BALTIMORE — That’s more like it. The Yankees finally looked like the Bombers again against the Orioles on Tuesday night. They tied a season high with homers from Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, Luke Voit, Joey Gallo and DJ LeMahieu. Gerrit Cole, even though he did not have his best command, grinded out five innings as the Yankees won 7-2 at Camden Yards.
It was the second straight win for the Yankees (81-64), the first time they have won back-to-back games since Aug. 26-27 in Oakland. With the win, they at least eliminated the possibility that the Orioles (46-98) could win the season series, taking a 10-7 edge with two games to play.
The Orioles (46-98), who are threatening to edge out the Diamondbacks for the worst record in baseball this season, are one of the teams the Yankees should beat if they fancy themselves a playoff team.
Fangraphs estimates that 92 wins will get the American League wild card, so the Yankees got one of the at least 12 they will likely need down the final 17-game stretch. With the Blue Jays’ loss to the Rays Tuesday, the Yankees are tied with them for the wild card and were waiting for the Red Sox’s results from the West Coast.
“It’s a good start to a series. I don’t know if we’re thinking about the stretch,” said Cole. “We’ve just got to get focused on one series at a time, one game at a time. We got this one out of the way. It felt good to play a complete game; pitch, run prevention, and score enough to where we had some breathing room to finish at the end. So that was nice, especially after being able to carry the momentum of coming back from such a large deficit yesterday. So we got work to do tomorrow. And that’s what we’re focused on.”
The Yankees are hoping Tuesday’s win will start them on another streak, one that powers them into the playoffs. Tuesday’s formula was more familiar with the one that led them on a 13-game winning streak in August.
Judge, who hit .372/.500/.651 with three homers and 1.151 OPS during the 13-game stretch, hit his 34th home run of the season in the first. The two-run shot was his fourth in as many games. Stanton hit his 28th of the season in the third inning, a two-run shot as well. It was just the 14th time since 2018 that Stanton and Judge homered in the same game, the seventh time they have done it this season and the fourth time this year they did it against the Orioles.
Voit followed Stanton with a solo shot in the third and Gallo hit his 34th of the season, ninth as a Yankee, in the eighth inning. It was Gallo’s third homer in the last four games. LeMahieu led off the top of the ninth with his 10th homer of the season.
“It’s definitely fun when we all hit homers,” Stanton said. “But yeah, we’re just happy we’re on top and make sure we get a win at this point. And, you know, we’ll joke around and stuff after the game, but it’s go time now.”
And Cole battled. He allowed one run on four hits over five innings. He struck out seven and walked a season-high tying three.
In his first start since leaving the game last Tuesday with tightness in his hamstring, Cole was not sharp. He had to work his way out of trouble in the first and fifth. He walked two in the first inning and had the bases loaded when he struck out Ramon Urias on a foul tip. He needed 29 pitches to get through that inning.
In the fifth he gave up a leadoff single to Pat Valaika and then a two-out, RBI double to Ryan Mountcastle. He walked Anthony Santander before he struck out DJ Stewart with a high fastball.
Michael King gave the Yankees three scoreless and Sal Romano, just re-signed after being designated for assignment, gave up a run but left with two on and one out after trying to stop a come-backer with his bare hand. Aroldis Chapman had to come in and get the final two outs.
With 17 games remaining, the Yankees need to stock up on wins when they can get them. According to Fangraphs’ projections, 92 wins should get the Yankees a postseason berth. With the win, they now have 81 with eight straight games ahead of them against sub .500 teams. After that, the Yankees’ road gets rougher.
They travel up to Fenway Park to face the Red Sox to begin their final road trip of the regular season. They are just 6-10 against them this season and 2-4 in Fenway. They then head to Toronto to face the Blue Jays, who the Yankees are just 6-10 against. And then the Yankees close the regular season by facing the AL East-leading Rays in the Bronx. The Yankees have gone 7-9 against the Rays this season, 2-4 against them in the Bronx.
The Yankees most likely have to scratch out at least 12 more wins to get into the playoffs.
“Every day is going to be a grind. We’re used to that. Every day is going to be a fight,” Yankees manager Boone said. “We just have to make sure we’re focused walking in those doors every single day and understanding how important all these are and also understanding how important the next one is.”
