Bronx Bombers BOMB Mariners. NY 7 Seattle 3

May 23, 2024 paperbacklou 2024 0

Aaron Judge hit a homer, Juan Soto hit 2 homers, and Alex Verdugo hit a homer as the Bronx Bombers played up to their knickname in beating Seattle 7-3 on a warm Wednesday night at the Stadium under a waxing moon.

All the Yankee runs came on those homers, and all 3 Seattle runs came on a homer by catcher Cal Raleigh in the 8th. Raleigh’s HR cut a Yankee 5-0 lead at the time to 5-3 before Verdugo’s 2-run homer in the bottom of the 8th put the game away.

Nestor Cortes pitched 5 shutout innings for the win — escaping like a cat out of a couple of jams but overall having a solid start. Tommy Kahnle made his first appearance of the season — a shutout 6th. Michael Tonkin and Luke Weaver finished up.

“First of all, he had really good stuff tonite,” said manager Aaron Boone about Cortes. “He had a little extra power. The fastball was ‘fuzzy’ tonite, and the cutter — everything was up-ticked. So he had a lot of power to him tonite; but also led to some misses and a lot of long at bats. But his stuff was really good so he was getting a lot of swing and miss too. I thought he did a good job with the secondary slowing him down, and actually got him some early contact there in the 4th and 5th where he got some sweepers in there where they put it in play, and that really served him well to allow him to get through 5. Just a solid — got us off on the right footing; no runs obviously; set the tone for us tonite.”

NY improves to 34-17, and are now in 1st by 3 games over Baltimore, as the Orioles lost twice, losing their regularly scheduled game and a game that was finished up from the night before. Seattle drops to 27-23.

1. Judge 2-Run Bomb in 1st

Seattle started Bryce Miller, a 6’2 right-hander who came in with a 3-4 3.08 record. Anthony Volpe led off the bottom of the 1st with an infield single back to the pitcher, and after Juan Soto grounded out, Aaron Judge hit a 374-foot homer to opposite field right for a 2-0 Yankee lead.

2. Soto 2-Run Bomb in 3rd

It was the almost the same formula for the Yanks in the 3rd, but this time Juan Soto did the damage with a homerun to left after an Anthony Volpe 1-out single — and NY was up 4-0.

3. Cortes Like a Cat

Meanwhile Nestor Cortes was pitching well, but getting in and out of some jams like a Cat.

  • He walked the leadoff batter of the game in a 7-pitch at bat, but then got the next 3 batters in a row in the 1st, two on strikeouts.
  • He allowed a leadoff double to Dylan Moore in the 2nd, then issued a walk to Ty France to put 1st and 2nd nobody out. But then Cortes struck out Jorge Polanco and got a strike-em-out-throw-em-out double play, as he struck out Mitch Haniger and Austin Wells gunned down France at 2nd.

  • He allowed 2 singles in between 2 strikeouts in the 4th, and then got a groundout to end the inning.
  • He allowed a 1-out walk in the 4th, but got a double play to end the inning.
  • He finished strong, getting 3 straight groundouts for a 1-2-3 inning in the 5th and left at 99 pitches.

His line: 5 innings, 3 hits, 6 K’s, 3 walks — shutout ball. He left with a 4-0 lead and gets the win to go 3-4 3.29.

4. Tommy Tightpants a Shutout 6th

Tommy “Tightpants” Kahnle came in and pitched a 1-2-3  in the 6th — lineout, ground out, fly out. It was his first appearance of the season. And good to see him.

5. Soto Solo Bomb in 6th

Juan Soto led off the 6th with another homer — also off Miller who pitched 6 full innings — to make it 5-0 NY.

6. Bay of Tonkin

Somehow, Michael Tonkin has become a core of the Yankee bullpen — after pitching for 4 teams in April before joining the Yankees. He pitched the 7th and got out of a bit of a jam — leadoff single, strikeout, groundout, and then another single put 1st and 2nd, 2 outs — but Tonkin got a groundout to end the threat.

Tonkin came back out for the 8th — and after issuing 2 walks sandwiching a strikeout, was lifted for Luke Weaver.

Weaver went 0-2 on Cal Raleigh but Raleigh hit the 3rd pitch — a 91-MPH changeup — 361 feet to right for a 3-run homer and a 5-3 game.

Weaver bounced back and struck out the next two batters — Moore and Ty France — to end the 8th.

7. Verdugo 2-Run Bomb in 8th

Thoughts that the Yanks would blow another lead like they did Monday night against Seattle were erased when Aaron Judge walked against Austin Voth to lead off the 8th and Alex Verdugo hit a 420-foot, 2-run bomb to right center for a 7-3 Yankee lead.

8. Weaver Finishes

Luke Weaver came back out for the 9th — and got ground out, strike out, ground out for the old ballgame.

The Boxscore

https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore/_/gameId/401569217

 

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