Winning the grind
Torres continues torrid stretch, ace Cole battles through 7 as Yanks roll to 5th straight win
Gerrit Cole wasn’t as sharp as he usually is, but he didn’t need to be. He had Gleyber Torres’ scorching bat and the Yankees defense to back him up.
Torres’ two-run double in the fourth and two-run single in the fifth were the key blows as the Yankees continued to grind out wins, beating the Al Central-leading White Sox 7-0 in a Saturday matinee at Yankee Stadium. The Bombers (27-19) have now won five straight games and earned a seventh straight series win. After a 5-10 start, the Yankees now have the best record in the big leagues since (22-9).
Torres, who went 3-for-4 with 4 RBI, has been red hot since returning from the COVID19 IL on Thursday. He is 8-for-14 with 6 RBI after missing six games following his positive test.
“When he’s getting a pitch, he’s putting it
in play now with authority,” Yankee skipper Aaron Boone said. “I think throughout most of the year he’s done a good job of actually controlling the zone and made some pretty good swing decisions, but I think now we’re starting to see the extra-base hits come along and I think that’s a product of getting into some counts and when you do get a pitch making sure you stick it.
“Obviously, this series it’s come in some big spots with runners out there.”
Cole (6-2) got off to a sluggish start as he uncharacteristically walked three batters over his first four innings. How unusual was Cole’s lack of pin-point accuracy? He came into the game having walked only five batters in 57.2 innings this season. But he still managed to shut down — and shut out — a tough White Sox lineup over seven grinding innings, giving up four hits, three walks and seven strikeouts.
“I think he got there,” Boone said about his ace searching for his good stuff Saturday. “Look, I think it’s just a testament to how good he is at his craft. I think he made some solid adjustments early on in the game, started attacking the bottom of the zone with his heater. I thought his curveball was there from jump street and then he started really dotting a lot of sliders, brought the changeup along and then really finished strong in that seventh inning where he really cut loose with some pretty good heaters.
“But I thought he just gathered himself there in those first couple innings, settled in and was able to generate some weak contact to get some really nice double plays behind him.”
Cole hit 100.8 mph on the radar gun on his final pitch of the afternoon, a four-seam fastball that got Andrew Vaughn looking. It was his fastest pitch of the season.
He also got plenty of help from his defense before Torres and the rest of the Bomber bats came alive.
Gio Urshela started a terrific double play in the fourth to erase Cole’s third walk of the game. The Yankees turned four double plays on the day.
“It was a luxury to turn all the double plays,” Cole said. “We played our tails off on defense today. That was fun to be a part of. And then the offense to really finish off [White Sox starter Dylan] Cease’s day and get us a sizeable lead was the cherry on top.”
After Torres’ double off Cease gave the Yankees a 2-0 lead in the fourth, he came around to score on a Rougned Odor double to deep center. The floodgates opened in the next frame when Torres plated two more runs with an RBI single to left off reliever Matt Foster.
Mike Ford blasted a 447-foot homer to right center to lead off the sixth to stretch the lead to 6-0.
Gleyber Day wasn’t over yet as he scored another run in the seventh after opening the bottom of the frame with a single and coming around to score on Miguel Andujar’s double.
Relievers Justin Wilson and Luis Cessa finished off the shutout.
Despite not pitching with his best stuff, Cole still extended the Yankees remarkable run of dominance on the mound. Yankee starters have now tossed at least seven shutout innings in each of their last four starts. It started with Corey Kluber’s no-hitter against the Rangers on Wednesday, followed by Domingo German and Jordan Montgomery the next two nights.
“They’ve been terrific,” Boone said of his starters. “Obviously, this run they’re on right now is really impressive. But I think it goes back further for the better part of the month they’ve been really solid and strong and tone-setters for the whole team and it was no different with Gerrit today.”
It’stheYankeeslongestsuch streak since May 11-16, 1932.
It will be up to Jameson Taillon to keep the streak going when these two teams get back after it in the series finale Sunday afternoon at the Stadium.