New York Yankees 4, Cleveland Guardians 2
NEW YORK — Willie Calhoun’s first home run broke a tie in the seventh inning, helping the New York Yankees beat the Cleveland Guardians 4–2 on Tuesday night and end a four-game losing streak.
After a rough start, Gerrit Cole got things under control, and rookie Anthony Volpe’s home run in the sixth started New York’s comeback from a two-run hole.
After that, Gleyber Torres hit a double that got the impressive youngster Tanner Bibee out of the game. The single by Anthony Rizzo off of James Karinchak tied the game.
Before the sixth inning, New York hadn’t had more than one extra-base hit in 50 innings.
In the seventh inning, with one out, Calhoun hit a 0-2 fastball from Karinchak (0-4) to right field for his first home run in the major leagues since April 11 of last year, when he was with Texas.
Volpe hit a single in the eighth inning and stole two bases before scoring on DJ LeMahieu‘s RBI single with two outs. This made him 9 for 21 with runners in scoring position.
Calhoun started at DH instead of Giancarlo Stanton, who was out with an injury. Stanton was one of several regulars who were out for the Yankees, who started the day in last place in the AL East. New York had lost seven of its last nine games, and during those seven losses, it had scored only 10 runs.
Before the game, center fielder Harrison Bader came off the injury list. He went 1 for 4 and made a diving catch in his first game of the season.
Volpe also did a good job at shortstop in the top of the eighth when Wandy Peralta missed a throw to second.
Peralta (2-0) got two outs, and Michael King went 1 2/3 innings without a hit and struck out three batters for his second save.
Cole went six innings and struck out eight batters. He hasn’t lost any of his seven starts this season and has a 1.35 ERA. He got out of trouble in the first and second innings, but in the third, Josh Naylor hit a double that scored a run, and Andrés Giménez hit a ground ball that scored a run.
The right-handed pitcher threw 69 pitches in the first three innings, but only 39 in the next three.
Bibee took a two-hit shutout into the sixth inning and hasn’t walked a hitter in either of his first two big league starts. In 5 1/3 innings, he got five strikeouts and was responsible for two runs on four hits.
UP NEXT
In the last game of the series on Wednesday night, Guardians ace Shane Bieber (2-1, 3.11 ERA) will meet struggling right-hander Clarke Schmidt (0-3, 6.84).
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