On a beautiful Old-Timers’ Day at Yankee Stadium, the Yankees beat the Braves, 5-4 the final score, to clinch the series victory.
Here are the takeaways…
–Gerrit Cole and Chris Sale faced off against each other for the third time in their illustrious careers.
-The Yankees opened the scoring in the second inning, when Spencer Jones singled home Trent Grisham – who had doubled a few batters earlier – with two outs. Sale wasn’t fazed, however, and the southpaw retired each of the next seven Yankees batters he faced.
-The Braves roared back to take the lead in the fifth inning, scoring two runs before Cole could record a single out. The first RBI came off the bat of Mike Yastrzemski, who doubled over the head of an ill-positioned Heliot Ramos in left field to bring home Mauricio Dubon. Austin Riley then singled to put Atlanta runners on the corners, before rookie shortstop Jim Jarvis roped a line drive into right field to bring home Yastrzemski and make the score 2-1 Braves. Yankees skipper Aaron Boone kept the faith in his veteran right-hander, and Cole battled back to retire the next three batters in order to escape the jam, including two strikeouts. Cole’s strikeout of Braves slugger Matt Olson was his 1,000th in just 139 games with the Yankees, making him the fastest to reach that milestone in franchise history.
-Leading off the bottom of the fifth inning, George Lombard Jr. successfully challenged two straight pitches to turn a strikeout into a walk. Jones got the best of Sale yet again, driving a front-door slider into the gap for a triple which easily brought home Lombard to tie up the game. Much to the chagrin of Sale and Braves manager Walt Weiss, the umpire ruled that Sale balked, and Jones was allowed to walk home from third base. Weiss was ejected in the ensuing argument. Austin Wells kept the momentum rolling for the Yanks with an opposite-field double, but Ramos grounded into a double play to end the inning with New York leading 3-2.
-Cole faced the minimum of nine total batters as he cruised through innings five, six, and seven. He finished his start having allowed two earned runs on six hits, tallying nine strikeouts and zero walks across 82 pitches.
-Sale was relieved by right-hander Victor Mederos in the seventh inning, who promptly surrendered a leadoff solo shot to Lombard, who clubbed his hanging cutter the opposite way and over the short porch in right field. Later in the inning, Wells was issued with a strike after the umpire judged that Jose Caballero – who had just been walked – took to long to get to first base. The umpire got an earful from an irate Boone. Wells was subsequently hit by a pitch, and the Yankees baserunners executed a double steal to put two runners in scoring position, but Mederos struck out Paul Goldschmidt and Ramos to strand them both.
-Lefty setup man Brent Headrick relieved Cole in the eighth inning. Ronald Acuna Jr. launched a solo shot to cut the Yankees lead to 4-3, and Michael Harris II slapped a two-out single to extend the inning and force the Yankees to call upon right-handed reliever Paul Blackburn to record the final out and hold the lead entering the final frame.
-Facing left-handed reliever Danny Young, Ben Rice broke his 11-game long ball drought with a leadoff bomb to straightaway center field. His 32nd homer of the season extended the lead to 5-3 for the Yankees. Lombard and Jones stayed hot to ignite a two-out rally with a single and a walk, respectively. They each reached base in three of their four at-bats on Saturday, combining for three of the team’s five RBI.
-After issuing a one-out walk to Yastrzemski and a two-out RBI single to pinch-hitter Dom Smith, Yankees closer David Bednar persevered to seal the 5-4 win, his second save in as many days and his 26th save of the season.
Game MVP: Spencer Jones
The rookie right fielder notched the fourth multi-hit game and second multi-RBI game of his young career, a much-needed showing as the Yankees offense looks to get back on track.
Highlights
What’s next
The Yankees and Braves conclude their series on Sunday afternoon, with first pitch set for 1:35 p.m.
Cam Schlittler (10-6, 2.26 ERA) takes the mound for the Yankees, while the Braves will hand the ball to Grant Holmes (7-4, 3.67 ERA).
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