Yankees outlast Guardians 7-5 in 10 innings to open series
- Davis Cornell
- Jun 8
- 5 min read
The Yankees took down the Guardians in extra innings, 7-5, to take the first game of the series. Will Warren took the mound for the Yankees and faced off against Gavin Williams.
“I mean, we needed just about everyone, and just a great job, and not an easy win,” Goldy said. “They're a great team and just a really good job by just about everyone tonight, and it took all of us.”
Ben Rice worked a one-out walk in the top of the first inning. Paul Goldschmidt followed with a two-run bomb over the high wall in left field to give the Yankees a 2-0 lead.
In the bottom half of the inning, Warren struck out the side in order.
Trent Grisham and Rice kicked off the third inning with back-to-back singles. Cody Bellinger grounded into a fielder's choice and, on a throwing error from the Guardians' shortstop Brayan Rocchio, allowed Grisham to score, making it 3-0.
Warren walked a batter, then allowed a double, putting two runners in scoring position with nobody out in the bottom of the third. A wild pitch from Warren got the Guardians on the board. Another run came around on an RBI groundout from Rocchio. It looked like Warren induced a groundout to end the inning, but José Caballero booted it to allow the tying run to score.
In the top of the fifth inning, Ryan McMahon went the other way for a solo shot. It was originally ruled a double, but after a replay review, they ruled it McMahon’s seventh homer of the year to give the Yankees a 4-3 lead.
Then in the bottom of the fifth inning, Warren plunked the No. 9 hitter to lead off the inning, then a runner reached on a questionable catcher's interference to put runners on first and second with one out. Brent Headrick replaced Warren and picked up the final two outs to strand both runners and keep the Yankees' lead intact.
Final line for Warren: 4.2 innings pitched, three hits allowed, three runs allowed, only two earned, walking two, and striking out five on 87 pitches. He threw his fastball 40% of the time, the sinker 22%, the changeup 20%, the sweeper 14%, and the curveball 5%. Warren topped out at 95.8 mph and averaged 93.2 on his heater, with four total swings and misses.
“I think they do a good job of not chasing that much, battling with two strikes, and just controlling the zone,” Warren said. “So we needed to get ahead and try to put them away early. And it's a little chess match out there.”
Hedrick came back out for the bottom of the sixth and walked a batter to lead off the frame and end his outing. Paul Blackburn took over and served up a two-run bomb to Angel Martinez to give the Guardians a 5-4 lead. Blackburn allowed a two-out base hit to end his day. Ryan Yarbrough came in and picked up the final out.
Yarbrough remained in for the bottom of the seventh and picked up the first out, then handed the baseball over to Jake Bird. Bird picked up a couple of strikeouts to work around a walk.
In the top of the eighth inning, Grisham and Rice kicked off the inning with back-to-back singles, putting runners at the corners with no outs. Goldy bounced into an RBI fielder's choice to tie the game up at 5-5. Belli lined a single to center, and Goldy went first to third. However, Jazz bounced into an inning-ending double play to strand the go-ahead run at third base.
Camilo Doval got the call for the bottom of the eighth and picked up the first out, then surrendered back-to-back singles. Tim Hill took over Doval and induced a popout and a flyout to end the inning, keeping the game tied.
Spencer Jones led off the ninth inning with a single to left center. However, Caballero, Anthony Volpe and Ali Sánchez all went down on strikes to strand Jones.
Hill came back out for the bottom of the ninth and picked up the first out. David Bednar came in relief and picked up a pair of strikeouts to send the game to extra innings.
With one out in the top of the 10th, Rice was intentionally walked, then Max Schuemann worked a walk thanks to a successful ABS challenge to load the bases. Belli delivered a two-run single to give the Yankees a 7-5 lead, but Schuemann was thrown out trying to move up to third.
“Just stayed simple,” Belli said. “Schuemann with the great at-bat in front of me to load the bases there, and obviously it was just my turn to get the job done and kind of stay within myself, and you know not try to do too much.”
Bednar came back out for the bottom of the 10th and walked the leadoff batter to put the winning run at the plate. But Bednar dialed in, picking up a lineout, strikeout and a groundout to put the finishing touches on a Yankees victory.
“That took the whole squad there,” Belli said. “Will battled, and then Bullpen did a great job. Got some huge outs for us. And offense, we grinded, a few big homers, got some runs in. That's just a good win overall.”
The Yankees will look to win the series tomorrow with Gerrit Cole on the mound, facing off against Slade Cecconi. First pitch is slated for 6:40 p.m. ET on the YES Network.
My thoughts on the game: Great win tonight, one of the best wins of the year for sure, as the Yankees barely squeezed out a rare extra-inning road win. Not the greatest start from Warren, just didn't give the Yankees much length and quickly coughed up a three-run lead. But he could have been a lot worse. The Yankees used every reliever aside from Fernando Cruz tonight; the seven guys out of the bullpen combined for 5.2 innings, allowing two runs and striking out seven. Bednar picked up five huge outs to end the ballgame. Goldy got the offense going with a two-run bomb in the first inning and tied it up in the eighth inning with an RBI fielder's choice. McMahon also went deep to give the Yankees the lead right back after Warren surrendered it. Belli, Rice and Grisham all had multi-hit games. Grisham also tore the cover off a ball to start the 10th inning, but of course, Steven Kwan ended up making a nice running catch at the warning track. And of course, the Rays won, the Red Sox are completely useless and couldn't help the Yankees out by beating the Rays. So the Yankees and Rays remained tied at the top of the AL East. On to tomorrow as the Yankees will look to make it three straight wins and clinch the series.
Comments