Former Mississippi State pitcher gets first major league victory for Yankees Holder for win
CHICAGO — Jonathan Holder and Brett Gardner responded for the New York Yankees when they needed it against the defending World Series champion.
Holder, a former Mississippi State pitcher, got his first major league victory and Gardner had a three-run home run in the ninth inning as the Yankees defeated the Chicago Cubs 3-2 on Friday night.
“We’ve gotten off to a pretty good start here,” New York manager Joe Girardi said, “but there’s a long ways to go.”
Holder (1-0) pitched a one-hit eighth and helped combine for a four-hitter for the Yankees. He made his major league debut last Sept. 2 in Baltimore, pitching a perfect sixth inning in relief. The highlight was Holder striking out all-star outfielder Adam Jones on a 94 mile per hour fastball. Jones jokingly tried to swipe the ball from the catcher before ultimately returning to Baltimore’s dugout.
In New York’s win on Friday, Gardner lined a slider from Hector Rondon for a threerun, ninth-inning drive that cleared the outfield fence.
“I was fired up, man,” Gardner said. “I’m usually pretty even keeled, but I was excited. We were kind of slow all game, and they’re winning 2-0 up to last strike in the ninth inning. It feels good to come through in a situation like that.”
Home runs by Kris Bryant in the first and Kyle Schwarber in the sixth off Michael Pineda gave the Cubs that 2-0 lead on a 45-degree afternoon with the wind blowing in.
Chase Headley singled with one out in the ninth off Rondon (0-1), pitching after Wade Davis appeared in the previous three games. Ellsbury, in his first appearance since injuring an elbow Monday, pinch hit with two outs and walked.
Gardner fouled off a pair of 1-2 fastballs, took a ball and on his seventh pitch of the atbat hit his fifth home run of the season , all in the last six games.
“He was drooling coming around the bases,” Headley said. “When he got in the dugout, he was drooling.”
The Cubs threw 29 pitches to Gardner in his five plate appearances. The homer came on a low, inside offering when Cubs catcher Willson Contreras was set up on the outer part of the plate.
“It was the right pitch, but it wasn’t in the right spot,” Contreras said.
Aroldis Chapman, who received his World Series ring from the Cubs before the game, had to pitch out of trouble in the bottom half. Addison Russell reached second when Headley allowed his leadoff grounder to bounce past him and down the left-field line for an error.
Chapman froze Jason Heyward with a breaking ball for a called third strike, retired Willson Contreras on a grounder to Headley, then struck out Javier Baez on a 100 mph fastball for his seventh save in as many chances.
“Errors are part of the game,” Chapman said through a translator. “It’s not the first or last time it’ll happen. It’s going to keep happening. My job is to focus and make sure that runner on second doesn’t score.”
New York, 1 for 9 with runners in scoring position before Gardner’s homer, has won twice when trailing after eight innings, one shy of its total in 2016. At 18-9, the Yankees maintained their AL East lead.
Starlin Castro, traded from the Cubs to the Yankees in December 2015, received a warm ovation from fans and had two hits in his return to Wrigley Field. Castro was thrown out at the plate by Heyward to end the sixth on Headley’s fly to right. Contreras hung onto the ball even though he got shaken up when Castro’s right shoulder hit his face.