The Two-Man Team Had a Little Help in Victory Over Guardians

We have come to expect greatness on a nightly basis from Aaron Judge and Juan Soto, and Wednesday, they were certainly great as they drove in all eight runs. But Nestor Cortes did his part, too, as he delivered a much-needed long and effective start as the Yankees bounced back from that horrible loss Tuesday by drumming the Guardians. Lets get to it.

Aug. 21: Yankees 8, Guardians 1

After wasting four aggravating hours of my life Tuesday night watching that debacle of a game, I took a mental health day Wednesday and didn’t bother tuning in to Amazon Prime for the Yankees.

Of course, this was the night they decided not to play like the Bad News Bears did before cigarette-smoking neighborhood tough-guy/star athlete Kelly Leek showed up, and voila, they cruised to an easy victory.

Cruised to an easy victory. Imagine my glee typing those words because that is something that is pretty rare for the Yankees, the team that generally makes everything difficult. So for all of you who were brave enough to buckle up and ride the rollercoaster again, I’m happy that you had a stress-free evening.

I watched the condensed game this morning and realized I didn’t miss that much. Nestor Cortes was great as he completely stymied the Guardians offense across seven easy shutout innings, and Aaron Judge and Juan Soto, as usual, did all the heavy lifting for the offense. This was the 11th time this year they’ve homered in the same game and the Yankees are 9-2 when it happen.

“Two guys that are great, back to back,” Aaron Boone said. “They obviously root for one another. I think they really appreciate each other; one right-handed, one left-handed. They are different in how they do it, and I think they like doing what they did tonight.”

So yeah, it was nice that the Yankees snapped their three-game losing streak, and they jumped back into first place in the AL East because the Orioles continued their own struggles and lost to the Mets. But you know me, I skew toward the negative, and I continue to wrack my brain trying to figure out how the Yankees expect to win a World Series with two hitters and a bunch of bat boys.

Judge and Soto went a combined 4-for-6 with a walk and a hit by pitch, they scored four times and drove in all eight runs. The rest of the lineup went 5-for-26, drew two walks and scored four runs, not because any of them delivered each other; it was all Judge and Soto sending them home.

“We’re both all about the team,” Soto said. “Even when we’re just working out, that’s what we’re thinking about: ‘How can we help the team win?’”

Here’s a better thing to ponder: How can you teach some of your teammates how to do some of the wondrous things you do?

Here are my observations:

➤ Man, the Yankees needed Cortes to give them that outing after the entire bullpen pitched the night before. That was huge because the only guy Boone had to use in this one was mop up man Tim Mayza who blew the shutout in the eighth by serving up a solo homer to Jhonkensy Noel.

➤ I think most of us had given up Cortes for dead, including me. And for good reason because before his last two outstanding starts, the previous five had been hideous - a 9.26 ERA as opponents hit .360/.412/.670 for a 1.082 OPS against him. He finally found a team he could handle, the historically bad White Sox and he pitched seven shutout innings with nine strikeouts last week. I was not expecting a repeat performance against the Guardians, but shockingly, seven more shutout innings as he allowed just three hits and no walks.

➤ Cortes’ back-to-back starts of at least seven shutouts innings and no walks has been done only four other times in Yankees history. The others were Al Orth in 1905, Steve Kline in 1972, Catfish Hunter in 1975 and Ron Guidry in 1977. “Good company,” Cortes said with a smile when he was told of this.

➤ Just like Tuesday, the Yankees grabbed a quick 2-0 lead in the first as Gleyber Torres led off with a single and Soto homered. Unlike Tuesday, they tacked on and ran away. Soto walked in the third and Judge hit his first home run of the night to make it 4-0.

➤ In the fourth, in between whiffs by Anthony Volpe and Rice, Alex Verdugo and Oswald Peraza walked, and then Torres singled to load the bases. Soto stepped in and seeing third baseman Jose Ramirez playing way off the line and over toward shortstop, Soto just flicked a weak punch shot down the line and all three runners scored to blow the game open. Judge hit his second bomb, and 47th of the season, in the seventh for the final run.

➤ Check out this comparison: Judge through 127 games in 2022, the year he set the AL record with 62 home runs: .295/.396/.661 with 49 home runs and 109 RBIs. This year through 127 games: .334/.465/.722 with 47 home runs and 117 RBIs. Amazing stuff. All of those numbers lead MLB except his average (he’s second behind Bobby Witt’s .352). He also leads in extra base hits (78) and total bases (332).

➤ There have only been 29 times in history where a player reached 400 total bases. Lou Gehrig did it five times, but Babe Ruth (who holds the all-time record with 457) did it just twice and Barry Bonds only once. Judge had 391 in 2022.

➤ This was Judge’s 38th multi-homer game, fourth-most in team history behind Ruth (68), Mickey Mantle (46) and Gehrig (43).

➤ Boone finally decided that enough was enough with DJ LeMahieu and he benched him and played Ben Rice, even though the Guardians started lefty Joey Cantillo. Not that it mattered because Rice continued to be just as bad as LeMahieu as he went 0-for-4 with two whiffs and he’s now hitting .182. But LeMahieu had to sit, and he needs to sit for the rest of his career, though I know that won’t happen. There are 314 players that have at least 200 plate appearances this season and LeMahieu’s .512 OPS ranks 312th. The only players worse are Tim Anderson (.463) and Brandon Drury (.414).

➤ I can’t believe I’m saying this, but with LeMahieu and Rice providing a black hole at first base, I can’t wait until Anthony Rizzo returns because for as bad as he was before he got hurt, he wasn’t as bad as LeMahieu or Rice. He’s starting a rehab assignment at Double-A this weekend. Also starting rehabs this weekend are Jon Berti, Clarke Schmidt, Cody Poteet and Ian Hamilton. Good, because the Yankees need all the help they can get and all of those guys theoretically should be able to help.

➤ As expected, Luis Gil went on the 15-day IL with lower back pain, so now it looks like Will Warren - who has made three spot starts - will be called up and slotted into the rotation, at least until Schmidt is ready to go. Boone said it doesn’t look like a serious issue with Gil, but we’ll see on that.

⚾ The Mets did their crosstown rival a favor as they won in walk-off fashion against the Orioles for the second time in three nights to win their series at Citi Field. Monday, Francisco Alvarez homered off Seranthony Dominguez, a Baltimore trade deadline acquisition, in the bottom of the ninth.

Wednesday, Mets starter Sean Manaea retired the first 17 batters which is quite a feat against the Orioles and had a 3-0 before faltering and Baltimore tied it in the eighth. But then Dominguez came in for the bottom of the ninth and Jesse Winker homered to walk it off again. It’s nice to see other teams’ reliever acquisitions shitting the bed the way the Yankees’ have been doing.

⚾ The Red Sox remain pesky as they went into Houston and took two out of three from the hottest team in MLB, the team that I would bet almost anyone - even though I don’t bet - will end up winning the AL pennant. Everyone buried the Astros after they started 12-24, but even though they lost the last two to Boston they’re 68-58 and have turned a 10-game AL West division into a five-game lead over the Mariners. In this game, Justin Verlander came off the IL and made his first start in a couple months and gave up two runs in five innings, but his teammates did nothing against seven Red Sox pitchers. Boston is only 6.5 game behind the Yankees and 3.5 games behind the Twins for the final wild-card spot.

⚾ The Blue Jays had a 6-0 lead against Reds and then got outscored 11-1 the rest of the way and lost 11-7. Man, the Jays are bad and I, of course, love it. Elly De La Cruz stole his 60th base of the season for Cincinnati.

⚾ The Braves just lost third baseman Austin Riley and now are without him, Ronald Acuna, Ozzie Albies, and Spencer Strider - yeah, we Yankees fans can’t complain to Braves fans about injuries. And then Wednesday they lost 3-2 to the Phillies and fell seven games behind Philly in the NL East, and saw their lead over the Mets for the final wild-card spot shrink to 1.5 games. They had a 2-0 lead but Max Fried gave it up and in the eighth, Brandon Marsh’s sac fly won it for the Phillies.

⚾ Shohei Ohtani stole his 39th base leaving him one bag and one homer away from joining the 40-40 club as the Dodgers beat the fading Mariners 8-4. Jack Flaherty, who the Yankees couldn’t pull the trigger on because Brian Cashman loves his prospects, got the win for Los Angeles. He’s now 3-0 with a 3.27 ERA since coming to the Dodgers, and his season ERA is 3.00.