Spencer Jones and Jazz Chisholm Jr. hit homers and the Yankees bullpen delivered five scoreless frames as New York grabbed a 3-2 win over the Guardians on Tuesday night in Cleveland.
Jones’ two-run home run was the first of his big league career as the Yanks (40-26) grabbed the first two games of the series over Cleveland (37-32).
The Yanks, who only got four innings from starter Gerrit Cole in his fourth start of the season, scored all their runs on the homers and went 1-for-5 with RISP (a non-RBI single) and left nine runners on base.
Here are the takeaways...
- Jones put the Yanks ahead in the second with a two-run home run that got out of the park in a hurry. The big lefty got a center-cut Slade Cecconi 87 mph cutter and unloaded on it: 443 feet, 112.2 mph off the bat to straight away center. The 25-year-old, who had 13 homers across 43 games at Triple-A this year, got his first big league big fly in his 33rd career at-bat and finished the night 2-for-4.
- Chisholm, who was once again using injured slugger Aaron Judge's bat, put the Yanks back ahead to start the eighth, getting just enough of a 3-2 slider from Tim Herrin for a high 360-foot homer to right (107.3 mph with a 41-degree launch angle).
Earlier in the at-bat, Chisholm got a big gift from home plate umpire Jacob Metz, who struggled all night behind the plate. The second baseman took an 0-2 slider low-and-away that caught the corner and the bottom of the zone, but Metz called it a ball and Clevleand didn’t challenge.
He finished 1-for-3 with a walk and a strikeout. Chisholm is now 7-for-39 in his last nine games with four home runs, seven RBI, four walks, and 12 strikeouts.
- The first three men out of the Yanks bullpen kept the game tied, with Paul Blackburn allowing three hits over 1.2 innings, Tim Hill adding an out, and Camilo Doval allowing a single before erasing it with a 4-6-3 inning-ender.
Blackburn got out of a first and third jam in his first inning as he made a great play fielding Steven Kwan’s safety squeeze, tagging the runner 15 feet from the plate before ending the threat with a pop out.
Protecting a one-run lead, Jake Bird got the first man in the eighth, but a single and a walk saw him lifted for Fernando Cruz, who got Travis Bazzana fishing and Jose Ramirez to fly out to center to strand two.
With David Bednar presumably unavailable after throwing 27 pitches in Monday's win, Cruz got the ninth and walked the first batter he faced. The right recovered for his five-out save, getting Kyle Manzardo swinging over a splitter as the Yanks got the benefit on a close check swing call, Rhys Hoskins swinging over a splitter, and Angel Martínez swinging over a splitter to end it.
- Cole got close to a dream start with a pair of strikeouts in a perfect first, the second came when a pitch clock violation ended an eight-pitch battle with ChaseDeLauter. Cole allowed his first hit with one down in the second and a catcher’s interference put two on with two down, but avoided any damage.
With two down in the third, Cole got stung: Ramirez lined a knuckle curve up the middle and, after stealing second without a throw, came around when DeLauter lined a changeup right through Anthony Volpe for an RBI single. A walk and a hit batter loaded the bases, and despite a great diving stop by Paul Goldschmidt down the line, Martínez beat Cole, who didn’t get a great jump, and slid headfirst to the bag to beat the pitcher, who slid feet-first. The righty left them loaded, but needed 29 pitches, with 21 to get the final out.
The 19-foot high wall in left field saved Cole a homer to start the fourth as Austin Hedges had to settle for a 374-foot single that would have been gone in 26 MLB parks. A walk put two aboard with one down as the veteran didn’t look pleased with himself, as pitching coach Matt Blake made a second visit in as many innings. This time, the visit did the trick as Cole closed his tough day by leaving two on base.
His final line in his fourth start of the season: 4.0 innings, two runs on five hits and two walks (one HBP) with four strikeouts on 83 pitches (53 strikes).
- Goldschmidt singled in each of his first two times at the plate, the latter gave the Yanks runners at the corners with one down in the third, as it was ripped too hard into right to score Trent Grisham from second. That proved costly as Cody Bellinger’s tapper to first saw the runner gunned down at the plate and Chisholm then popped up to center to strand two.
Goldschmidt finished 2-for-4 with a walk and a strikeout, and made a few nice plays at first.
Bellinger went hitless in over three at-bats, reaching once with a walk.
- The Yankees got another chance with runners on the corners and one out in the fourth after singles by Jones and Ryan McMahon. But again failed to score as J.C. Escarra struck out swinging for the second time in two times up and Grisham’s grounder was gloved by the Guardians' second baseman, Bazzana, deep on the grass.
Grisham finished with one hit in four times up with a strikeout swinging.
Escarra extended his hitless run to 13 at-bats with four strikeouts as he failed to reach base in four chances.
McMahon ended up 2-for-3 with a walk.
- Volpe’s struggles at the plate continued as he went down swinging and went down looking in his first two at-bats and finished 0-for-4. He is now in a 6-for-37 funk with eight strikeouts in his last 10 games.
Volpe, who got the start at shortstop on Tuesday ahead of Jose Caballero, wasn't charged with an error for the ball he couldn't field that led to Cleveland’s two-run third, as he never touched the ball, but it was a play the former Gold Glove winner should have made. The ball wasn't struck particularly hard (96.6 mph exit velocity), but it appeared the flight and bounce fooled him.
- Ben Rice went 0-for-5 with a strikeout.
Game MVP: Yankee pitchers
The Bronx haulers surrendered 10 hits, four walks, and a hit batter, but limited Cleveland to two runs as the Guardians went 2-for-10 with RISP and left 13 on base and tallied nine strikeouts.
Highlights
What's next
New York goes for the sweep in Wednesday's matinee with first pitch set for 1:10 p.m.
Carlos Rodon (2.88 ERA, 1.200 WHIP in 25 innings) gets the ball for the Yanks. The home side will send out their own southpaw in Parker Messick (2.40 ERA, 1.067 WHIP in 75 innings).
