Nestor Cortes Jr. and the Yankee bullpen shutout the Blue Jays, 4-0, at Yankee Stadium on a beautiful 65-degree Tuesday night. Aaron Hicks provided the initial offense — a 2-run homer batting right-handed, to the opposite field in left that Just made it over the fence.
1. Cortes Brilliant
Cortes pitched brilliantly into the 5th inning, then was lifted with 1 out and a 3-0 lead after a Matt Chapman double.
Filthy from the start. pic.twitter.com/68L2oCMHQr
— New York Yankees (@Yankees) April 13, 2022
Clay Holmes came in and struck out the next 2 batters to end the inning.
Afterwards, manager Aaron Boone said he lifted Cortes 2 outs away from a ‘win’ because he was missing “up” — a sign he was getting tired in his first start of the year. Cortes was at 72 pitches after allowing the double to Chapman.
2. Hicks to the Sticks
The Hicks homer looked like a sac fly at first — which would have scored DJ LeMahieu who had doubled and was at 3rd — but just made it over the wall for a homer.
Hicks Talk. pic.twitter.com/NfP2fnb37k
— New York Yankees (@Yankees) April 12, 2022
According to “Would it Be Dong?”, Hicks’ homer would not have been a homer in any stadium except Yankee Stadium.
Aaron Judge vs Yusei Kikuchi#RepBX
Flyout 💢
Exit velo: 95.7 mph
Launch angle: 29 deg
Proj. distance: 363 ftThis would have been a home run in 10/30 MLB ballparks
TOR (0) @ NYY (0)
🔻 1st pic.twitter.com/wbkuFchnY4— Would it dong? (@would_it_dong) April 12, 2022
Judge had just missed a homer in the 1st — caught at the wall in left, which according to “Would it Be Dong?” would have been a homer in 10 of the 30 MLB ballparks.
LeMahieu scored again in the 4th — singling, moving to 2nd on a single by Gleyber Torres, and scoring on a throwing error by Toronto’s catcher Tyler Heineman when he ‘uncorked one’ down the 1st base line trying to pick off the runner Torres.
3. Insurance Run
The Yanks added an insurance run in the 8th when Josh Donaldson walked, Aaron Judge RIPPED a WHISTLER past Matt Chapman down 3rd for a double, and Giancarlo Stanton RIPPED a line drive to left for a sac fly. According to Katie Sharp, the 116.2 MPH exit velocity of the sac fly was “the highest exit velocity for any sacrifice fly in the Statcast Era (since 2015).”
Added 1 in the 8th 👏 pic.twitter.com/kD2GaYfrDD
— New York Yankees (@Yankees) April 13, 2022
4. Bullpen Beautiful
After Holmes, Miguel Castro — the big 6’7 righthander acquired from the Mets before the season started — pitched a shutout 6th, Jonathan Loaisiga a shutout 8th, and Aaroldis Chapman a shutout 9th — striking out the first two and getting a terrific play by DJ LeMahieu down 1st to end it.
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