Gerrit Cole Gets Wonder Wheel Win. NY 10 San Diego 7

May 29, 2023 paperbacklou 2023 0

It wasn’t quite a rollercoaster win — more like a Memorial Day Weekend, Coney Island Wonder Wheel win.

It was billed as a pitchers’ duel between Gerrit Cole and Yu Darvish. But by the 3rd inning it was 8-3 Yankees — NY having pummeled Darvish in the 3rd with a barrage of doubles and singles.

NY held the comfortable 8-3 lead until the 7th, when Cole surrendered a 2-run Homer and the Yankee bullpen allowed another of his baserunners to score to make it 8-6, and then in the 8th with a runner on, a possible game-tying shot to right by Xander Bogaerts was flagged down by Aaron Judge 2 feet from the wall. PHEW.

The Yanks added insurance runs in the 8th to take a 10-6 lead — but Clay Holmes gave everyone mild agita in the 9th — walking the first 2 batters and allowing a run before getting the final out — poetically Fernando Tatis Jr.on a groundout with a runner on.

Not quite rollercoaster. Wonder Wheel.

“Just a string of really good at bats,” said manager Aaron Boone about the Yankee 7-run inning in the 3rd. “For them in that inning to string together the at bats they had. Just a great job by everyone. Obviously a big inning, and that kind of fueled us today.”

“Let up too many runs today,” said Cole afterwards. “Three or 4 mistakes on the outing. A couple of pitch locations, specifically. And a couple of at bats that got away from me specifically — Carpenter and Cam earlier in the game. So there’s some room for improvement.”

NY takes 2 of 3 in the series and improves to 32-23, 7 games behind Tampa. San Diego falls to 23-29.

1. Cole Gets the Win

Gerrit Cole has not been as sharp in his last few outings as he was early in the season when he was throwing down a 1.xx ERA. He wasn’t giving up any homers at that time, and now has started to allow a few.

He pitched well but got hurt by the long ball and some shoddy Yankee defense in this game.

  • In the 1st, Cole allowed a HR to Jake Cronenworth to right center for a 1-0 Padre lead.
  • In the 2nd, he was victim of shoddy Yankee defense — with 2 outs, and a runner on 2nd due to a walk — Jose Azocar singled up the middle — Harrison Bader overthrew home and the run scored — Kyle Higashioka got the ball and rifled it down 3rd — and threw wild past the 3rd baseman and into left field and the 2nd run scored.

  • Staked to an 8-3 lead by the Yankee offense, Cole cruised through the middle of the game — pitching shutout ball in the 3rd through 6th innings. But in the 7th, he walked old friend Matt Carpenter leading off, and old friend Rougned Odor hit a 2-run homer to right and it was a ballgame again, 8-5.
  • Cole allowed a single to the next batter and was gone — that runner came around to score off Jimmy Cordero (see below).

Cole ended up being charged with 5 runs on 4 hits in 6 innings — increasing his ERA to 2.93. His slash is now 6-0 2.93.

2. Judge HR

Aaron Judge tied the game 1-1 with his 15th homer of the season in the bottom of the 1st — he leads the American League in Homers despite having missed almost 2 weeks with the hip injury.

3. Yanks Pummel Darvish in 3rd

Down 3-1, the Yanks pummeled Yu Darvish in the 3rd.

  • Kyle Higashioka led off with a double.
  • Anthony Volpe singled him home. SD 3 NY 2.

  • Anthony Rizzo singled in a run. NY 4 SD 3.
    • DJ LeMahieu hit a bomb to right center that Padre centerfielder Trent Grisham leaped over the wall to catch — robbing LeMahieu of a HR but moving Judge to 3rd.

  • Harrison Bader then grounded out for a run. NY 5 SD 3.
  • Willie Calhoun doubled in a run. NY 6 SD 3 and Darvish was finally gone.

“Guys are focused,” said Aaron Judge afterwards about the Yankee hitting attack. “It was a matter of command (Darvish’s lack of). We got into good counts and when you get into good counts with the hitters that we got we’re going to do some damage.”

4. Cordero Gets Out of 7th

The Yanks cruised thru the middle innings with the 8-3 lead until Cole allowed the 2-run HR to Odor in the 7th, and then allowed a single and was gone.

Jimmy Cordero came in and allowed an immediate double then a groundout for a run. But Cordero reared back and struck out Sullivan and Fernando Tatis Jr.to end the inning.

5. Marinaccio Survives Scare in 8th

In the 8th, Ron Marinaccio came in and hit Cronenwoth with a pitch leading off the inning — then allowed the big fly to Xander Bogaerts that Judge tracked down a foot from the right-field wall. The fly had possible tie game written all over it until the Judge catch. Phew.

 

With the tying run still at the plate, Marinaccio got the dangerous Matt Carpenter to ground out and Odor to strike out swinging. Phew.

6. Bader HR & Yank Insurance Runs

Harrison Bader made all of Yankee Stadium and Yankee fans around the world feel a little bit easier when he hit a homer to left center off Brent Honeywell with 1 out in the 8th. NY 9 SD 6 — an important insurance run.

Willie Calhoun followed with a single and came around to score on a 2-out RBI single by Kyle Higashioka for the 10-6 NY lead.

7. Holmes Mild Agita in 9th

Clay Holmes walked the first 2 batters of the 9th — giving NY fans mild agita — but then got groundout, sac fly, and groundout by Fernando Tatis Jr.for the old ballgame.

Etcetera

  • Kyle Higashioka got 3 hits on the day to raise his average to .203.
  • Aaron Judge went 2-4 to raise his average to .293.
  • Anthony Rizzo’s head collided with the hip of Tatis Jr as Tatis was jumping back to the bag while getting picked off in the 6th. Rizzo left the game for xrays on his sore neck. Reports were that Rizzo was fine.

The Boxscore

https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore/_/gameId/401471814

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