What a 9th Inning Comeback! Juan Soto HR’s Win It! NY 7 SF 5

June 3, 2024 paperbacklou 2024 0

The Yankees scored 4 runs in the top of the 9th highlighted by dramatic a 2-run Homer by Juan Soto that turned a 5-4 deficit into a 6-5 Yankee lead — to come from behind and beat the Giants, 7-5 in San Francisco on a Sunday afternoon.

Giancarlo Stanton doubled in an insurance run, and Clay Holmes got the save. Anthony Volpe drove in the 1st run of the inning with a triple. All the runs came against the Giants’ ace reliever, Camilo Doval.

It was Soto’s 2nd homer of the day — he hit a solo Bomb in the 1st and in between, bunted for a single in the 5th and scored on an Alex Verdugo double that tied the game at that time, 3-3.

The 4-run 9th made a winner out of Michael Tonkin. Both starting pitchers — Nestor Cortes and Blake Snell — struggled and were removed after 4.2 innings; Snell because of a groin injury; Cortes because of 7 hits.

“I mean, that’s some savage at bats right there,” said manager Aaron Boone on Soto’s homers.

NY sweeps the 3-game series before another packed house at Oracle Park of over 48,000 fans. The Yanks improve to 42-19, and are now 3 games ahead of Baltimore. The Giants fall to 29-31.

1. Soto BOMB in 1st Starts the Scoring

Amazingly — as hot as Aaron Judge is — and he went 2-3 with 2 walks on the day — Juan Soto stole the spotlight on this afternoon. After all those years of waiting for Judge and Stanton to dominate at the same time — the Yanks now have it with Judge and Soto, with Stanton as the supporting 3rd man.

Soto hit a 96-MPH four-seam fastball from Blake Snell 430 feet to right center for a 1-0 Yankee lead in the top of the 1st.

2. Cortes Not at His Best

Nestor Cortes started out well, pitching a 1-2-3 inning in the 1st — but started getting peppered in the 2nd — a 1-out double by DH Jorge Soler and 2-out single by shortstop Casey Schmitt tied the game 1-1.

Cortes allowed a homer to leftfielder Heliot Ramos leading off the 3rd to give the Giants a 2-1 lead, and allowed a solo homer to Schmitt in the 4th to give the Giants a 3-1 lead. Cortes allowed other hits after those homers in each inning and seemed to have constant traffic.

The Yanks tied the game 3-3 in the top of the 5th, but Cortes didn’t last the bottom of the 5th — he struck out Ramos to begin the inning but allowed a single to Brett Wisely and was pulled at 95 pitches.

“The 2 homers that I gave up were fastballs that weren’t supposed to be there,” said Cortes afterwards. “Pulled it down and in and obviously for righties that’s the honey spot for them. The changeup to Soler was middle-middle. It was unfortunate I didn’t complete my 5 innings, but like you said if I give up 3 and Dennis goes a good job of getting out of the inning for me — I know I gave up runs but keeping it close is huge.”

3. Verdugo 2-RBI Double Ties It 3-3 in 5th

Blake Snell came in with an 0-3 10.42 record and had not pitched through 5 innings yet this season. But he was pitching well in this game, scattering a single and a walk in the 2nd, a walk in the 3rd, and pitching a 1-2-3 inning in the 4th when the Yanks got to him in the 5th.

Anthony Volpe lined a 1-out single, and Juan Soto bunted for a single between pitcher and 3rd base!

Snell struck out Aaron Judge on a 2-2 pitch that was called a ball but the 1st base ump said Judge swung at. Suzyn Waldman on the radio and many Yankee fans disagreed — saying it did not look like Judge swung. In any case it was 2 outs, 2 on. Giancarlo Stanton walked to load the bases.

Alex Verdugo came up and Snell went 1-1 to him before the pitching coach and manager came out and removed Snell from the game — seeing something that nobody else saw. He appeared to have a slight groin pull and was removed from the game.

Erik Miller was brought in to resume the count to Verdugo, threw a strike then a ball, and then an 84-MPH changeup that Verdugo ripped to right for a game-tying double.

4. Santana Allows 2 Runs in 6th

Dennis Santana relieved Cortes with 1 on and 1 out in the 5th and did a good job getting the final 2 outs — but got into trouble in the 6th.

After allowing leadoff singles by Jorge Soler and Luis Matos, Santana got a pop out and fly out and looked to be getting out of the jam when he hit Curt Casili with a pitch to load the bases. With 2 outs, Heliot Ramos singled in 2 runs to give the Giants a 5-3 lead.

Victor Gonzalez came in to get the final out with runners on 1st and 2nd, striking out Wisely.

5. Rogers Keeps Yanks at Bay

Tyler Rogers came in to pitch the 8th for the Giants. Said Suzyn Waldman on the broadcast: “The side-armer Tyler Rogers in to pitch for the Giants. He’s a real knuckle scrape-er if you watch him.” Rogers pitched a 1-2-3 inning, keeping the Yanks down 5-3.

6. Tonkin the Win

Michael Tonkin was in to eat up more innings — and he continues to get the job done and become a core part of the bullpen. He escaped a leadoff walk and a 1-out single in the 7th, then pitched a 1-2-3 inning in the 8th! Two more shutout innings for him and he ends up getting the win to go 2-3 3.00 on the year.

7. The Yanks’ 4-Run 9th-Inning Comeback

Ace reliever Camilo Doval was in for the 9th, NY down 5-3, when Gleyber Torres led off with a single. Jose Trevino hit a fielder’s choice grounder, ‘just’ making it to 1st to beat the double play, and Anthony Volpe tripled to center, scoring Trevino from 1st to make it a 5-4 game!

“I think everyone was fired up when Trevi frankly beat out the ball'” said Boone afterwards. “It was like ‘ok we have a chance we’re going to get our big boys up there’, and then Boom Volpe sticks one in the gap and I was thinking of running for Trevi in that spot even though he wasn’t the tying run he hits it in triple valley and I was like ‘come on Trevi, come on Trevi’ and he was able to score.”

Juan Soto needed a sac fly to tie it but did a lot more than that — a 398-foot homer to right center for a 6-5 Yankee lead!

Oracle Park — home to the Giants — exploded with the jubilation of Yankee fans.

Aaron Judge walked, and Giancarlo Stanton Ripped a double to right center for a 7-5 Yankee lead!

8. Holmes the Save

In the bottom of the 9th, nursing a 7-5 lead, Clay Holmes got groundout, groundout, fly out for the old ballgame.

The Boxscore

https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore/_/gameId/401569359

 

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