The Yankees had their winning streak end at 11 games
The Yankees pitched well again in Wednesday night’s game but the offense did not come through this time which led to their impressive 11-game winning ending in the last game of their 6-game road trip.
During their 11-game winning streak, they scored an average of 7.2 runs a game and a total of 79 runs. During Wednesday’s loss in the series finale, the Yankees only scored one run. They scored six runs or more in six of the 11 games and they score five runs in two other games, which means that the final game in Toronto before the off day was a real anomaly.
In the game on Wednesday, the Yankees were 0–8 with runners in scoring position and left seven runners on base. Anthony Rizzo grounded into a double play during the game and Isiah Kiner-Falefa was 0–2 with runners in scoring position. The Yankees finished the game 1–13 with runners on base, and the only hit came from Josh Donaldson in the ninth inning.
The Yankees attempted a rally to tie the score at two in the ninth but it was not to be.
Jordan Romano was 11 of 12 in save chances coming into the game and he is now 12 for 13 this season. He is from about 30 minutes from Toronto, which means he is pitching for his hometown team. He was AL Reliever of Month for April and now has a very impressive 1.35 ERA in 14 games (13.1 innings).
Giancarlo Stanton had an 8-game hitting streak on the line in 9th. He crushed a line drive single up middle to center to extend his streak to 10 games and then Tim Locastro pinch ran for him as he has been doing recently. Locastro, who is one of the fastest players in baseball, has an 89 percent stolen base rate in his career and was 4–5 in steal attempts this season before Wednesday.
Donaldson extended his hitting streak to 8 to put runners on first and second with one out. Hicks struck out swinging on a perfectly located 4 seamer for 2nd out.
Gallo was able to work a walk on a 3–1 pitch to load the bases and bring up Kiner-Falefa, who had an impressive .311 average coming into the game. Matt Chapman, who is elite defensively, made a great play a third and hurried his throw to first and then Vlad Guerrero Jr. did the splits to just barely get Kiner-Falefa. He went 0–4 in this game and the Hawaiian Hustle still has a solid .295 average.
The play was challenged by the Yankees to see if Guerrero Jr. had his foot on first and umpires ruled that he did. A single with the bases loaded could have potentially won the game for the Yankees and kept the winning streak going but it the streak had to end at some point and it is better that the streak ended in a game that the Yankees continued to pitch well.
The only run that the Yankees scored in this game was a solo homer to center by Joey Gallo in the third inning. He is 3–5 in his last two games and has been an improved hitter since hitting his first homer of the season on April 26 against Baltimore. Including that game, he is 5–16 (.313) with five runs scored, three homers and three RBI.
Before the game on April 16, he had a .146 average and only had four hits in his previous 10 games (4–35). He has a .188 average this season (12–64) with three homers and just four RBI. He has walked nine times, which has led his on-base percentage to be 100 points higher than his average.
Aaron Judge struck out about two pitches after Aaron Boone had his veins pop out of his neck and really got his money’s worth with the home plate umpire as he got ejected for the second time this season. The home plate umpire had made a few bad calls on Judge during the game so he stuck up for his slugger. The player’s really respect Boone.
The Yankees lead the league in homers with 35 and the Blue Jays and Angels are both tied for second with 32 home runs. In Wednesday’s game, the Yankees had their first repeat lineup from the game before of the season. This proves how they can rely on many players and how deep they are.
Nestor Cortes got the start for the Yankees and he has now allowed three runs or fewer in and impressive 18 of his last 19 starts. Also, right handed batters have hit only .211 off of him going into Thursday’s game since 2021.
In this game, Cortes allowed four walks and four hits in four innings, but was able to limit Toronto to only two runs scored even though he did not have the command of his pitches that he normally does.
Cortes was not nearly as sharp and did not have the command that he normally has since he walked four batters and allowed four hits through 3.1 innings. This was an off start after really dominating to start the season but he still limited the runs to two through 4.0 innings.
He had an important strikeout looking of Bradley Zimmer for the second out of the 4th. He then got designated hitter George Springer to ground out to Donaldson to end the 4th and still be effective even though he allowed many baserunners. It was a real gutsy outing and in the 4th inning he was able to pitch like he had in his previous starts.
After allowing just the two runs, he has limited the opposition to two runs or less in each of his five starts this season, which has led to his very impressive 1.82 ERA this season. Cortes allowed seven base runners in the first three innings and eight overall. In his first three starts this season, he limited the opposition to only nine baserunners combined. He threw 83 pitches in the four innings.
“ I just thought I was not throwing enough strikes,” Cortes said. “I walked a handful of guys and the command was not there today and I felt like that is what ran my pitch count up. With our offense and our bullpen I knew we always have a shot and if I can limit the damage and navigate through then I knew we had a chance like we had in the ninth inning.”
“The winning streak was really special,” Cortes said. “I felt like every time we came in here we knew we were going to win. That is the mindset this year, we have the guys to do it. Everybody has the same game plan, so I think it is going to be special.”
His 31 strikeout are tied for 7th most in the American League this season. He came out of nowhere in some ways and only really started to pitch well as an MLB pitcher last season. He uses deception, different arm angles and different pitch speeds to succeed and his low 90s fastball appears must faster than it is to the hitters.
The bullpen was outstanding once again in this game as Michael King and Clay Holmes combined to throw four innings and did not allow a hit. The Yankees relief pitchers threw 21 innings in the last two series (six games) and they remarkably did not allow a single run.
King has been excellent this season and is pitching like possibly the best relief pitcher in the AL and he is definitely been the most versatile and most important to his team. He threw three hitless innings (he did not allow a baserunner) on Wednesday and he has not allowed a run in his last 13 innings (six games). During those six games, he has allowed just four hits, two walks and has a grant total of 19 strikeouts in those 13 innings.
Since King officially moved into a reliever role on July 3rd of last season he ranks 7th in ERA (1.47), 2nd in fWAR (1.6), 1st in FIP (1.55), and 11th in K% (34.8) among the 150 qualified relievers. Overall this season, King has allowed just one earned run in 17.2 innings (an outstanding 0.51 ERA) and he has 25 strikeouts and just 10 hits allowed in those 17.2 innings pitched.
Further proving how he has utterly dominated so far this season is that he has a 0.736 WHIP, a 0.77 FIP, 12.7 strikeouts per nine innings and a 728 ERA+. A 100 ERA+ is league average.
Holmes has continued to have a lot of success this season just like he did after being traded to the Yankees last season from the Pittsburgh Pirates. Holmes, who has an elite sinker, had a 1.61 ERA in 25 games with the Yankees last season (five earned runs in 28 innings) with 34 strikeouts in those 28 innings. This season, he has been somehow even more dominant as he has 0.69 ERA in 13 games (one earned run in 13 innings) with 13 strikeouts and just nine hits in those 13 innings.
The Yankees pitching coaches and analytics staff have really been able to make a difference with Holmes since in his 44 games last season before being traded to the Yankees he had a not good 4.93 ERA and 1.429 WHIP.
Brian Cashman has been very good at trading for relief pitchers and Holmes is another trade that the Yankees have won for a relief pitcher. King is another great pitching acquisition that the Yankees have made but the Yankees front office acquired him when he was still a minor league starting pitcher.
King has a high 90s fastball, a very good slider, a sinker and a good curveball. His four plus pitches in his arsenal contribute to him being an elite and very valuable relief pitcher.
King retired the first seven batters he faced and the seventh was retired on one pitch. The second batter of the 7th inning flew out to center. The eighth batter in a row that he got out was a Springer fly out to center. He has impressively retired 39 of the last 47 batters he has faced.
King is third among all MLB pitchers with a 1.2 fWAR this season. The only pitchers with a higher fWAR are Kevin Gausman, who had a 2.81 ERA in 33 starts last season, and Carlos Rodon, who has a 1.55 ERA in five starts this season..
Former Yankee pitcher David Phelps pitched in relief of Yusei Kikuchi. The first batter he saw was Stanton and he grounded out up the middle with the shift. Kikuchi had his best start so far as a Blue Jay after previously struggling with his control unlike Cortes, who had his worst control of his season.
After Phelps got Stanton out, he then walked former Blue Jay Donaldson on four pitches. He then walked Hicks on four pitches also to put runners on first and second with one out.
The Blue Jays bullpen has been very good this season which has led to them being very good in one run games. Tim Mayza stranded those two runners from Phelps with a strikeout and a groundout.
The Yankees (18–7) will begin a series against the Texas Rangers at Yankee Stadium after an off day on Thursday. They are in first place in the AL East by 2.5 games over Toronto, and they have two more wins than the Blue Jays and Angels, who are tied for the second most wins in the AL.
