THE WAY THINGS SHOULD BE
Yanks back Cole with 5 HRs, finally put O’s in their place
BALTIMORE — That’s more like it. The Yankees finally looked like the Bombers again against the Orioles Monday night. They tied a season high with homers from Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, Luke Voit, Joey Gallo and DJ LeMahieu. Gerrit Cole, even though he did not have his best command, grinded out five innings as the Yankees won, 7-2, at Camden Yards.
It was the second straight win for the Yankees (81-64), the first time they have won back-to-back games since Aug. 26-27 in Oakland. With the win, they at least eliminated the possibility that the Orioles could win the season series, taking a 10-7 edge with two games to play.
The Orioles (46-98), who are trying to edge out the Diamondbacks for the worst record in baseball this season, are a team the Yankees should beat if they fancy themselves a playoff team.
Fangraphs estimates that 92 wins will get the American League Wild card, so the Yankees may need to go 11-6 the rest of the way. With the Blue Jays’ loss to the Rays Tuesday, the Yankees are tied with them for the Wild Card and waiting for the Red Sox’s results from the West Coast.
“It’s a good start to a series. I don’t know, if we’re thinking about the stretch,” said Cole. “We’ve just got to get focused on one series at a time, one game at a time. We got this one out of the way. It felt good to play a complete game; pitch, run prevention, and score enough to where we had some breathing room to finish at the end. So that was nice, especially after being able to carry the momentum of coming back from such a large deficit yesterday.”
They are hoping Tuesday’s win will start them on another streak, one that powers them into the playoffs.
Judge, who hit .372/.500/.651 with three homers and a 1.151 OPS during the Yanks’ 13-game winning streak, hit his 34th home run of the season in the first. The two-run shot was his fourth in as many games. Stanton hit his 28th of the season in the third inning, a two-run shot as well. It was just the 14th time since 2018 that Stanton and Judge homered in the same game, the seventh time they have done it this season and the fourth time this year they did it against the Orioles.
For good measure, Voit followed Stanton with a solo shot in the third and Gallo hit his 34th of the season, ninth as a Yankee, in the eighth inning. It was Gallo’s third homer in the last four games. LeMahieu led off the top of the ninth with his 10th homer of the season.
“It’s definitely fun when we all hit homers,” Stanton said. “But yeah, we’re just happy we’re on top and make sure we get a win at this point. And, you know, we’ll joke around and stuff after the game, but it’s go time now.”
Cole allowed one run on four hits over five innings. He struck out seven and walked a season-high-tying three.
In his first start since leaving the game Tuesday night with tightness in his hamstring, Cole was not sharp. He had to work his way out of trouble in the first, needing 29 pitches to escape it. In the fifth, he gave up a two-out, RBI double to Ryan Mountcastle. He walked Anthony Santander before he struck out DJ Stewart with a high fastball.
Michael King came in and gave the Yankees three scoreless innings, which spared the bullpen, Sal Romano left with one out in the ninth after injuring his finger on a comebacker. Aroldis Chapman closed it out.
“Every day is going to be a grind. We’re used to that. Every day is going to be a fight,” Aaron Boone said. “We just have to make sure we’re focused walking in those doors every single day and understanding how important all these are and also understanding how important the next one is.”
celebrated as Roberto Clemente Day in perpetuity, per the league.
Alonso is a first-time nominee for the award, which recognizes one player from each club who best represents baseball through extraordinary character, community involvement, philanthropy and positive contributions, both on and off the field.
“It’s truly an honor,” Alonso said on Tuesday. “I’m just really thankful for the recognition. I’m just trying to do good in the community. There’s a lot of things I want to tackle and improve in the community and I just want to continue to be an ally here in New York and every single borough and continue to bring positivity and whatever positive change needs to happen.”
The Mets first baseman and his fiancée, Hailey, started the Homers for Heroes foundation to recognize the work of those who may go unnoticed. Alonso wants to provide support for those in need – everything from medical procedures and research to providing new computers for a classroom, according to the mission statement on his website.
Alonso said he visited The Clemente Museum in Pittsburgh when the Mets played the Pirates in July. He’s proud that the Mets, who nominated him for the award, noticed the philanthropic work he does off the field. The league-wide winner will be announced at the end of the season. Fans can vote online at mlb.com/clemente21.
“We just want to continue recognizing people who have sacrificed their lives, but also people who go above and beyond every day in the community,” Alonso said. “Been doing a lot with kids, first responders, doctors, nurses, teachers. It’s been truly special. We just want to keep diving into different issues. As things come up, we want to be flexible and help out wherever we can.”