CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – The Hunter Gaddis-Gerrit Cole matchup went exactly as you might have expected to.
The Yankees smacked around Gaddis and coasted to an 11-2 win Tuesday night at Progressive Field to even this week’s series at a game each.
Here’s our Final 9 takeaways from Tuesday’s forget about it night at the ballpark for the Guardians.
1. The Yankees are an imposing lineup for any pitcher. Hunter Gaddis might have nightmares for a bit. “It's baseball and it's going to happen,” Gaddis said. “I mean, everybody has to go through it and you just keep your focus, you know, got another week ahead to get some work done, work on some things, learn from what happened and carry on.”
2. Gaddis got slapped around in the third and fourth innings with the biggest blow being a three-run home run off the bat of Franchy Cordero in the third that blew the game open at 6-2. In that fateful five-run third, Gaddis hit a batter, walked another while giving up a double, single and then the homer. “He hit [Anthony] Rizzo with the 0-2 change up…and once it started he threw a real flat change up to Cordero that he did the big damage with,” Francona said. The first four Yankees reached in the fourth to end his night trailing 7-2. “I just didn't get the pitches where I wanted,” Gaddis said. “I mean, they put us some good at bats, hit the balls that I made a little bit of a mistake on. So props [to them].”
3. In all, Gaddis gave up eight earned runs on eight hits with two walks, three strikeouts and a hit batter in three-plus innings of work to suffer the loss.
4. Catcher Mike Zunino’s defense leaves a lot to be desired behind the plate but him being pulled in the top of the seventh had nothing to do with defense according to Francona, who likes how well he handles the pitching staff. Zunino was unable to field a throw from center field off Jose Trevino’s single that beat Oswaldo Cabrera by a few steps and allowed the Yankees to cut the Guardians lead to 2-1 in the top of the second. In the fifth Zunino had to make a tag on Cordero after dropping a third strike to complete the out. The very next inning Zunino couldn’t field a low pitch from Xzavion Curry, who was charged with a wild pitch, allowing the 10th Yankees run of the night to cross. Meibrys Viloria replaced him.
5. Cole was outstanding for the Yankees to improve to 3-0 on the season. He allowed two runs on five hits in seven innings with two walks and three strikeouts. His ERA rose from 0.73 to 1.40 and he improved to 10-2 in 13 career starts versus Cleveland, including a pair of wins in the division series last October.
6. The Guardians scratched a pair of runs across in the first inning after Steven Kwan and Andres Gimenez opened with singles. Jose Ramirez brought Kwan home with a double to right and Josh Naylor’s sacrifice fly to center scored Gimenez. And that was all, folks.
7. Xzavion Curry threw four innings in relief, saving the bullpen from additional wear. “He saved our bullpen and hopefully when I'm sitting here tomorrow after a win, he'll be a part of that because we didn't have to go to Eli [Morgan],” Francona said. “We stayed away from everybody and with a day off on Thursday and Peyton [Battenfield] pitching, I mean, we will go to our bullpen.”
8. Josh Bell doubled in the bottom of the ninth. He’s now 4-42 with 14 strikeouts to begin the season.
9. Not a lot of time to stew on this one with a day game Wednesday. Battenfield, who was called up Monday, is set to make his major league debut in the series finale.
