot worse; he just didn't give the Yankees enough length. Cruz was nails, picking up a huge five-out save with the Yankees' bullpen extremely thin tonight after using seven relievers last night. Blackburn also picked up five big outs; he quietly has a 2.97 ERA. Doval had a solid outing. Hill threw just one pitch; I would have liked them to use him for a little longer, but it was his third day in a row pitching. Bird wasn't great, picking up just one out, but Cruz picked him up. Jones crushed his first career homer tonight in a 2-for-4 effort. He has looked much better since being recalled. Goldy and McMahon each had multi-hit games. And Jazz crushed a huge go-ahead homer in the eighth, which ended up being the difference. Volpe went 0-for-4; after his hot start in the first week or two after he was recalled, he has quickly gotten ice-cold, now hitting .190 with a .587 OPS. It might be time to send him back down. The Rays won again, so the Yankees remain tied with them at the top of the AL East. On to tomorrow as the Yankees will look to complete the sweep.
Comments