4) Twins (3)Although the Twins have lost four in a row, matching their longest
losing streak from the 2019 season, our Power Rankings voting crew
clearly still has confidence in these Bombas. Their overall record of
10-6 is still very good, even with a sweep by the Royals. The Twins are
still hitting home runs -- they have 25 so far this year -- but 18 of
them are of the solo variety. Byron Buxton has started to heat up --
he’s hit three home runs in his past four games. 5) Cubs (5)
The Cubs missed out on playing over the weekend due to their series with
the Cardinals being postponed, but they took the hiatus in stride,
worked out at Wrigley Field and will resume their season Tuesday in
Cleveland. The Cubs are 10-3 and are the only team in the National
League Central with a record above .500, giving them a sizeable lead in
the division with a quarter of the season in the books. Gerrit Cole
struck out 10 before fatiguing, while Mike Ford, Giancarlo Stanton and
Aaron Judge all homered
Aaron Judge Jersey, powering the Yankees to an 8-4 victory over the Rays in the first game
of a seven-inning doubleheader on Saturday at Tropicana Field.
Cole remained undefeated in four starts as a Yankee as he scattered six
hits and walked a batter over 4 2/3 innings for his 26th consecutive
start without a loss, a streak which dates to last season and is the
fifth longest in history.
Yanks' tempers hot, bats cool in nightcap
“I wasn’t able to finish the outing the way we wanted to, but there was
some good improvement across the board, so I’ll just try to take that,”
Cole said. “Even with pitches where we executed two or three times in a
row to start the at-bat, we just never got the popout or the groundout
or the fly ball.”Ji-Man Choi stroked an RBI double and José Martínez
slugged a two-run homer off Cole, who showcased a sizzling fastball at
speeds up to 98.3 mph and finished one out shy of qualifying for a
victory. Cole said that he felt that his location was “crisp” until the
final inning. “I made a little tweak with my delivery, staying over my
legs a little better,” Cole said. “I thought that increased a little bit
of the deception and allowed me to get through the baseball at the end
Alex Rodriguez Jersey, really starting to nail my spin axis. At times, it's been a little
inconsistent. Today we were really repeating for the most part until a
few pitches towards the end.”
Cole outdueled fellow flame-thrower Tyler Glasnow in a rematch of Game 5
of the 2019 American League Division Series. The victory was the
Yankees’ first in their last six games at Tropicana Field, dating to
last season. “I thought he was really good,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone
said of Cole. “Credit to them, they made him work enough and really
drove his count up. They were able to get a guy on base it seemed like
every inning, but I thought he was pretty sharp overall for not being
able to obviously get through five.”
Ford opened the scoring in the third inning by connecting for his first
home run of the year, a two-run shot off Glasnow projected at 437 feet
by Statcast. After a pair of walks and a strikeout, Gio Urshela added a
two-run double that chased Glasnow, who was touched for four runs and
five hits over 2 2/3 innings. “If you look at the whole year, we've done
a really good job on a lot of different fronts offensively,” Ford said.
“It's a scary lineup. So whenever I get in there, I’m just trying to
contribute and maybe be a little spark plug.”
Stanton extended the Yankees’ lead in the fifth inning with a solo home
run off reliever Sean Gilmartin, Stanton’s third long ball of the
season. After the Rays pulled within two in the fifth, Judge struck back
in the sixth inning with his Major League-leading eighth homer
Aroldis Chapman Jersey, a two-run blast off Gilmartin. “It's kind of what you expect from him,”
Ford said of Judge. “He's such an intimidating figure when he gets in
the box that you think it can happen on any pitch. Just personally, him
being a friend, it's great to see him get off to the start that he is.
With him being healthy, that's what he can do.” The Yankees’ ongoing
beef with the Rays did not retire with CC Sabathia’s final walk from a
big league mound.
With tempers hot about a handful of high and tight pitches on Saturday,
prompting the ejections of manager Aaron Boone and hitting coach Marcus
Thames, the Bombers’ bats cooled in a 5-3 loss to the Rays in the
nightcap of a seven-inning doubleheader at Tropicana Field.
“It was more just about the history,” Aaron Judge said, nodding to a
tense September 2018 contest between the clubs. “You don't usually
forget stuff like that. Then to continue to throw up and in, that's
tough. We've got a lot of big hitters up there and we know they're going
to throw in, but to miss that far up and in, you're going to get a
little barking from the dugout.” Thanks in part to Austin Meadows’
go-ahead, two-run single, the Yankees settled for a split of the twin
bill. In the first game, Gerrit Cole struck out 10 over 4 2/3 innings
while Judge
Bernie Williams Jersey, Mike Ford and Giancarlo Stanton all homered, powering the Yankees’ 8-4
victory. Stanton exited the second game with a tight left hamstring that
could send him to the injured list.
In the September 2018 contest that Judge referenced, Sabathia was irked
when the Rays’ Andrew Kittredge threw a fastball over Austin Romine’s
head after an earlier hit batsman. Sabathia responded by plunking Jesús
Sucre, earning an ejection from home-plate umpire Vic Carapazza and
offering some choice words to the Tampa Bay bench that soon appeared on
T-shirts. Coincidentally, Carapazza was behind the plate on Saturday as
the Yankees chirped about brushback pitches to DJ LeMahieu and Gio
Urshela. Carapazza ejected Thames after the top of the fifth inning,
then tossed Boone when the manager protested.
“He misinterpreted what Marcus said,” said Boone, who has been ejected
10 times since taking over as the Yanks’ manager in 2018. “We’ll just
leave it at that. He should not have been thrown out of the game.”
Diego Castillo dusted Urshela and LeMahieu in the third inning on
Saturday, and Kittredge made LeMahieu stumble in the fifth. Judge said
that the Rays have not been the only team to attempt moving the Yankees’
feet this season.
“We have a lot of big power hitters that can drive the baseball
Brett Gardner Jersey, so a lot of teams are really trying to back us off the plate,” Judge
said. “We know that it’s something they've done for years now. They want
to try to come in and back us off. It's something we’ve got to deal
with, but I know our pitchers are there to protect us.”
Small bites
Michael King will remember his first Major League start for the nine
consecutive batters that he retired between the first and fourth
innings, but the right-hander -- lauded for his control -- also lamented
the uncharacteristically spotty command that led to five walks and
three earned runs.
King struggled in a 32-pitch first inning that included a bases-loaded
free pass to Yoshi Tsutsugo, then settled in until he issued two-out
walks to Willy Adames and Kevin Kiermaier in the fourth. Both runs
scored on Meadows’ two-run single off reliever Luis Avilán. “I felt like
I was just nibbling,” King said. “I was getting down 1-0 to everybody,
which obviously is not a good recipe for success. I'm happy to get my
first start; that was one of the goals going into this season. But it's
kind of one of those I’ve got to flush. The fastball command wasn't
there, and that's probably the strongest part of my whole baseball
career.”
New York pitchers walked nine men in the contest overall, including two
by right-hander Albert Abreu, who allowed two runs over 1 1/3 innings in
his Major League debut. Luke Voit’s fourth-inning RBI single off
Fairbanks accounted for the Yankees’ only run until the seventh inning,
when the club attempted to rally.
Urshela, Erik Kratz and LeMahieu notched three straight two-out hits off
Jalen Beeks, producing two runs, but Nick Anderson induced Judge to fly
to deep center field for the final out.
