Weekday matinees are dumb. I get it was partially a necessity today because of the rainout yesterday and it’s always used for a getaway game, but it was also pre-scheduled and it never looks right at Yankee Stadium. That’s not an excuse for what happened today, or why the Yankees always seem to be worse in these situations, but it went the way it did.
Mitch Keller flummoxed an offense that’s still struggling with runners in scoring position for five innings, slightly outdueling a visually dominant
Gerrit Cole, who gave up a pair of homers despite 11 strikeouts in 7 innings. A massive three-run homer in the seventh by Ben Rice should’ve been enough to rally the troops, but the offense was dormant after that as Fernando Cruz had a rough 10th inning in a 5-3 loss to open the day.
Cole got things started for the Yanks with a clean, 1-2-3 first inning, while Keller responded with one of his own. The pair matched each other in the second, as well, with the only baserunner for either team being a one-out single by Jasson Domínguez. It was definitely Cole, however, who’d stand out through three innings, striking out six of the first nine he faced.
The Yankees tried to get something going off Keller in the third. Austin Wells got beaned with one out, Trent Grisham jumped ahead 3-0 before hitting a lineout a few pitches later, and Rice seemed to have blooped a two-out single before a tremendous diving catch by Bryan Reynolds robbed him.
Cole sat down the Buccos in order in the fourth without the need for a web gem. Spencer Jones and Cody Bellinger led off the bottom half with walks against a suddenly erratic Keller, but the next three put together some rough at-bats to strand them. Their misdeeds were quickly punished.
The Pirates had absolutely nothing through 14 batters, with eight of them going down on strikes. After a controversial call saved Cole’s perfect game against Ryan O’Hearn, it was immediately ended by a Nick Gonzales single. But before we could say aw shucks, the former Cy Young winner grooved a 1-1 changeup to Jacob Gonzalez for a short porch special to make it 2-0 Pirates in the fifth.
Wells reached for the second time with a one-out single in the bottom half to flip the lineup, and Grisham ripped a single up the middle to quickly put the pressure back on Keller, but despite his longstanding struggles against lefties this season, the former All-Star grit his teeth to win a six-pitch battle with Rice and retire Jones to escape unscathed again.
Cole went back to work in the sixth and gave up a one-out single to Jake Mangum before a bizarre balk occurred due to a pitch clock malfunction that the 35-year-old didn’t react to positively. He rebounded to get the next two out. Carmen Mlodzinski relieved Keller after a residential five-and-dive and worked around a four-pitch walk to Domínguez, but not without more theatrics.
Caballero’s pitch clock antics again came up with two out when he was hit with a pitch clock violation for not engaging on time, but he pretty clearly did. You worry sometimes that Caballero’s annoying schtick with this would eventually cause umpires to misapply the rules out of frustration, and that happened there. Somehow, the only one who was sent to the showers was hitting coach James Rowson.
Cole finished his outing after seven innings, coughing up an opposite-field homer to Gonzales to make it 3-0 during it, but despite being in line for the loss when he departed, he looked pretty damn close to vintage Gerrit Cole with 11 strikeouts and no walks. In a day like this, with a diminished Max Fried going tonight, the Yankees needed length, and they got it; the home runs just bit him badly.
Mlodzinski tried to get through the seventh as well, but Pirates manager Don Kelly’s decision to stick with him went badly. Ryan McMahon blooped a ground-rule double to left, Wells walked with help from Pittsburgh’s ABS hesitancy, and the stage was set with one out for Rice, who walloped a 3-1 cutter down the pipe for his 30th home run to tie it. As mentioned on the broadcast, he’s just the fifth Yankees’ draft pick to hit 30 bombs in a season.
With new life, the Yankees went to Brent Headrick for the eighth, and he looked as nasty as ever with a trio of strikeouts. There’s a Matt Blake revelation every year, and he certainly is one with an ERA of 1.40 in 51.1 innings. Mlodzinski got the first two out in the bottom of the eighth before Mason Montgomery retired McMahon to send it to the ninth.
Brandon Lowe led off the ninth with a rocket single off David Bednar that went under the glove of McMahon at third, but he made up for it with a catch against the tarp a few pitches later. Things got sticky with two on, two out, and 3-2 on Gonzales, but Rice made an outstanding diving stop on a tremendous piece of hitting by Gonzales to save a run and get it to the bottom of the ninth.
Montgomery stayed on to face 9-1-2 in the ninth, getting a groundout out of the pinch-hitting Paul Goldschmidt before walking Grisham. His triple-digit velocity overwhelmed Rice and the pinch-hitting Amed Rosario to send it to extras, where Fernando Cruz emerged to begin Manfred ball.
It didn’t go well for him. A flyout got the go-ahead run to third before he walked a pinch-hitting Marcell Ozuna. At this point, he just lost control. After spamming splitters to Ozuna, he tried mixing some other pitches to get the next few hitters but had no idea where they were going. Two great pieces of hitting on pitches that wandered up by Jared Triolo and Mangum drove in two runs. A five-pitch walk to Lowe chased Cruz after his worst outing in a good bit.
Kervin Castro made his second appearance as a Yankee and nicely weaseled his way out of Cruz’s jam with two strikeouts, but the damage was done. Gregory Soto locked down the ninth with a 1-2-3 inning to secure the win for Pittsburgh.
The Yankees will look for the series victory with returning ace Max Fried on a pitch limit. The lefty will square off against fireballer Bubba Chandler at 7:05pm tonight on YES.
