Baseball’s a funny sport. Old-Timers’ Day activities had us awash in the nostalgia of past Yankee greatness. Chris Sale and Gerrit Cole were starting today, two of the defining pitchers of their rapidly-closing era. Yet as our attention turned to the past, then to the ever-fleeting present, it was the future of the Yankees that delivered a win today; George Lombard Jr., Spencer Jones and Ben Rice paced New York to a Saturday afternoon victory over the Braves, 5-4 your final.
Trent Grisham got us started
in the second, with a booming double over Michael Harris II’s head in center field. Spencer Jones knocked the Yankee centerfielder in to put the Yankees up early, the first of three strong PAs for the hulking rookie.
We really missed Cody Bellinger in this one, though. Heliot Ramos plays a very shallow left field as it turns out, and a soft fly ball off the bat of Mauricio Dubón leading off the fifth ended up over Ramos’ head. A more competent outfielder would make the catch, but Dubón was on and Atlanta followed with three more hits to go up 2-1. This isn’t to take the blame off Cole, who started to leave some pitches out over the zone and was hit hard all four times, but starting the inning with an easy out rather than a runner on is a significant difference.
The Yankees picked up their dad in their half of the frame though, with the kids on the squad acting as chaos agents. Lombard Jr. had a great plate appearance to lead off the bottom of the fifth, challenging two consecutive called third strikes to work a walk instead:
Up next, Spencer Jones, recalled to the plate after a challenge overturned what could have been a hit by pitch, drilled a triple to bring Lombard in:
Maybe that set something off in Sale — who famously plays with, uh, emotion — as the lefty balked to bring Jones in to score. Austin Wells knocked a double to left field with the bases empty, and while he was stranded, it was the kind of high-energy inning the Yankees have sorely been lacking over the last six weeks or so.
Given the lead again, Cole tossed consecutive eight-pitch shutout innings, although he was helped a little bit by defensive specialist Amed Rosario:
All told Cole threw seven innings, allowed a pair of runs, and struck out nine including getting slugger Matt Olson twice, the second time for his 1,000th Yankee strikeout. Unsurprisingly, doing it in his 139th game makes Cole the fastest in franchise history to do so. The Yankees have their three best starters lined up for this big series, and both Max Fried and Cole have delivered in their outings.
Lombard continued to impress, knocking his second home run of his short career to give the team an insurance run, going deep against his father’s original team.
That would loom large for New York, as Ronald Acuña Jr. took Brent Headrick deep in the eighth to make it a one-run game again,
Paul Blackburn was called upon to get Ozzie Albies and end the threat, a perfect tee-up for Ben Rice in the home half:
It had been 11 games Rice was sitting on 31 home runs, and after breaking the RBI-less streak last night with that clutch single, you had to imagine a major weight is off his shoulders now. I’ve felt like Rice has been pressing for a couple of weeks as often the only representative MLB-level offensive threat, so maybe having contributions from guys hitting in the back half of the lineup has the lefty slugger a little more relaxed. If that’s the case, it’s a big plus for a Yankee team that finally looked like they could control their at-bats.
David Bednar had a bit of a rocky ninth, walking Mike Yastrzemski who later scored on pinch-hitter Dom Smith’s single. Stellar catcher Drake Baldwin put up a fight with two out, finally flying out to none other than Spencer Jones in right to end the game. The Yankees have taken two out of three against a very good, very likely playoff team, and it feels as though the momentum from Friday night’s heroics followed New York into this one — even if the last two innings were a little hairier than we’d like.
As they say, momentum is only as good as the next day’s starting pitcher, but the Yankees have a pretty good next day’s starting pitcher. Cam Schlittler will look to keep pace with Dylan Cease atop the AL Cy Young race, and managing an emerging home/road split will be key for him against a good Atlanta lineup (and opposing starter Grant Holmes). First pitch in tomorrow’s series finale comes at 1:35pm Eastern.
