Gerrit Cole strikes out 13, Aaron Judge homers as Yankees beat Orioles
NEW YORK — The last start was emotional. After a year of no fans or family in the ballpark, Gerrit Cole finally had his father in Yankee Stadium. It’s a place the elder Cole grew up idolizing as a long-time Yankees fan. He told his son he liked the rare, old pictures of Yankee history on the suite level at the Stadium.
Tuesday night, it was all about business — and making a little Yankees history of his own. The Yankees ace struck out 13 batters over seven innings. He allowed four hits as the Yankees beat the Orioles, 7-2, in front of 9,404 at the Stadium.
The Yankees (3-2) won their second straight game and clinched their first series win of the season. Aaron Judge had three hits and homered for the second time in as many days, a three-run shot this time, and Jay Bruce homered for the first time in pinstripes to give Cole his first win of the season. Chad Green pitched a perfect eighth.
Lucas Luetge allowed a two-run homer to Rio Ruiz in the ninth.
The 30-year old Cole threw 97 pitches, 71 for strikes. It was the most strikeouts by a Yankee pitchers since Sept. 29, 2017, when Masahiro Tanaka struck out 15 Blue Jays.
It also gave Cole his 39th career double-digit strikeout game, and his 25th since 2019, the most by any pitcher in the majors. He has had at least seven punchouts in his last 11 regular-season games dating back to Aug. 8, 2020 — a franchise record.
Everything around the game on opening day made Cole happy. Having his parents and his infant son in the ballpark made it a day that he will remember for the rest of his life. On the field, there was a slider to Teoscar Hernandez he’d like to forget. That opened the door for the Blue Jays’ 10th-inning win.
But there was plenty to build on. He worked on pitch sequencing and refining his pitches. Cole came into this season looking to evolve as a pitcher. He has worked on the change-up, making it into a fourth weapon he can use in any situation. Throughout his career, Cole’s usage of the change-up was below 10%. So far in these two starts he is relying on it about 15% of the time.
All the work in the offseason and this spring may not have come together in the first start of the season, but Cole was eager to get back out there and work on perfecting it. It takes time.
“I think that fine tuning, without wasting reps in between starts because ultimately freshness at the beginning of the year is imperative,” Cole said. “It’s a pretty standard progression, but with the intent on trying to get better for the next game”
The Yankees' pitching has started pretty strong. It was nearly the second straight shutout for the Bombers, and they have allowed three or fewer runs in the first five games of the season ― the third most in franchise history and the most since they did it in the first six games in 1992.
Judge, who had hit his first homer of the season Monday night to right field, drilled this one 432 feet to left, driving in three in the bottom of the eighth. He had driven in another with a single in the fourth. It was his first back-to-back games with home runs since he hit homers in five straight games last July 29 to Aug. 2.
Bruce finally found the short porch in right field. The lefty-batting first baseman hit a 354-foot shot into the lower level in right-field. That came after he saved Cole and the Yankees a run in the first. While still learning first base, Bruce made an instinctual play, creeping up on Anthony Santander’s hot shot to first and firing right to home plate where he nabbed Cedric Mullins. He also drew a walk to lead off the fifth and scored on DJ LeMahieu’s ground out.
On the day the Yankees traded for lefty-hitting Rougned Odor, it was a good time for Bruce, who made the team when Luke Voit had to have knee surgery, to find his footing.
