NEW YORK — On Old-Timers’ Day, with franchise legends watching from the seats, the Yankees kids provided the jolt an aging offense had been missing for six weeks.
Two Yankees rookies turned a tight duel between aces into a showcase of speed, patience and nerve. They challenged calls, took extra bases, forced mistakes and ran when no one expected it. The result was the kind of aggressive baseball the Yankees have rarely played this season.
It also salvaged a milestone that might otherwise have been lost in a defeat. Gerrit Cole reached a career mark few Yankees ever have, and the young hitters made sure it came in a win.
The Yankees ride the young bats to a 5-4 win
The Yankees beat the Braves 5-4 to take two of three from one of the National League’s best teams. The win moved the Yankees to 66-51 and pushed them 1 1/2 games clear of the Boston Red Sox for the top wild-card spot in the American League.
Cole was the story on the mound, but the game turned on the legs and eyes of George Lombard Jr. and Spencer Jones. The two rookies combined to go 4-for-6 with two walks, a home run, a triple, three runs scored and three RBIs. The rest of the lineup managed just 4-for-24.
The Yankees struck first in the second. Trent Grisham doubled, and Jones drove him home with a two-out single against Chris Sale, snapping an 0-for-19 slide in the process. Sale settled in from there, retiring the next seven hitters.
Atlanta answered in the fifth. Mauricio Dubon led off with a soft fly that carried over the head of a shallow-playing Heliot Ramos in left for a double. Mike Yastrzemski doubled home a run, and Jim Jarvis added an RBI single to put the Braves ahead 2-1.
A wild fifth inning flips the game for the Yankees
The bottom of the fifth was where the Yankees’ new personality showed. Lombard led off and appeared to strike out on back-to-back pitches. He challenged both calls through the automated ball-strike system, won each one, and turned a strikeout into a walk.
Jones followed by driving a Sale pitch into the right-center gap for his first career triple, scoring Lombard from first to tie the game. Moments later, Jones came home with the go-ahead run when Sale was called for a balk by plate umpire Dan Merzel. Atlanta manager Walt Weiss argued and was ejected.
The aggression did not stop there. The Yankees stole three bases on the day, from Jose Caballero, Austin Wells and Jones, and pushed for extra bases at every turn. It was the sort of high-energy inning the lineup had lacked for weeks.
Lombard added an insurance run in the seventh, turning on a Victor Mederos pitch and lifting an opposite-field homer just over the right-field wall for a 4-2 lead. It was his second big league home run, and it came against the franchise his father once played for.
Boone and Jones savor the rookies’ breakout
Jones was asked afterward about shining on a day when the Yankees honored their history. He kept the focus on the players who came before him.
“I didn’t think about that,” Jones said. “That’s pretty sweet. I think those guys lay the foundation of what this organization is.”
Manager Aaron Boone has watched Jones grow into regular at-bats during the Yankees’ injury crunch. He praised the rookie’s steady progress against elite pitching.
“Excellent, really excellent,” Boone said of Jones. “He’s shown here over the last 10 days, I feel like he’s gaining experience and you can see it up there, you can see some adjustments he makes.”
Boone was just as pleased with Lombard, the 21-year-old top prospect who reached base in each of his first four games. The manager said the club never doubted the youngster was ready.
“We were confident that he’s ready for this,” Boone said of Lombard. “He’s certainly shown that here through his first four games.”
Cole reaches a Yankees milestone in record time
The pitching line belonged to Cole. He allowed two runs on six hits over seven innings, struck out nine and did not walk a batter on 82 pitches. After the shaky fifth, he retired his final nine hitters, four by strikeout, in his third straight win.
The signature moment came when Cole fanned Matt Olson to end the fifth for his 1,000th career strikeout as a Yankee. He reached the mark in just his 139th game with the club, the fastest any pitcher has done it in franchise history. By innings, he got there in 837 2/3, per figures cited during the broadcast.
Cole, 35, has been a revelation since returning in late May from the Tommy John surgery that wiped out his 2025 season. The 2023 American League Cy Young winner improved to 6-5 with a 3.35 ERA, and over his last three starts he has allowed just one run in 18 2/3 innings with 21 strikeouts. The performance capped a stretch in which Yankees starters posted a 1.67 ERA over 11 games.
Sale, the 2024 NL Cy Young winner, took the loss in a duel of aces. Pitching on nine days’ rest, he gave up three runs in six innings with eight strikeouts and fell to 0-3 in three career matchups against Cole.
What the Yankees found just in time
The late innings stayed tense. Ronald Acuna Jr. homered off Brent Headrick in the eighth to make it 4-3 before Ben Rice answered with his team-leading 32nd home run, a solo shot that ended an 11-game power drought. David Bednar allowed a run in the ninth but held on for his 26th save.
Both insurance homers proved essential in a game the Yankees have grown used to, with 18 of their past 24 decided by one or two runs. What was new was the way they manufactured offense, a team that has topped five runs just four times in its past 45 games suddenly finding other ways to score.
For a lineup that has looked slow and one-dimensional, the youth movement offered a glimpse of something faster and more dangerous. Lombard is hitting .385 through four games. Jones handled one of baseball’s toughest left-handers. The Yankees suddenly look more athletic than the version that carried them into August.
The Yankees go for the sweep Sunday, when Cam Schlittler faces Atlanta’s Grant Holmes. Cole supplied the milestone. The Baby Bombers made sure it landed in a win, and gave the Yankees a reason to think their offense may have finally found another gear.
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