Gerrit Cole Returns, Aaron Judge Sits Out, and the Yankees Lose

Gerrit Cole was back on the mound, albeit for not very long, and Aaron Judge was, as expected, out of the lineup as the Yankees dropped the middle game of their big series with the Orioles. Once again, no Box Score Briefs today because life has been getting in the way of things the last few days and I just haven’t had time to do that part of the newsletter. Lets get to it.

June 19: Orioles 7, Yankees 6

Gerrit Cole made his much anticipated return to the mound at Yankee Stadium which was fun, but as I suspected - and told you in Wednesday’s newsletter - Aaron Judge was not in the lineup after getting hit on the left hand the previous night.

Never a doubt in my mind about that, and what was alarming to me is that when the Yankees needed Judge the most as a pinch-hitter in the 10th inning, a very easy move for Aaron Boone to make given the game circumstances, he instead stuck with the useless Jahmai Jones who struck out to end the game.

As they always do with injuries, the Yankees told us Wednesday that all is well and Judge just needed a day. He’s “day-to-day” Boone said, but day-to-day could very well mean that he doesn’t play day after day after day.

“He was better (Wednesday) and got down there (in the cage) and swung a little bit, but it was definitely still pretty sore in there,’’ Boone said. “I don’t want him to go out there and compromise anything and fight through it and something bad happens. It doesn’t hurt in the grand scheme of things to also give him just a normal day since he’s banged up. Hope this serves his whole body well.”

Hand injuries can be very tricky for hitters, and the eternal pessimist in me finds it a little hard to believe that Judge is going to walk into the clubhouse today feeling any better than he did Wednesday when he wasn’t well enough to pinch hit in a huge spot. How much better will his hand feel at 4:05 when the first pitch is thrown today than it did at 11 o’clock last night when the Yankees were down 7-6 but had a man on base with two outs and a chance to tie or win the game?

I never believe a single word the Yankees tell us about injuries, and until I see Judge not only in the lineup but swinging and producing the way he was, this is a concerning situation.

Here are my observations:

➤ Cole certainly wasn’t great, but he was pretty good and I don’t understand why Boone lifted him with one out in the fifth inning of a 1-1 game. He was at 62 pitches. Last Friday in Rochester, he threw 70 and clearly could have gone longer, so why the hell was Boone out there pulling him when he could easily have gotten to 80 or 85?

➤ The Orioles got to him in the first with some hard contact. Gunnar Henderson drilled his third pitch for a double on a ball that caromed off Gleyber Torres’ glove, and after two outs, Ryan O’Hearn nailed a ground-rule double to left for a 1-0 lead. Thereafter, Cole settled in nicely. He had an easy 1-2-3 second inning helped by a great play by Anthony Volpe; he struck out the side in the third including Adley Rutschman and Ryan Mountcastle; and in the fourth he went 1-2-3 with two more strikeouts. Yet when Cedric Mullins led off the fifth with a single, Boone took him out. It was ridiculous, and sure enough, it cost the Yankees.

➤ Ron Marinaccio came in and flat out sucked, shining the light once again on a bullpen that is simply not good. Marinaccio immediately gave up a two-run homer to, of all guys in this lineup, light-hitting Ramon Urias. Later, he allowed a single, a walk and an RBI double to O’Hearn that made it 4-1. Just a brutal job by Marinaccio who is so wildly inconsistent that he can’t be trusted.

➤ A big, stupid and ultimately costly moment occurred with one out in the seventh when Victor Gonzalez more than likely on purpose hit Henderson with a pitch, very surely in retaliation for Judge and Torres getting hit the night before. Naturally he and the Yankees denied he did it on purpose, but we all know better. Henderson is their best player, so Gonzalez apparently felt it was his duty to plunk him. I’m sorry, I know some of you probably loved that, but I think it’s utterly stupid. Albert Suarez was not trying to hit Judge Tuesday, he was trying to pitch him inside and it got away. It happens all the time. Of course I’m mad as hell that Judge got hurt, but it wasn’t on purpose. Still, the Yankees felt the need to flex their muscles and it came back to burn their asses. Gonzalez got the second out, but Tommy Kahnle - who has been horrible since coming off the IL - gave up the run. Henderson promptly stole second because Jose Trevino has the worst catcher’s arm in MLB, and he scored on Mountcastle’s double to make it 5-1. Real smart, putting Henderson on base and then allowing him to score.

➤ Giancarlo Stanton is in one of his hot streaks. When these occur, they are something to behold and he had two great at bats to tie the game. In the seventh, Volpe singled and Juan Soto had a swinging bunt single so the Orioles brought in flamethrowing setup man Yennier Cano to face Stanton. His third pitch was launched 440 feet to left-center for a three-run homer and the stadium came alive. Torres then walked with one out, bringing DJ LeMahieu to the plate. You don’t have to guess what happened: Double play grounder to suffocate the air right out of the building.

➤ In the eighth, Ben Rice singled and Trevino did his DJ impression and grounded into another soul-crushing DP.

➤ That led to quite a dramatic ninth. In the top half, Boone elected to use Anthony Misiewicz in a one-run game against the team that will be their lone competition for the AL East title. Misiewicz had just been called up from Triple-A and sure enough, the Orioles loaded the bases and were primed to blow the game open when Anthony Santander hit a rocket to deep center. Alex Verdugo, who moved over to play center field after Jones replaced Grisham, ranged back and made a spectacular running catch before banging into the wall to save three runs. Then in the bottom half, Volpe led off with a double and Stanton singled him home to tie the game.

➤ Obviously the 10th didn’t go as well. Clay Holmes came on with the automatic runner on second and after he got the first man on a pop up, Mullins - who is having a horrible season at the plate - dropped a single into center to score the run, and he went to second when Verdugo foolishly threw the ball home. Mullins then stole third because why not against Trevino? And Trevino threw the ball into left field allowing Mullins to score the all-important second run of the inning. Just a terrible defensive job in that sequence and it proved to be the difference in the game.

➤ In the bottom half with Torres starting on second, LeMahieu blooped a single to center and Rice hit a sacrifice fly to make it 7-6. Then another mistake. Oswaldo Cabrera pinch ran for LeMahieu and got thrown out stealing. I get what Boone was doing trying to get the runner into scoring position with the bottom of the order up, but you can’t run on Rutschman and he threw a strike to nail Cabrera easily. Trevino was able to walk, and as Judge stood in the dugout watching, Jones put together a pathetic three-pitch whiff, staring at a called third strike right down the middle as the stadium groaned in disgust.