Yankees takeaways from Saturday's 6-3 win over the Cubs, including Giancarlo Stanton's two-homer day
The Yankees' bats woke up and Gerrit Cole cruised through the Chicago lineup as New York beat the 'Second City' Cubs 6-3 on Saturday.
Here are the takeaways...
- After getting shut out Friday night, Giancarlo Stanton got the Yanks on the board with two outs in the bottom of the first with a towering home run off the facade of the upper deck in left field. The 447-foot blast had a 35-degree launch angle and a 118.1mph exit velocity, making it the third-hardest hit round-tripper of the year.
The struggling Josh Donaldson doubled the Bombers' advantage by golfing a one-out home run into the left field stands in the second inning.
- And the bats weren't done jumping on Cubs starter Drew Smyly in the third inning when a Gleyber Torres single, a Stanton walk and a bloop single from Anthony Rizzo loaded the bases. Harrison Bader seized the scoring chance by ripping a two-run double past a diving Miles Mastrobuoni at third base to make it 4-1. After Donaldson walked the bases were loaded again, but D.J. LeMahieu bounced into a 6-4-3 inning-ending double play.
- Stanton would get his second home run of the day with a 322-foot fly ball that just scraped the fair pole in right to score Torres and make it a 6-1 game in the fifth. It was his first multi-homer game since May 12 last season. His second big fly had an exit velocity that was 26.8mph less than his first.
- Cole got the start for the Yanks and after a 1-2-3 first, allowed a pair of runners in the second with two outs but entered the third without allowing a run on just 29 pitches. However, Mastrobuoni jumped on the first offering of the inning to rip a double to right and would come in to score to make it 2-1 two batters later.
After the double, Cole silenced the Cubs retiring the next twelve straight batters on seven ground outs, three strikeouts and two flyouts to get through six innings on a relatively low effort 75 pitches. His run was snapped by Seiya Suzuki's single to lead off the seventh but he was left stranded.
Cole returned for the eighth and allowed a one-out single from Mastrobuoni before he was chased by former Yankee Mike Tauchman's two-run homer to right.
The final line for the Yanks' ace: 7.1 innings, five hits, three runs, one walk and five strikeouts on 103 pitches (70 strikes). Cole heads to the All-Star Game in Seattle with a 2.85 ERA over 117 innings pitched.
The veteran right-hander was sharp, but may not have had his best stuff. His velocity was down on all five of his pitches (fastball down 0.9 mph and cutter down 1.1 mph from his season average), and his spin rate on all of his pitches was also down from his average.
- Michael King got the final two outs of the eighth with one strikeout before he pitched a scoreless ninth to close out the win, capped off with Bader making a diving catch in center to end it.
- Cody Bellinger, who made a big impression with his monster home run Friday amid whispers of a trade, went hitless on four at-bats but made a fine sliding catch to rob Jose Trevino of an RBI in the second after LeMahieu doubled..
- Before the game, Aaron Judge said he was still undecided if he would travel to Seattle for the All-Star Game festivities a day after Boone indicated the injured slugger would remain in New York to get treatment and rehab his toe.
Highlights
What's next
The Yankees conclude the series with the Cubs and the first half of the season with a Sunday matinee at The Stadium. First pitch is scheduled for 1:35 p.m.
Domingo German (5-5, 4.52 ERA) is scheduled to get the start against Chicago right-hander Kyle Hendricks (3-3, 2.64 ERA).
