Gerrit Cole came off the hamstring scare and pitched 5 solid innings, and the Yankees Big 4 of Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, Joey Gallo, and Luke Voit all hit homers to lead NY to the easy 7-2 victory in Baltimore.
To make the win even sweeter, both Toronto and Boston lost — and so the Yankees reclaimed the #1 Wild Card spot — in a virtual tie with those two but leading by percentage points.
1. Cole Teases 1st Inning Scare
Gerrit Cole had to be pulled from his previous start in the 3rd inning due to a tight hamstring — sending a scare through Yankee universe. But here he was again, not missing a start. All of Yankee Twitter eyes were on him though — and when he allowed a leadoff double in the 1st inning to Cedric Mullins, then walked two to load the bases with 2 outs — Yankee Universe was in a twitter.
But he struck out Ramon Urias to end the threat and then marched through a 1-2-3 2nd and 3rd inning, had an easy 4th (allowing a hit), and a run in the 5th on a Ryan Mountcastle RBI double (could happen to anyone; Mountcastle is good).
Cole left with a 5-1 lead after 5 innings.
2. Yankees “Big Four” All Homer
Meanwhile the Yankees gave Cole plenty of runs — the Yankees Big Four all homered — like Ford, GM, Chrysler, and AMC.
NY gave Cole a 2-0 lead in the top of the 1st when DJ LeMahieu led off the game with a single and Aaron Judge hit a 400-foot homer to right field — yet another opposite-field homerun for Judge — he hits like Jeter except with a lot more power.
The Honorable Judge 👨⚖️ pic.twitter.com/huTtHnkv78
— New York Yankees (@Yankees) September 14, 2021
In the top of the 3rd, Giancarlo Stanton hit a 2-run opposite-field homer to right as well.
Nuthin' but a 'G' Thang. pic.twitter.com/PFpr5hwuGz
— New York Yankees (@Yankees) September 14, 2021
Luke Voit — who led the American League in homeruns last year — followed Stanton with a homer to left to make it 5-0.
Luke goes back-to-back 💪 pic.twitter.com/GQ6J2Abu1N
— New York Yankees (@Yankees) September 15, 2021
And not to be forgotten about like AMC, Joey Gallo hit a homer to right in the 7th to make it 6-1.
It's perfect. pic.twitter.com/y6kQWhL8Q9
— New York Yankees (@Yankees) September 15, 2021
And DJ LeMahieu added to the homer barrage with a homer in the top of the 9th to make it 9-1. Like Desoto.
DJ joins the party 🎉 pic.twitter.com/vLxr7yKRdx
— New York Yankees (@Yankees) September 15, 2021
3. King Gives Bullpen a Boost
Michael King was back from injury which kept him out 2 months and pitched great — 3 shutout innings, allowing no hits. King has pitched well for the Yanks this year; him coming back is such a boost to the staff. The 3 shutout innings lowered his ERA to 3.48. His record is a bad-luck 0-4 (as a starter).
Sal Romano pitched the 9th and ran into trouble — a strikeout, single, walk, and line-drive single off Romano’s fingers as he tried to snare the ball — and he was gone from the game after the trainer came out. In came Aroldis Chapman to get the final outs — striking out Cedric Mullins and Ryan Mountcastle for the old ballgame.
The Boxscore
https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore/_/gameId/401229221
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