Just months after he became a father, Gleyber Torres saved Mother’s Day for the Yankees … at least the first part of it. Torres hit a walk-off home run to give the Yankees a 2-1 win over the Rangers Sunday.
That gave the Yankees a win in the first game of a doubleheader.
Gerrit Cole struck out 10, his first double-digit strikeout game of the year, and held the Rangers to just one run — a chipped home run by Kole Calhoun when he came out in the seventh inning. It snapped a streak of 19 scoreless innings. Cole also walked one and gave up five hits total.
The Yankees ace pitched on six days of rest because of the rain outs and a scheduled off day, and early on in the game he looked like it had been a while since he pitched. He needed 47 pitches to get through the first two innings, but then seemed to shift into gear. He retired 10 straight and 14 of the last 15 batters he faced. Cole got 26 swings and misses Sunday, including 14 on his four-seam fastball. He had 17 called strikes, seven on his fastball.
With the weather having pushed the Yankees into the unenviable situation of playing 23 games in 22 straight days, the Bombers need efficient pitching. So, it’s understandable Cole tried to give them seven innings, throwing a season-high 114 pitches.
After a rough start to the 2022 season, Cole has seemingly settled in.
In his last three starts, Cole has allowed one earned run over 19 innings pitched. He walked four, gave up 14 hits and struck out 25. That’s a remarkable turnaround from his first three starts, when he had a 6.35 ERA after allowing eight earned runs in nine hits, walking eight batters and striking out 12 in just 11.1 innings pitched.
With the wind blowing in from the outfield, the Yankees had to manufacture their first run in the sixth inning. Aaron Judge reached on an infield single and advanced on Anthony Rizzo’s line drive single. Judge scored on Giancarlo Stanton’s groundout.
The Rangers right-hander Dane Dunning took a no-hitter into that sixth inning. He struck out five, walked three and gave up just two hits.
()