The wait for 61 goes on, but we will win for sure. The Yankees offense rebounded from another Gerrit Cole meltdown and dragged five runs with key contributions from the back of the lineup while Jonathan Loáisiga led the bullpen with two innings to secure a narrow 5-4 win.
Coming into the competition, Cole needed 12 strikeouts to tie Ron Guidry’s year-old franchise record of 248 in his 1978 Cy Young campaign, and he seemed on a mission to match, if not surpass, that total tonight . He fanned out the first two batters he faced, but then the other, less desirable narrative that defined his season emerged. Cole led the AL on 29 home runs that surrendered in today’s contest, and he extended his lead at the top of that nefarious leaderboard by serving Tommy Pham a solo shot to crush the Yankees in a 1-0 hole in the to bring first inning.
New York equalized in third place with a solo home run from a hitter named Aaron, although not the Aaron you might expect. With Judge on deck, Aaron Hicks smashed a ball 405 feet from left center to give him an even career 100 and, more importantly, level the score at 1-1.
Not much happened until the end of the fifth, and Hicks again provided the unexpected spark. Isiah Kiner-Falefa led the inning with a single followed by a walk by Marwin Gonzalez to put the runners with no outs in first and second place. Hicks stepped forward, who laced a groundball single to the left to give the Yankees a 2-1 lead for the first time.
The Yankees weren’t done in the inning either. With two outs, Gleyber unloaded Torres on a first pitch cutter and ripped a double to the left to hit Gonzalez and Hicks and make it 4-1 for the Yankees.
With a three-run lead and apparently his A-Plus stuff, Cole seemed perfectly positioned to go deep and potentially challenge that franchise strikeout record. However, the classic Cole meltdown that has happened far too often reared its ugly head again. He allowed Kiké Hernández and Rafael Devers to hit a brace and run respectively to score a brace for Alex Verdugo. After taking a 2-1 lead, Cole missed with a borderline fastball that could have gone either way. He didn’t get the call, and instead of turning the page and executing his next throw, he grooved a mid-mid fastball that Verdugo squeezed right into the seats to erase the Yankees’ lead and knot them at four apiece.
After getting the final out of the inning, Cole went straight to home plate umpire Brian Knight yelling obscenities, and by the time the dust settled, both he and manager Aaron Boone had been hounded from the game.
It’s just a really bad look from Cole to lose focus, throw a tantrum, and then try to put the blame on others like it was the home plate umpire that made him shove Verdugo down a Broadway throw. As with so many of his starts this year, Cole was looking superb until he allowed things to get out of hand and a moment torpedoed the entire outing. His last line: six innings, five hits (two homers), four runs, two walks, and eight strikeouts on 103 pitches.
The Yankees’ offense, however, remained suspended and recaptured the lead in the eighth game. Harrison Bader pulled a two-out walk while nipping for Oswaldo Cabrera and went from first to third after a failed pickoff attempt by Matt Strahm. This allowed catcher Jose Trevino to beat him with a single to forge a 5-4 lead they would not give up.
Ron Marinaccio scored a scoreless seventh with two strikeouts, after which the team turned to Jonathan Loáisiga for the final two innings as Clay Holmes made a pair last night. Loáisiga stormed 13th through eighth but ran into trouble in ninth, allowing back-to-back singles for JD Martinez and Tristan Casas. However, the Yankees’ 2021 bullpen ace shifted into extra gear, knocking out the next two batsmen to wrap up the 5-4 win.
Coupled with the Blue Jays’ loss to the Rays, the Yankees’ magic number to win the AL East dropped to four with the win. They’ll try to bring it back down and guarantee at least a series win over Boston tomorrow afternoon. The first pitch is scheduled for 1:05 p.m. ET, with Domingo Germán taking on Nick Pivetta as Judge (1-for-4 with a single tonight) is targeting No. 61 again, so be sure to join us on the game thread.
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