CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – Wednesday afternoon’s series finale between the New York Yankees and the Cleveland Guardians had a little bit of everything.
Peyton Battenfield pitched well in his major league debut for Cleveland. Yankees manager Aaron Boone got thrown out during a bizarre replay review. A couple of home runs and a few errors were mixed in, including one that helped decide the outcome.
Then there was a scary and unfortunate accident that saw second base umpire Larry Vanover taken to the hospital for medical care after being inadvertently hit in the head with a thrown baseball.
Here’s our Final 9 takeaways from the Yankees 4-3 victory that dropped the Guardians to 2-4 on their opening homestand of the season and 7-6 overall.
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1. Battenfield was impressive as he retired 13 consecutive Yankees after Anthony Volope sent his first pitch off the left field wall for a double before running into trouble in the fifth. “I think just having some adrenaline in the back pocket of finally getting in there and everything helped out a ton,” Battenfield said. “It was awesome to watch, especially bouncing back after that first [pitch],” first baseman Josh Bell said. “The game can get out of the hand that first inning and he really shut the door there and allowed us a chance to win the game.” Battenfield’s final line: 4 2/3 innings, two earned runs allowed on four hits with three strikeouts. He did not walk a batter. “I thought he did a really good job,” Guardians manager Terry Francona said. “He used his cutter very well. He started mixing some curve balls, which really helped. The last time he pitched was what, eight, nine days ago. I think he threw 64 pitches and I thought about the last four or five hitters. He was starting to get under the ball a little bit. The inning before there was a couple pretty deep line outs and they were starting to square some balls up and I thought he'd gotten us to a point in the game where we could manage it and hopefully win.”
2. The Guardians jumped on Yankees starter Clarke Schmidt in the bottom of the first, scoring a pair of runs off RBI singles by Josh Naylor and Josh Bell as all hell broke loose between the umpires and both dugouts. With runners at second and third, Naylor sent a sinking liner to center, which replay showed Yankees center fielder Aaron Hicks did not catch but was originally ruled an out. Hicks doubled off Jose Ramirez, who had doubled, at second base to apparently end the inning while Steven Kwan crossed the plate after tagging up at third. Then the confusion began, and with it a lengthy delay while the umpires tried to sort everything out. “That was a weird play,” Francona said. “I'm looking at Kwan and I have some anxiety that he left [from third] early and then I have some more anxiety that he didn't score. So I'm fighting, do I even want to [challenge]. I mean, didn't even look at the play in center.”
3. During the review process that followed, Yankees manager Aaron Boone was ejected for arguing with the umpires. After the game home plate umpire Chris Guccione explained what led to the delay and ultimately the umpires reversing the call, allowing the first Guardians run to score and putting runners on the corners. “When we got together as a crew, we were determining if the run was going to be scored or not,” Guccione said via a pool report. “There was a time play. When we got together as a crew, the 15-second clock then shuts off until we break out of our huddle. So, we got together as a grew and we wanted to discuss the whole play, what had happened and if the run scored. We determined when we got together as a crew that the run did not score. So, once we got all that figured out, we went over to Tito to tell him what had transpired. We told him, ‘Guys, we have a catch, out at second, no run scores.’ And he promptly told us, ‘OK, I’d like to challenge the catch in the outfield.’ And that’s the thing. He promptly did it. He was already ready. He didn’t have to check or anything. He promptly did it. So, we did all the rest, radioed up to New York and they came back with a decision that it was no catch, guys at first and third and they scored a run, obviously, because it was no catch. That was the huddle part of it.”
4. Amed Rosario hit his first home run of the season, clearing the wall in right center for a 3-0 Guardians lead but a throwing error in the top of the ninth positioned the Yankees to score what ultimately was the winning run.
5. New York scored a pair of runs to pull within 3-2 in the top of the fifth when Kyle Higashioka crushed a ball off the center field wall driving in Oswaldo Cabrera, who singled with one out. Myles Straw fielded the carom and threw the ball to second baseman Andres Gimenez, who then quickly turned to relay the ball to the plate to get Cabrera when his throw struck second base umpire Larry Vanover in the left side of the head above his ear. Isiah Kiner-Falefa raced home after the ball caromed to the right side of the infield as Vanover fell to the ground. He was able to get up moments later and walk off the field with trainers. “That was scary,” Guccione said. “Very hrd to focus after that after you see a colleague get hit.” Vanover was taken to the Cleveland Clinic where he underwent a CAT scan and other medical tests.
6. Yankees left fielder Franchy Cordero tied the game at three in the top of the seventh by slugging his fourth home run of the season – the second this series, a 439-foot blast to the bullpens in center off Guardians reliever Trevor Stephan.
7. With two outs in the top of the eighth Aaron Judge crushed a pair of James Karinchak offerings but had nothing to show for it. The first one had the distance down the right field line, but it was foul. The second landed in Straw’s glove in front of the wall in center field. Judge was contained within the confines of Progressive Field over the three days – no easy task.
8. Yankees second baseman Oswaldo Cabrea singled off the wall in right to bring home Giancarlo Stanton to give the Yankees a 4-3 lead on Guardians in the ninth. Stanton had singled with one out and went to second base on a throwing error by Rosario setting up the RBI opportunity for Cabrera.
9. The Guardians drew 23,164 on a sun-splashed 70-degree day and they drew 62,606 for the three-game series with the Yankees. The six-game homestand saw a near 70% increase in attendance from last year the team said.