On a night when Nestor Cortes had none, the offense and bullpen chose their starter.
A summer rivalry game between two of the American League’s best teams promised to be exciting at all times, and the first two games of the series certainly provided fireworks. Last night it was the long ball and senior assists that pulled it off; tonight it was the little ball and less heralded bullpen guns that propelled the Yankees to a 12-5 win.
The Yankees jumped on rookie starter Connor Seabold in the first inning. There seemed to be an extra level of focus up and down the Yankees’ lineup to avoid offering out-of-zone pitches, forcing the inexperienced right-hander to approach them with underwhelming stuff. DJ LeMahieu started with a single and turned around to score on the Gleyber Torres single. Josh Donaldson hit the big throw in the first: a towering three-run shot over the monster, his third homer in as many games.
It’s good that the Yankees hitters saw Nestor Cortes lead 4-0 in the first inning because he was far from his best on Friday night. He returned two of those runs at the end of the first, resulting in Rob Refsnyder and J.D.Martinez achieved a singles before Christian Vazquez brought the pair in with a two-out double.
The Yankees got one of those runs back in the second on another LeMahieu single before Matt Carpenter drove him home with a monster double.
In the third, things got really weird. Aaron Hicks led by a step, followed by a brace from Jose Trevino to put the men in second and third with no outs. Joey Gallo lobbed one to the right in what looked like the third casualty flight of his career. However, Christian Arroyo never saw the ball, which landed a good 25 yards behind the Boston right fielder. Hicks and Treviño scored easily and Gallo was thrown out at the plate trying to stretch an inside parker. Still, the two-run treble extended the Yankees’ lead to 7-2.
Carpenter continued his Bondsian revenge spree, hitting his ninth home run of the season to lead fourth. That’s now 9 of his first 16 hits in pinstripes to leave court. Just crazy!
It didn’t get any nicer for Cortes at the bottom end of the frame. Trevor Story started with a home run, and two batters later, Bobby Dalbec added his own solo shot to make it 9-4, Yankees. After giving up another double and walk, manager Aaron Boone had seen enough and knocked out Cortes for Miguel Castro. The right-hander loaded the bases and hit Xander Bogaerts but left all three ducks in the pond with a crucial strikeout from Vazquez in a wicked 3-2 slider.
This wasn’t the start the Yankees expected from Cortes, especially after seeing him put up nine runs in the first four innings. Seven of the eight hits were against four-seam pitchers that weren’t fast enough to hit inside righties or off-speed pitches that missed the heart of the record.
Well, that’s also nine home runs Cortes conceded in his last 28.2 innings after giving up just 4 in his first 60 frames. He’s already surpassed his career high for starts and is one start away from a career high for innings. His next few starts should tell us how much he’s factoring into his losing streak. Cortés’ record: 3.2 innings, eight hits, four runs, two walks and four strikeouts on 73 pitches.
Albert Abreu made it interesting in race six by allowing three singles and one run before being eliminated by Lucas Luetge. The left-hander led Alex Verdugo to load the bases and put the tie-run on the plate, but he prompted a story pop-up to strand all three and keep the score at 9-5. He would also strike out the winger in the seventh and retire the eighth in 10 pitches.
The Yankees added safe runs in each of the seventh, eighth and ninth innings. The first came with a safety bunt from Marwin Gonzalez to propel Hicks onto the plate, who led by a single. In the eighth round, Carpenter hit the right for his third of the game before Torres doubled to give the second baseman his own three-hit night.
In the ninth round, the Red Sox turned to Jackie Bradley Jr.pitching, and he went on a run to increase the Yankees’ lead to 12-5. That’s where the score would stay.
Luetge earned a chance to finish this game and he made it flawless by completing an extremely valuable 3 1/3 inning save on a night when the starter went early. The 12-5 win marks the Yankees‘ league-leading 14th game in double figures after tackling just six such attempts all of last season. With the Rays’ loss, the Yankees are now 15.5 games ahead in the AL East and 16 games ahead of the Red Sox (Toronto is tied with Boston and still playing).
New York will look to guarantee at least one series win tomorrow with Jordan Montgomery on the hill. The first pitch is scheduled for 7:15 p.m. m. ET, so be sure to join us in the game thread.
What do you think, leave a comment below.
