Tonight, the Yankees were a cat that couldn’t catch the mouse. To be fair, the mouse in question was capable of dealing mighty blows to the cat. The Guardians grabbed their well-earned series win in the Bronx by flexing their muscles, clubbing three home runs off Gerrit Cole and always finding the timely hit to keep the tardy Yankee offense from responding with enough pop of their own. Gavin Williams was far from terrific on the mound for Cleveland, but the bullpen was able to stifle the Bombers just enough for a 5-4 final.
Cole’s scoreless streak to begin his season was snapped by a single swing in the second. Kyle Manzardo scooped a tumbling curveball — far from the worst offering of the game from Cole — and elevated it high and far to the facing of the second deck for a 1-0 Cleveland lead. We saw that power from him a few postseasons ago; his seventh long ball of the year gave the Guards the initiative.
Thankfully, the Bombers bashed back. Jazz Chisholm Jr. probably wasn’t consciously trying to clock a ball further than Manzardo did, but that’s what he did to lead off the second against Williams. Jazz turned on a belt-high heater from the tall right-hander and launched it 409 feet to reach the second deck. Of course, with nobody aboard, the homers counted the same; we were back to even.
The Cleveland offense which was in a groove last night found their stride again in the top of the fourth inning. It started with a hot line drive off the wall from José Ramírez that a strong throw in from José Caballero limited to a single. Ramírez would be able to trot home thanks to a two-out thunderstrike from veteran power bat Rhys Hoskins. Hoskins seized on a hanging slider from Cole and kept his blast fair down the left field line to make it 3-1 Cleveland.
Once again, the Yankees were able to respond quickly, albeit not with a two run shot. Still, a homer is a homer, and Caballero was more than willing to provide with a skyscraping fly ball to left that eluded the Guardians’ Angel Martínez and nestled into the glove of a Yankee fan and brought the Bombers within one.
Martínez lobbied for fan interference, but let’s face it; he’d have to be Victor Wembanyama’s height to snare that one. Or perhaps Mitchell Robinson’s — this is Knicks country, after all.
Unfortunately, Cole continued to struggle to keep the ball in the ballpark. The Guardians are not known for their proficiency against velocity, but it’s still unwise to give a center-cut offering of any speed to José Ramírez. The superstar third baseman continued his excellent career performance against Gerrit with a solo shot to right, restoring the two-run advantage at 4-2.
Manzardo continued the extra-base hit parade by smacking a double to the gap, then a walk to Hoskins spelled the end of Cole’s night. It wasn’t entirely fair to say Cole didn’t have his stuff per se, but every mistake he made was punished in a timely fashion. His breaking pitches routinely caught too much plate for a lineup that was suddenly geared to do damage, especially down the foul lines. Gerrit departed in line for the loss, replaced by Fernando Cruz.
Cruz did his job to strand the duo on base, but the Yankees had work to do against Williams, who was operating on cruise control aside from those solo homers. Ben Rice jostled him a bit with a leadoff double to start the home sixth, then advanced to third on a productive out from Paul Goldschmidt. That was sufficient to chase Williams from the mound.
Steven Vogt brought in lefty Tim Herrin to face Cody Bellinger, but the left-on-left matchup never daunts Cody. He made quality contact to center field for a lineout, and Steven Kwan airmailed the throw home to allow Rice to score easily on the sac fly. Herrin, who was in the game just as much to face Jazz as he was to face Bellinger, retired the Yankee second baseman to hold the lead at 4-3.
But the scuffling Yankee bullpen backpedaled. Tim Hill’s recent funk continued: he surrendered some more loud noises as Ramírez collected his third hit, and Manzardo nearly scored him on a booming double off the center field wall. Ramírez’s helmet flew off and obstructed him in a rare twist of good fortune, forcing him to retreat to third. Naturally Paul Blackburn entered and promptly wasted the lucky break by serving up a perfect batting practice ball to Hoskins, who scored Ramírez on a simple single to left. Once again, the Guards led by a pair.
Like last night, the Yankees bats were unable to solve Hunter Gaddis, who put up a zero in the bottom of the eighth, then a clean ninth from Blackburn brought this irritating game of cat-and-mouse to its final frame.
Goldschmidt came to the dish ready to hit against closer Cade Smith, rapping a double into the left field corner to immediately bring up Bellinger as the tying run. A lawn dart from Smith immediately moved Goldschmidt up 90 feet, Cody repeated his sixth-iunning act by grabbing a sac fly, but it seemed to have ultimately done Smith a favor. He roared back to strike out Chisholm, then got Caballero to pop out to end the night.
The Bombers continually played from behind tonight, and never found the big hit they needed to flip the script. They fell 5-4.
The Yankees will seek to salvage the final game and ward off a sweep at the hands of the AL Central leaders. Carlos Rodón will toe the slab, giving this Cleveland lineup which has found success against the Yankees’ righties a different look. Slade Cecconi will oppose Rodón, with the Thursday matinée kicking off at 1:35 PM on YES.
