Gerrit Cole pitched like an ace for his 2nd consecutive start, hurling 6 shutout innings to lead the Yanks to a 3-0 win over KC. The Yankee bullpen of Miguel Castro, Clay Holmes, and Aroldis Chapman finished the shutout. It was the Yankees’ 8th straight win, improving their record to 15-6, the best in baseball.
1. Cole “Aces” the Start
Cole was dominant for the 2nd straight start — having pitched shutout ball into the 7th last weekend against Cleveland. He pitched poorly his first 3 starts of the year, and after the bad playoff game against Boston, and inconsistent 2nd half of last year after the sticky stuff ban — Yankee Twitter thought Cole’s days as ace were over.
Cole did lead the AL in wins last year, and finish 2nd in Cy Young voting with a 16-8 3.23 — although before the ban he had an ERA of 2.31. The playoff game has been attributed to him coming back too soon from a hamstring pull.
But this performance allayed fears and put Cole back atop the staff as an ace if not ‘the’ ace — Luis Severino and Nestor Cortes Jr challenging for that title.
In this game Cole cruised through 5 innings, then got out of trouble in the 6th. With 1 out, and a 3-0 lead, Cole allowed a single to Carlos Santana and a double to Hunter Dozier. But with 2nd and 3rd, 1 out, he struck out Bobby Witt Jr and Kyle Isbel, both looking — finishing strong.
“I got out of a self-inflicted jam there,” said Cole afterwards. “But Josh told me, ‘you’re just one pitch away’.”
Cole Zone. @GerritCole45 👏 pic.twitter.com/kp38iI2RHD
— New York Yankees (@Yankees) May 1, 2022
2. Yankee Runs
The Yankees scraped across 3 runs — one on a double play, and the other two on sac flies.
The 1st run came after the Yanks loaded the bases with nobody out in the 2nd against Royals starter Carlos Hernandez — with a single by Gleyber Torres, walk by Aaron Hicks, and single by Joey Gallo. Isiah Kiner-Falefa hit into a double play to score the run and give NY a 1-0 lead.
In the 3rd, the Yankees loaded the bases with 1 out with a walk to Josh Donaldson, walk to Anthony Rizzo, and single by Giancarlo Stanton. A sac fly by Gleyber Torres brought home run #2 — and it was 2-0 NY.
The Yanks tacked on their 3rd run in the 4th — a leadoff walk to Hicks, an infield single by Joey Gallo, and a sac fly by Gleyber Torres — for a 3-0 NY lead.
Izzy gets the job done ✅ pic.twitter.com/6WxZnYt6fa
— New York Yankees (@Yankees) May 1, 2022
Etcetera
Aaron Judge got a day off for ‘rest’ even though he is Red Hot. Something that Aaron Boone does.
Joey Gallo went 2-2 but had to leave the game with a slightly pulled hamstring.
The Boxscore
https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore/_/gameId/401354560
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