Inside The Pinstripes

Yankees Dominate Guardians to Tie Series

A season-high in runs and another fantastic start by Gerrit Cole resulted in a resounding win for the Yankees.
Joe Najarian|
Yankees Dominate Guardians to Tie Series
Yankees Dominate Guardians to Tie Series

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New York Yankees

The New York Yankees will play their fourth rubber game out of four series, as they blew out the Cleveland Guardians, 11-2.

After the Yankees dropped the opener on Monday, they scored 11 unanswered runs after allowing two in the bottom of the first. A five-run third inning put New York ahead, and they continued to pile on as Gerrit Cole picked up his third win (and third quality start) of the young season.

Cole’s performance was similar to Shane Bieber’s performance on Monday. He allowed two runs in the first inning, but firmly settled in afterwards and wouldn’t allow another. Although Cole only struck out three batters, he allowed just five hits over seven strong innings, needing 97 pitches to get 21 outs.

Franchy Cordero remained hot at the plate by blasting a three-run home run to cap off the five-run third inning. It was Cordero’s third homer on this road trip, and he currently leads the team with 10 RBI.

In five at-bats, Aaron Judge went 2-for-5 with two singles. In the process, he extended his on-base streak to 44 games.

Despite the final score, the Yankees were plagued by mistakes in both halves of the first inning. In the top of the first, the Bronx Bombers had runners on first and second after a leadoff walk by DJ LeMahieu and Judge reaching on a Jose Ramirez fielding error. However, Judge tried to tag up and go to second on a fly out by Anthony Rizzo, and instead was tagged out at second for a double play. Gleyber Torres then struck out to strand LeMahieu on third.

In the bottom of the first, Cole allowed a leadoff single to Steven Kwan, before inducing Andres Gimenez to hit a ground ball to second. However, Torres failed to grab the grounder, allowing Gimenez to reach and Kwan to advance to third (the play was curiously called a single instead of an error on Torres). Ramirez then hit a double off the right field wall to score Kwan, and Josh Naylor drove in Gimenez with a sacrifice fly. Ramirez moved to third on the play, but Cole got out of the inning by striking out Josh Bell and getting Will Brennan to ground out.

It didn’t take long for the Yankees to respond against Guardians starter Hunter Gaddis. Oswaldo Cabrera hit a one-out single, moved to second on a groundout, and scored on Jose Trevino’s RBI single to cut the deficit in half.

In the top of the third inning, the floodgates opened. The Yankees loaded the bases with one out with a LeMahieu double, a Rizzo hit-by-pitch, and a Torres walk. This brought up Willie Calhoun, who was playing in his second game as a Yankee (Calhoun’s first game was the previous night, he hit a double for his first Yankee hit). Calhoun picked up his first Yankee RBI with a single to center field, tying the game at two with the bases still loaded.

The Yankees took the lead for good when Cabrera hit a sacrifice fly, but Cordero blasted the game open with one swing. He lifted a high drive that just cleared the right field wall, making it 6-2 Yankees and capping off the team’s rally.

From that point on, the Yankees were in total control, as they continued to increase their lead throughout the night. In the top of the fourth, Gaddis was knocked out of the game when the Yankees loaded the bases with three straight singles. With Tim Herrin taking over, the Yankees added two more runs on an RBI single by Rizzo and a double-play ball by Torres.

New York scored two more runs in the sixth against Xzavion Curry, who pitched the last four innings for Cleveland. Aaron Hicks led off with a single, moved to second on a single by Judge, and scored on a single by Rizzo. Judge later scored on a wild pitch to make it 10-2 Yankees.

The Yankees scored one last run in the ninth when Rizzo drew a leadoff walk, moved to third on a single by Torres, and scored on a double-play ball by Calhoun.

Meanwhile, the Guardians couldn’t get anything going against Cole after the first. They only got two more hits against the Yankee ace over the next six innings, and Cole concluded his night by getting Meibrys Viloria to ground into a double play. Albert Abreu pitched the final two innings for the Yankees, allowing two hits but no runs, and ended the game by inducing Oscar Gonzalez to ground out to second.

The Yankees will try to take the series on Wednesday before returning home to the Bronx. First pitch is at 1:10 pm ET. 

Follow Joe Najarian on Twitter (@JoeNajarian). Be sure to bookmark Inside The Pinstripes and check back daily for news, analysis and more.

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Joe Najarian
JOE NAJARIAN

Joe Najarian is the Deputy Editor and a writer for the New York Yankees and New York Mets On SI sites. He got his bachelor’s degree in journalism with a specialization in sports from Rutgers University, graduating in 2022. Joe has previously written for Jersey Sporting News and for the New York Giants On SI site. You can follow him on Twitter/X: @JoeNajarian

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