Calm Down, the Yankees Have Got This

The Yankees concluded a 3-game series away to the Baltimore Orioles with an Easter Sunday matinee. They struck right away: With 1 out in the top of the 1st inning, they got 3 straight singles from Aaron Judge, Anthony Rizzo and Giancarlo Stanton, and it was 1-0 Yankees.

In the 3rd inning Judge crushed a home run to dead center, with the deepest part of the ballpark being just to the left of that, 410 feet away. That made it 2-0. The Yankees have now played 9 games this season, and hit at least 1 home run in every one of them.

The Orioles got tired of the Yankees bombing them out of their own Yards, so, last season, they moved their left-field fence back. It managed to stop Gleyber Torres. It has not stopped Judge, nor Stanton, who hit one well over that fence yesterday. It's like this:

Orioles: Ha-ha, we moved our left field fence back.

Torres: Noooooooo!

Stanton: Calm down, Gleyber, I got this.

Judge: Me too.

Apparently, also Franchy Cordero. He hit one in the 5th, and that made it 4-0 Bronx Bombers.

Nestor Cortés started for the Yankees. He got through the 1st 5 innings without allowing a run. The Orioles scored a couple in the 6th, and the bullpen took over. In the 8th, Judge hit another home run, giving him 4 on the season. Not to put any pressure on him, but that's a pace for 72. Adley Rutschman, last year's rookie sensation and now the Orioles' biggest star, homered in the bottom of the 8th, but Baltimore got no closer.

Yankees 5, Orioles 3. WP: Cortés (2-0). SV: Clay Holmes (3). LP: Tyler Wells (0-1).

So the Yankees conclude the 1st full week of the season at 6-3. The Tampa Bay Rays have started 9-0, but the combined record of the teams they've faced -- the Detroit Tigers, the Washington Nationals, and the Oakland Athletics -- is just 7-21, meaning it's 7-12 even without counting their games against the Rays.

Oddly, the last team to beat the Rays, in their Spring Training finale, was the Yankees. Who won't face them in the regular season until Friday, May 5. By then, the Rays will have lost a few. So, as Stanton and Judge seemed to be saying, Calm down, the Yankees have got this. (At least, until they face the Houston Astros in the Playoffs.)

They now move on, making their only visit of the regular season to the Cleveland Guardians. First pitch tomorrow is scheduled for 6:10 PM. Domingo Germán starts against Shane Bieber.