Gerrit Cole Dominates; Judge Homers. NY 4 Baltimore 1

July 13, 2024 paperbacklou 2024 0

Gerrit Cole pitched 6 innings of 5-hit, 1 run ball in the high humidity, Aaron Judge hit a homer and was walked 4 times, and the bullpen held them as NY beat Baltimore 4-1 on a Friday night at Camden Yards.

It was a super important mid-season game between the 2 rivals — the Yanks pulling to within a game of Baltimore for 1st place with the win.

Jose Trevino didn’t make the headlines but had a big double to drive in the 1st run, and a big double to be in position to score the last, insurance run of the game.

There was a bench-clearing tet-e-tet at the end of the game after Clay Holmes hit Baltimore’s rookie Heston Kjerstad in the head with 1 out in the 9th.

“It was one of those things where, the conditions weren’t great; I was trying to throw a front-door sinker there, and it just cut,” said Clay Holmes afterwards. “The movement wasn’t my normal sinker; just kind of pulled it and it cut, and it ran up and in on him. Definitely wasn’t trying to do anything or hit him. The rain just came; dirt cakes on your shoes; it’s humid — it’s just baseball sometimes the conditions are tough.”

NY improves to 57-39, and are 1 game back Baltimore, who are now 57-37.

1. Cole Tremendous for NY

Gerrit Cole was pitching his second game in heat and HIGH HUMIDITY — this game was questionable from the start as heavy rain was expected. But the rain held up although it was rain-forest muggy, oppressive-humidity conditions as Cole started navigating the tough Baltimore lineup. Cole was so-so at first but then started getting better as the night went along — until he was absolutely motoring by the 3rd through 6th.

  • In the 1st he allowed a leadoff single to Gunnar Henderson and walk to Adley Rutschman, but then got pop out (of Anthony Santander), fly out (of Ryan O’Hearn), and pop out (of Jordan Westburg) to end the threat.
  • Staked to a 2-0 lead by the bottom of the 2nd, Cole allowed a leadoff single to Heston Kjerstad, got 2 outs, but then allowed an RBI triple to Ramon Urias for a 2-1 game.
  • Staked to a 3-1 lead by a Judge homer in the 3rd, Cole pitched a 1-2-3 inning in the 3rd and 4th.

  • In the 5th, Cole allowed a leadoff single to Cedric Mullins, who went to 2nd on a throwing error by Anthony Volpe — but then got help from Gleyber Torres — who made a tremendous play at 2nd for the 1st out of the inning.

  • Cole then struck out Gunnar Henderson looking, and got Adley Rutschman to foul out to end the 5th.
  • Cole allowed a leadoff single in the 6th to Santander, but then motored through the next 3 batters (fly out, strikeout, ground out) for 6 tremendous innings in the high humidity, leaving at 106 pitches with a 3-1 lead.

2. Yanks Jump on Top with 2 in 2nd

Meanwhile the Yankee offense gave Cole support. NY went to work right away against Baltimore starter Cade Povich in the top of the 1st — a 1-out Juan Soto single, Aaron Judge walk, and 2-out Gleyber Torres walk loaded the bases. But NY left bases loaded as Alex Verdugo grounded out.

NY was right back at it in the top of the 2nd — Anthony Volpe with a leadoff single, and Jose Trevino with a double to left for a 1-0 NY lead.

Jahmai Jones followed with a single scoring Trevino and it was 2-0 NY.

3. Judge HR Makes It 3-1 in 3rd

After Cole allowed a run in the bottom of the 2nd, Aaron Judge immediately answered in the top of the 3rd with a leadoff homerun — 397 feet to left center. After the homer, Judge would be walked every time up — he finished the game 1-1 with the homer and 4 walks.

4. Kahnle & Weaver Shut ‘Em Down

Tommy Kahnle came in for the 7th to hold a 3-1 lead and was sketchy — allowing a leadoff single to Ryan Mountcastle, then getting Cedric Mullins to line out to left which made Yankee fans nervous as he was getting hit.

Kahnle then got Ramon Urias to ground the ball back to him and ‘just’ got him at 1st, and then Gunnar Henderson ripped a line out to right for the final out — PHEW.

Luke Weaver came in for the 8th to hold the 3-1 lead against the heart of the Oriole lineup — Rutschman, O’Hearn, and Santander — and it was a different story: Weaver was lights out as usual — easy fly out, ground out, ground out — inning over on 6 pitches.

5. Trevino-Soto Insurance Run

Talk on Yankee Twitter focused on having Weaver come out for the 9th, not Clay Holmes. But as this talk was going on — Jose Trevino led off the top of the 9th with a double off Bryan Baker. Baker struck out Jahmai Jones and got DJ LeMahieu to pop out and was relieved by lefty Cionel Perez to face lefty Juan Soto.

Soto got a CLUTCH single to right, scoring Trevino for a 4-1 Yankee lead. “That insurance run was brought to you by NJM” said Suzyn Waldman on the broadcast. “Insurance you can count on; NJM.com”

6. Holmes for the Save

And as the bottom of the 9th began, the rain started falling on the warm, overcast, HUMID night — and people at Camden Yards started heading for shelter (or home) — the Yanks leading 4-1. Trevino, who looked like he might have pulled something sliding home in the top of the 9th, was replaced behind the plate by Austin Wells.

And in came Clay Holmes, as Yankee fans crossed their fingers.

Holmes struck out Jake Westburg swinging to start the inning, then went 0-2 on rookie Heston Kjerstad before hitting him in the head with a pitch. Kjerstad went down and lied on his belly for a minute, then popped up and went to 1st. But words started escalating between dugouts and the benches emptied for a tet-a-tet.

The two teams had a beanball fight the last time they played in NY, with Gunnar Henderson and Judge getting hit — and this seemed a continuation.

When order was restored, Holmes got Mountcastle to ground out to shortstop, and Mullins to pop out to Austin Wells in foul territory for the old ballgame.

The Boxscore

https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore/_/gameId/401569888

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