Gerrit Cole & Pen Make Caballero HR Stand Up. NY 2 Cubs 1

August 3, 2026 paperbacklou 2026 0
Jose Caballero's 2-run HR into the wind in the 4th ended up being the only 2 runs the Yankees got, and needed.

Gerrit Cole and the Yankee bullpen made a 2-run HR by Jose Caballero in the 4th inning stand up for a 2-1 win over the Cubs on a Sunday afternoon in Chicago. ‘

Cole was terrific into the 6th, then got in trouble and was relieved with bases loaded and 2 outs by Brent Headrick — who got the huge final out.

Headrick then struck out the side in the 7th and handed the baton to Paul Blackwell, who got 2 outs in the 8th but had runners on 2nd and 3rd when he passed the baton to David Bednar who got a Huge final out and then pitched another non-agita 9th for the save.

During the game it was reported that the Yankees had acquired Luis García Jr. from the Washington Nationals for Jake Bird, Yovanny Cruz, Jack Cebert and Ben Grable. Cebert — a AA pitcher — is considered the main player that NY is giving up. The Yankees confirmed the trade after the game.

“Phenomenal,” said manager Aaron Boone afterwards about the Yankee pitching. “Another outstanding performance, starting with Gerrit today.”

“That was his BP power right there,” said Boone about Caballero’s HR. “Into the wind. No doubt. What — 107? We watch that every day in BP. It was good to see him really get a good swing off. A couple of hits for him today; you know he’s been grinding too. It was obviously the difference in the game today. He put a really good swing on that pitch.”

NY wins the series 2 games to 1, and improves to 63-49, 2.5 behind Tampa and 2.5 ahead of Boston. The Cubs drop to 63-49.

1. Wells Tributes Munson

The date was August 2nd — making it the 47th anniversary of the tragic death of Thurman Munson while flying his plane. As a tribute to Munson, Austin Wells donned catcher’s gear similar to Munson’s.

“It came up a little bit last year around Old Timer’s day, and then 2 years ago I met his wife so I thought it would be really cool to honor him,” said Wells afterwards, “And was actually able to plan it out this year and get it done.”

Wells admitted he has grown his facial hair out in a goatee to honor Munson as well.

2. Caballero Puts Yanks Up 2-0

The Cubs started 36-year-old, 6’5 righty Colin Rea — who has established himself as a pretty good starter the last 3 years of his journeyman career which for the most part has seen him as a reliever. Rea started his career as a starter with San Diego, then was turned into a reliever in years with Miami, the Cubs, and Milwaukee, then was turned back into a starter in 2023 with the Brewers.

He had his best year at 12-6 4.29 in 2024 with Milwaukee, then signed a 2-year contract with the Cubs paying him $4.25 million for 2025 and $750K for this year. He went 11-7 3.95 last year and is 8-8 4.59 this year after the loss in this game.

Rea started off ON FIRE — striking out batter after batter with a 94-MPH four-seam fastball set up by an 88-MPH changeup and occasional 80-MPH curveball and 81-MPH sweeper. He struck out the first 5 batters of the game for NY in pitching a 1-2-3 inning in the 1st and 2nd.

But Ryan McMahon led off the 3rd with a single to right, and Jose Caballero ripped a 93-MPH four-seam fastball 408 feet through the incoming wind in right for a 2-0 Yankee lead.

And that was it for the Yankee offense.

Rea continued to dominate — retiring the next 3 Yankees in order in the 3rd, working around a leadoff error in the 4th by getting 3 straight outs, and pitching a 1-2-3 inning in the 5th and 6th — retiring 9 in a row.

He allowed a single to Jasson Dominguez leading off the 7th and was relieved by R Rolison.

3. Cole Terrific

Meanwhile Gerrit Cole was terrific again. He had easy shutout innings in the 1st thru 3rd before allowing a leadoff double to Suzuki in the 4th, followed by an RBI single to Michael Busch to make it a 2-1 game.

But Cole got a doubleplay to erase Busch and worked around a leadoff single for a shutout 5th.

“It was a bit of a scrappy day,” said Gerrit Cole afterwards. “Command was a little fleeting. Stuff was I think it was affected by the wind. I would have liked to not walk some guys. We were going for it and just missing. I think the fastball was just a little weird today; it was a good fastball but not typically what we’re used to.”

“You can look at the computer, but you need to watch the game, too,” said Cole when asked how the wind affected his fastball.” For the most part outside of Suzuki — the was the only guy to get a good swing on the fastball to kind turn it around. So we needed to use it. The curveball was not great command wise — everything was kind of fleeting. So we hard-charged with the fastball, with the wind blowing behind you it’s going to carry faster through the plate.”

“But coming over my right shoulder it was affecting a little bit of the jump I had on the pitch,” continued Cole. “So at times it was good to get ahead, it was tough to finish guys although we did finish some of them — the location was just a little — I had a couple of opportunities to get some into the corner with 2 strikes and wasn’t able to do that. It doesn’t look great on the computer but today it got us ahead in counts and for the most part was effective, I just wish it was a little bit better in some aspect to allow us to be a little more efficient.”

4. Headrick Gets HUGE Out in 6th & Strikes Out Side in 7th

Cole ran into trouble in the 6th — a leadoff walk to Pete Crow-Armstrong and single to left by Seiya Suzuki put the 2-1 Yankee lead in jeopardy.

Cole reared back and got Michael Busch to fly out to right — The Martian with a strong throw in but overthrowing Caballero the cutoff man allowing the runner on 1st to go to 2nd.

With 2nd and 3rd and 1 out — the Yankee 2-1 lead looked like it was about to be lost.

But Cole struck out Alex Bregman, then walked Ian Happ on a 3-2 pitch that JUST MISSED.

Brent Headrick came in with bases loaded and 2 outs — as many Yankee fans on Twitter/X screamed that Boone had boggled it and should have left Cole in. Headrick went 3-0 on Nico Hoerner — and just got away with ball 4 — the ball called a strike and Hoerner did not challenge. Headrick ran the count to 3-2 before getting Hoerner to fly out to center. Boone got it right.

Headrick then struck out the side swinging in the 7th.

5. Blackburn Gets Outs

Paul Blackburn came in for the 8th in a 2-1 game, and walked Pete Crow-Armstrong leading off. Never a good thing.

Blackburn rebounded by striking out Suzuki — but walked Michael Busch to put runners on 1st and 2nd.

Blackburn got Alex Bregman to fly out to center — with Crow-Armstrong going to 3rd.

6. Bednar the 4-Out Save

Boone brought in David Bednar — and pinchrunner Justin Dean immediately stole 2nd to put runners on 2nd and 3rd with 2 outs in a 2-1 game.

Bednar got Ian Happ to hit a fly into the wind in left — a can of corn for Spencer Jones — although Dave Sims on the radio announced it with a shrill as if it might drop in.

Ryan Rolison and Aaaron Civale shut the Yanks out in the top of 8th and 9th and so it was to the bottom of the 9th with Bednar back on the hill for the 4-out save.

Bednar got a fly out to begin the inning, went 1-2 on Pedro Ramirez but walked him in an 8-pitch at bat. Ramirez then stole 2nd.

With the tying run on 2nd, Bednar got Dansby Swanson to ground out and struck out former Met Michael Conforto for the old ballgame.

The Boxscore

https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore/_/gameId/401816369

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