Sonny Gray’s solid start and Indians’ sloppy play lead Yankees to 14th win in 15 games

The Yankees came into this game searching for another series win against a quality baseball team, and they did just that by scrapping together five runs off of a two-error play by Francisco Lindor and some timely hitting. Sonny Gray put together his second solid start in a row.

Photo Credit: AP

The scoring remained at zero for both teams in the early going. Bauer was virtually unhittable and pounding the zone, and Gray was attacking hitters with an electric fastball. Gray’s first jam came in the third inning as he allowed the Indians to load the bases on two hits and a walk. However, the game remained tied as Gray struck out Jason Kipnis and induced a fly out off the bat of Jose Ramirez.

The Indians scored their first run as a result of a Francisco Lindor solo-shot to right-centerfield in the top of the fifth, and it was the only big hit allowed by Gray all day.

The Yankees finally made some noise in their half of the fifth inning. They entered the inning without a single batter reaching base off of Bauer, but this quickly changed. With one out, Neil Walker and Miguel Andújar strung together two quality at-bats to draw walks. Gleyber Torres followed with a base-knock up the middle to end Bauer’s no-hit effort. With the bases loaded, Bauer continued to struggle finding the zone as he walked Austin Romine to tie the game at one run. Then, Ronald Torreyes scorched a ground ball to Lindor, which should have been an inning ending double play, but Lindor botched it allowing a run to score. The play did not end there as Lindor oddly threw the ball to third, much to surprise of Jose Ramirez, and it rolled to the dugout allowing another run to score. The Yankees capped off this unconventional rally with a Brett Gardner sacrifice fly.

Photo Credit: AP

With the lead there for Gray, he did not allow the Indians to recapture any of their lost momentum as he prevented the Indians from scoring any more than one run following a leadoff double off the bat of Jose Ramirez.

Chad Green pitched the seventh and eighth inning for the Yankees and was spectacular, not allowing a baserunner and striking out four players. Gardner gave the Yankees a much needed insurance run in the bottom of the seventh as he singled in Austin Romine to make it a 5-2 game, the score which David Robertson ended the game with as he recorded his first save of 2018.

The Good

The Sonny Gray and Austin Romine tandem appears to be paying dividends as Gray tossed his second consecutive quality start. Romine and Gray were on the same page for the entirety of the start, and it was reflected in his pacing and attacking of hitters.

Brett Gardner had a much-needed 2-RBI performance as his OPS currently sits at a meager .578.

Austin Romine made up for the loss of Sanchez’s bat as he had a huge RBI walk and smoked a double off the wall, which setup one of Gardner’s RBI.

Chad Green was phenomenal once again, and Robertson filled in nicely for Chapman who had pitched four of the past six games.

The Bad

The offense was quiet as a whole today, but the big boppers were picked up by the likes of Gardner, Romine, and Toe. Judge and Stanton combined for five strikeouts and Aaron Hicks went 1-for-4 in his debut in the three hole. It was also a rare no home run day from the Bombers in New York.

Winning Pitcher: Sonny Gray (2-2, 6.00 ERA) 6 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 7 K, 1 HR

Losing Pitcher: Trevor Bauer (2-3, 2.53 ERA) 6 IP, 2 H, 4 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 8 K, 0 HR

Save: Robertson (1)

Notables:

Brett Gardner: 1-3, 2 RBI

Austin Romine: 1-2, 2 R, 1 2B, 1 BB, 1 RBI

Gleyber Torres: 1-3, 1 R

Chad Green: 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K

What’s Next?

The Yankees will go for the series sweep in the Bronx. The Indians will pitch Mike Clevinger and the Yankees will oppose them with rookie hurler Domingo German, who is pitching in place of the injured Jordan Montgomery. Gametime is set for 1:05 PM ET and will be broadcasted on YES.

Article by: Ryan Thoms

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