The Yankees And Their Ace Position Themselves For Their First Series Sweep Of The 2021 Season

  Unlike Opening Day against the Jays, where Gerrit Cole was not too happy with the outcome of his outing, he dominated against the birds from Baltimore in his second outing of the season.

  Cole was nothing short of a phenom on the mound under the night sky at Yankee Stadium in game two against the Baltimore Orioles. As a matter of fact, the Tuesday night American Pastime clash was a record-setting night for the Bronx baseball club for a couple of reasons:

Yankees ace Gerrit Cole struck out 13 batters over seven innings in a 7-2 victory over the Orioles at Yankee Stadium. Per Yankees PR:

- Cole’s 13 strikeouts were the most by a Yankees pitcher since Masahiro Tanaka’s 15K on 9/29/17 vs. Toronto (7.0 IP).

- Cole is just the sixth Yankees pitcher (seventh time) to toss at least 7.0 scoreless innings and record at least 13K without surrendering a walk.

- Cole has recorded at least 7 strikeouts in each of his last 11 regular season starts (since 8/8/20-Game 1), the longest such stretch by a Yankees pitcher in franchise history.

This time around, the ace of the pitching staff got the support he needed from his offense, unlike the cold bats he was aid by on the first game of the 2021 season.

Jay Bruce and Aaron Judge were a big supply the power production, as each one of them connected with the baseball to hit homeruns in an astonishing 7-2 victory over the Orioles on Tuesday evening at Yankee Stadium.

“I certainly think I’m more comfortable,” Cole said. “It’s been a lot easier than inserting yourself into a new team in the environment that we had last year. It’s a more normal setting, more normal season, people in the stands. So therefore, I do feel a little more comfortable, for sure.....”

The Cole Train tossed 71 of 97 pitches for strikes and hit the radar gun at 100.5 mph with his fastball, the 13 strikeouts marked Cole’s most in a regular-season game since joining the Yankees. He ended up matching his tally from Game 1 of last year’s American League Wild Card Series against the Indians.

“He was impressive. He attacked from the first inning,” Judge said. “That’s what I love to see out of our ace, going out there attacking guys, attacking hitters -- racking up about 13 K's. He could have had a lot more, I think, too. It’s great to see out of his second start....”

An awesome take from the Yankees' slugging right fielder.

As a matter of fact, Cole’s four-pitch mix was on point all night, as he was generating 27 swings and misses against Baltimore's lineup with his fastball (40), slider (23), curveball (21) and changeup (14),which efficiently painted all four quadrants of the strike zone. Cole retired the final 12 O’s that he faced.

"It’s pretty fun when he’s getting big strikeouts to end [the] inning, getting fired up,” said catcher Kyle Higashioka, again paired with Cole after Gary Sánchez was behind the plate on Opening Day. “When we punch a guy out to end the inning and the fans go wild, I definitely missed that."

Taking into consideration that both catchers have now worked with Cole very early in the season and now we have seen two different outcomes, maybe going forward, a call needs to be made to once again have Higgy be Cole's personal catcher.

It was unfortunate that Cole's first outing didn't go as plan, but his second time out was very special.

With his father Mark, mother Sharon and sister Erin in attendance, Cole became the sixth Yankee (seventh time) to toss seven or more scoreless innings with no walks and 13 or more strikeouts, and the first since Masahiro Tanaka fanned 15 on Sept. 29, 2017, vs. Toronto.

“I thought that we kept them off balance and made a lot of good pitches,” Cole said. “I came in the zone sometimes when they weren’t expecting, and got them to chase off good pitches back to back.”

Play at the plate

They didn’t realize it at the time, but the Orioles’ best opportunity against Cole came in the first inning, when leadoff hitter Cedric Mullins singled, stole second and advanced to third on a wild pitch.

With the infield playing in, Anthony Santander chopped a ball to first base that Bruce picked cleanly. Bruce is gaining comfort at the position and he looked natural in firing home to Higashioka, who tagged out Mullins.

“I don’t know if there are a lot of easy plays for me over there,” Bruce said. “I’m definitely getting more used to it. It’s starting to slow down for me.”

Looking Ahead To A Potential Sweep 

  For the most part, with the Yanks clicking on the  offensive and defensive fronts of things for the first two games against the Baltimore birds, Aaron Boone and his squad could be looking at their first sweep of the 2021 season.

  In the third game of the Orioles-Yankees three game set, it will be a lefty vs. righty duel to close out the series.

  Yankee fans will get a look at another newly acquired starting arm tonight with Jameson Taillon taking the hill tonight. It should be a special outing for Taillon, because he will once again have a good friend in his corner. Cole and the Yanks will have their first official look at the former Pirates' pitcher.  The righty is set to make his Yankee debut, as he had  a Tommy John surgery done back in 2019. He has pitched to a 1-1 record with a 1.08 ERA in four of his spring outing (three starts). Overall he struck out 14 against four walks in 8 1/3 inning during his spring camp.

  As the Orioles-Yankee three game set will finale will feature a lefty vs. righty finale, the Orioles will oppose Taillon with a lefty on the mound. John Means is coming off seven shutout innings against the Boston Red Sox on Opening Day and he will use that momentum to prevent his team from getting swept at Yankee Stadium tonight at 6:30 P.M. He held the Sox to one hit and two baserunners, all while striking out five. The 2019 All-Star holds a 1-1 record with a career ERA of 5.54 at Yankee Stadium.

   It should be a pitching duel that both fan bases will not want to miss.