After a travel day, and 2 days of rainouts -- being dead, Warren Spahn and Johnny Sain couldn't be reached for comment -- the Yankees finally got back onto the field this Sunday afternoon, for a rain-forced doubleheader with the Texas Rangers. Tomorrow was supposed to be a day off, but the Saturday game was scheduled for the afternoon, rather than the evening, to assist with the Rangers' travel.
Being that this is Mother's Day, the 2nd Sunday in May, both teams are wearing pink accoutrements in honor of breast cancer research and fundraising. Some players are wearing pink batting gloves, or pink wristbands, or pink belts, or pink on their cleats. Some are swinging pink bats. All players are wearing little pink ribbon patches on their jerseys.
(Lest you think that baseball playing on Mother's Day is wrong, it's not a new thing. When Mickey Mantle hit his 500th home run at the old Yankee Stadium, it was May 14, 1967, and it was Mother's Day. And, the last few years, on Father's Day, the 3rd Sunday in June, the color is light blue, and the cause is prostate cancer research.)
Gerrit Cole started for the Yankees, and was marvelous. After 6 1/3rd innings, he had allowed 1 run on 5 hits and 1 walk, striking out 10. His only mistake was giving up a home run to the similarly-named Kole Calhoun in the 7th inning.
That was his 114th pitch of the day, and that's when Aaron Boone took him out, and replaced him with Jonathan Loáisiga, who finished the 7th and pitched the 8th, without allowing a baserunner. Clay Holmes pitched a scoreless 9th.
In the bottom of the 9th, Gleyber Torres went to the opposite field, to right-center, and hit a walkoff home run. The crowd reacted like they weren't sure, but went nuts as it dropped over the fence.
Yankees 2, Rangers 1. WP: Holmes (3-0). No save. LP: John King (1-1).
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The 2nd game started out looking like it might go the Yankees' way. With no score in the bottom of the 3rd, and Aaron Hicks on 3rd base, Giancarlo Stanton crunched one, 461 feet, and the Yankees led, 2-0. And, over the 1st 5 innings, Jordan Montgomery looked great, allowing only 2 hits, hitting a batter, and not walking any.
Then, it fell apart. Eli White led off the top of the 6th with a home run. Montgomery got the next 3 batters out, to keep the lead. But he allowed a leadoff double in the 7th, and Aaron Boone brought in Michael King, one of the season's success stories thus far. Not this time: Walk, strikeout, forceout, game-tying wild pitch, home run by Brad Miller, strikeout.
Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Hicks drew walks in the bottom of the 7th, but were stranded. Torres led off the bottom of the 9th with a walk, giving the Yankees 3 straight tying runs at the plate, but there would be no follow-up on the Cliché Alert about leadoff walks. Rangers 4, Yankees 2. WP: Garrett Richards (1-1). SV: Joe Barlow (4). LP: King (2-1).
We are now exactly 1/6th of the way through the season. At 19-8, the Yankees trail only the 19-7 Los Angeles Dodgers for the best record in baseball, and only the 20-10 Mets for most wins (although the Yankees have 3 games in hand on that lot).
The Yankees lead the American League Eastern Division by 2 games over the Tampa Bay Rays, 3 1/2 over the Toronto Blue Jays, 8 1/2 over the Baltimore Orioles, and 10 over the Boston Red Sox. In the all-important loss column, those leads are: 3 over the Strays, 5 over the Jays, 9 over the O's, and 11 over The Scum.
And to think, it wasn't all that long ago that we were worried that this would be a rotten season of struggling to get past .500. It still could be, of course. But things are looking good for the moment.
The series concludes this afternoon. Nestor Cortes starts against Jon Gray. Then, those pesky Blue Jays come in for 3 games.
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