The Yankees beat the Atlanta Braves 5-4 Saturday night at Yankee Stadium, and while the final inning got a little more uncomfortable than anybody wanted, the bigger story was pretty obvious: Gerrit Cole looked like Gerrit Cole, and the Yankees’ young players once again were right in the middle of everything.
George Lombard Jr. homered. Spencer Jones drove in two runs. Ben Rice went deep. Cole gave the Yankees seven strong innings.
That’s a pretty good formula.
Cole Wins the Cy Young Battle
The pitching matchup had some heavyweight names attached to it with Cole facing Chris Sale, and Cole won it.
Cole went seven innings, allowing two runs on six hits while striking out nine. He didn’t walk a batter and threw 60 of his 82 pitches for strikes.
Atlanta did finally get to him in the fifth inning, putting together four hits and scoring twice to take a 2-1 lead. This could have easily turned into one of those innings where everything falls apart.
It didn’t.
Cole struck out Drake Baldwin, retired Ronald Acuña Jr. and then froze Matt Olson to end the inning. That strikeout also gave Cole 1,000 strikeouts as a Yankee.
That’s what you’re paying an ace to do. The other team finally punches you, you stop the inning before it becomes five runs, and then you give your offense a chance to answer.
Lombard worked a walk to start the bottom half and Jones ripped a triple to deep center, bringing Lombard home and tying the game.
Jones then scored the go-ahead run when Sale was called for a balk.
So yes, technically the balk gave the Yankees the lead. But Jones created the entire situation.
He finished 2-for-3 with a triple, two RBI, a run scored, a walk and a stolen base.
This is exactly what the Yankees needed from some of these younger players. Not just showing up and surviving at the major-league level. Impacting games.
George Lombard Jr. Is Making This Interesting Fast
And then there’s George Lombard Jr.
The kid homered in his Major League debut Tuesday. Four days later, he did it again.
Lombard took Victor Mederos deep to right field leading off the seventh inning, extending the Yankees’ lead to 4-2.
He finished 2-for-3 with the homer, two runs scored and a walk. Through his first handful of Major League games, he is already giving the Yankees exactly what they were hoping to see: athleticism, defense, patience and some legitimate pop.
We’re still talking about a 21-year-old kid with almost no Major League experience. Nobody needs to start building the plaque in Monument Park.
But you can see it.
The game doesn’t look too fast for him.
And after watching the Yankees struggle for consistency at shortstop, that’s going to get people’s attention very quickly.
Ben Rice gave the Yankees another run in the eighth when he crushed his 32nd home run of the season to center field.
At the time, it looked like some extra insurance.
Turns out they needed every bit of it.
Ronald Acuña Jr. homered off Brent Headrick in the eighth to make it 5-3. Then David Bednar allowed Atlanta to score again in the ninth on a Dominic Smith RBI single.
Suddenly a three-run lead became 5-4 with the tying run potentially becoming a problem.
Bednar finally got Baldwin to line out to right and ended it.
Not exactly the cleanest finish, but a win is a win.
The Yankees improved to 66-51, and right now the most encouraging part isn’t just the final score.
It’s who’s doing the damage.
Lombard is suddenly giving them life at shortstop. Jones is showing the combination of power, speed and athleticism everybody talked about while he was coming through the minors. Rice already has 32 home runs.
Meanwhile Cole is pitching like the guy the Yankees absolutely need at the front of this rotation.
There are still problems with this team. Nobody should pretend otherwise because they won a couple of games.
But if Lombard and Jones continue forcing their way into the conversation while Rice keeps producing in the middle of this lineup, the Yankees suddenly have something they desperately needed:
Young players making it impossible to take them out of the lineup.
Born in Manhattan, New York, Felix Pantaleon is a Dominican-American digital content creator and the founder of NYYNEWS, one of the first and longest-running independent New York Yankees content creator platforms, active since 2005.
