Yankees takeaways: Gerrit Cole, Gleyber Torres power past Phillies for series victory
NEW YORK – Two starts, two stellar performances.
Gerrit Cole’s season is off to a superb start.
The right-hander followed up a strong Opening Day outing by pitching 6⅓ solid innings against the Philadelphia Phillies on Wednesday afternoon, leading the Yankees to a 4-2 victory before a crowd of 35,847 at Yankee Stadium.
"I feel like he’s been in a good spot since Day One of spring training and he’s carried it right into the season," manager Aaron Boone said.
Boone’s club has won its first two series of the season.
Gleyber Torres was 3-for-4 with a pair of RBI singles for the Yanks, while Jose Trevino hit a two-run home run in the seventh.
Clay Holmes struck out the side in the ninth to pick up the save.
Here are some takeaways from the victory:
Gerrit Cole pitches like an ace once again
Cole, who gave up just three hits and struck out eight, never faced much trouble. Bryson Scott doubled to left with two outs in the second on the ninth pitch of the at-bat, but Cole promptly induced an inning-ending groundout from Alec Bohm.
Then in the fifth, Cole issued consecutive walks to Bohm and Jake Cave, but then got Cristian Pache to foul out to catcher Jose Trevino.
But for most of the afternoon, Cole dominated the Phillies’ lineup.
"It's good to see him throwing and setting the tone for us like this," Boone said.
Cole’s day ended in an odd way in the seventh. After he struck out Edmundo Sosa to start the inning, he fell behind in the count 3-and-2 to Nick Castellanos. Cole and Trevino then took too long agreeing on a pitch and the clock ran out, giving Castellanos the walk.
"We've just got to call a mound visit there," Cole said. "A bit unfortunate. It was my first one so pretty poorly timed, but we'll learn from it."
Boone then brought in Jonathan Loaisiga, who gave up a single to Scott and hit Bohm with a pitch before allowing a sacrifice fly to Cave. Loaisiga then got pinch-hitter Josh Harrison to ground into an inning-ending force-out to avoid further damage and keep Cole’s gem intact.
"I thought we did a good job of defining the pitch that we wanted to throw and dictating the part of the zone we wanted to start off with," Cole said. "We were able to deviate from that and go to another area either later in the count or the second or third time through."
Trevino’s homer in the seventh off Gregory Soto gave the Yankees a three-run lead until Loaisiga yielded a solo shot to Kyle Schwarber in the eighth.
Thursday rainout: Yankees game at Orioles on Thursday postponed due to weather forecast
Gleyber Torres keeps delivering
The Yankees opened the scoring in the first. Aaron Judge singled off Aaron Nola with one out, then stole second base. After Anthony Rizzo flied out to center, Torres, who’s had a blistering start to the season at the plate, drove Judge in with a broken-bat single to put the Yankees up 1-0.
Torres came through for the Yankees again in the sixth.
DJ LeMahieu led off the inning with a double – the 250th of his career – and later scored on Torres’ two-out single to center to make it a two-run game.
Torres later led off the eighth with a ground-rule double to left and then stole third, but the Yankees couldn't drive him in.
Torres is now 8-for-19 with five runs, one double, two home runs and six RBI so far this season.
"Just not trying to do too much," Torres said. "Just trying to hit the pitch I can do damage with and just try to get a pretty good at-bat every time I go to home plate."
Josh Donaldson leaves game in third
Josh Donaldson started at third base, but was replaced in the third inning by Isiah Kiner-Falefa. The Yankees later announced that Donaldson left with right hamstring tightness and will be re-evaluated Thursday.
Donaldson is 2-for-16 at the plate to start the season.
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: NY Yankees: Gerrit Cole dominant again in win over Philadelphia Phillies
