Yankees do “win things” while crossing their fingers

Gerrit Cole watched closely from the dugout on Friday night as the Los Angeles Dodgers pulverized his teammate, right-hander Luis Severino. Cole started the middle game of the weekend series between the Yankees and Dodgers, and what he saw of the lineup on the other side of the field, which has hit more home runs than any other National League team, worried him.

“There are outside circumstances that sometimes increase your preparation to a degree,” Cole said one night later, after buzzing through the same Dodgers. “Much heightened awareness. I mean, they beat up Sevy real good. That’s not the most comfortable situation to go in and throw to when you have a dynamic attack that swings the bat well.

“So somehow you can’t really let it affect you. You have to channel it somehow to give yourself some positive energy and go out and give your team a shot at winning the series.

That’s exactly what Cole and the Yankees accomplished on a wild, coming from behind weekend in front of three raucous, sold-out crowds at Dodger Stadium. Aaron Judge didn’t play in Sunday’s 4-1 victory due to a sore and swollen right big toe he hurt during a sensational running catch on Saturday that took him to – and then through – the fence into right field.

Judge said on Sunday there was a chance he would be placed on the injured list as the Yankees begin a six-game homestand on Tuesday.

“When I’m on it, I’m on it,” said Judge. “But I’m not trying to be, you know? Who knows? I don’t have an answer yet. But I hope I have a little rest today and tomorrow and it’s good to move on, hopefully Tuesday. We are now taking it day by day.”

Judge, who hits .348 with 14 home runs over his past 19 games, said he would undergo tests when the team returned to New York.

“I don’t know what they have in store for me, whether it’s X-rays or MRIs,” he said.

Judge is central to the Yankees’ success in so many ways, and every game for the team is vital in the all-out sprint that the AL East has become this summer. It is the only division in which two teams win more than 60 percent of their games (Tampa Bay and Baltimore). And the only division in which every team had a winning record through Sunday.

The Yankees’ 36–25 record is good for third in the East, though it would put them first in three of the other five divisions.

That’s why, after a 4-2 western trip that saw them run into some frisky young poor in Seattle and then heavy woods in Los Angeles, smiles and laughter permeated the clubhouse Sunday night as they headed to Game 2 of the NBA Finals. between Denver and Miami. and dressed to come home. They’d battled walls, cramps, plane flights across the country and more and still won one game in the standings while they were gone.

“Some winning things are happening,” manager Aaron Boone said.

On Saturday, as friends and family looked on, Jake Bauers, a Southern California native whose rebuilt swing since the Yankees bought him from Cincinnati on June 3, continued to improve, the first two-homer game of his career. On Sunday, he hit a sharp single in the seventh with the Yankees trailing 1-0 to begin the final comeback.

“I’m grateful every day to walk in this building,” said Bauers, who is with his sixth organization and was hitting .135 in Class AAA Louisville when the Yankees bought him. “As long as they let me in, I’ll keep giving them everything I’ve got.”

Anthony Volpe, the rookie shortstop whose sharp defense belied his struggles at the plate, hit a two-run homer in the ninth inning on Sunday. Outfielder Oswaldo Cabrera hit an important home run on Saturday after an odyssey in which he was demoted to the minors after the series in Seattle, met his Scranton/Wilkes-Barre teammates on the road in Lehigh Valley, and then was recalled to Los Angeles and activated because Greg Allen had a hip injury.

“Five hours in Lehigh Valley,” Cabrera said. “It was like visiting you, but I have to go back now.”

The highlight was Judge’s determination on Saturday to rob JD Martinez of what appeared to be a sure extra-base hit with a runner on board, no outs and the Yankees leading 5-3 in the eighth inning. After sprinting back to the wall some 80 feet, according to Statcast, Judge reached up with his left hand, made the catch, and then crashed into the portion of the chain link that serves as the gate to the visitors’ bullpen.

When his six-foot-tall, 282-pound frame made a distinct notch in the chain link, the gate opened and Judge briefly disappeared from the game, into the bullpen.

“He actually broke the latch that holds the fence together,” said Dominick Guerrero, an assistant groundskeeper at Dodger Stadium. “He ripped the metal off the wall. Just a testament to what kind of athlete he is.”

The Yankees see it every day.

“Just a great catch,” Boone said. “Add it to the list. Also in a big place.”

Judge waved Boone and the trainers off at that point. But his toe started to get the best of him, he said, once “the adrenaline wore off.” Boone compared the pain to “banging your toe in the middle of the night.” Under the fence runs a concrete plinth about the height of a curb. When Judge hit the fence, his right foot slammed into the cement.

“Look, I think all these places are doing their best to make it as safe as possible,” Boone said. “But to me it looks like the cement at the bottom could be filled in a little bit.”

Cole, likening the capture to something Bo Jackson might have done, watched Judge’s exploits on a television from the clubhouse’s cold bath. The daily pace of baseball leaves little room for spectators. Not long after Cole left his 13th start of the season, recovery and preparation for his next outing began almost immediately.

Even at the beginning of June there is daily urgency. While various parts and pieces come and go around him, this season Cole is the starting piece the Yankees were hoping for when they signed him for the 2020 season in a $324 million deal. Picking up Severino, Cole has pitched six times this season after a loss, and the Yankees are 6-0 in those games, with Cole posting a 3-0 record and a 2.00 ERA.

He is 7-0 with a 2.82 ERA overall this season and has the second largest workload in the majors with 79⅔ innings pitched. His undefeated streak of 13 starts is tied for third longest to start a Yankees season, behind Ron Guidry (17 in 1978) and Allie Reynolds (15 in 1954). With Nestor Cortes scratched with a sore shoulder from his scheduled start against the White Sox on Wednesday, Cole stands as the dependable, old-fashioned workhorse the Yankees can lean on. He pitched through leg cramps on Saturday.

“That’s why he’s the best pitcher in the game,” Judge said. “Day in, day out, that boy takes the ball for us every five days. Feeling good, not feeling good.”

The sentiment was clear: Cole is the Yankees’ main pitcher, and as this season goes deeper and deeper, he plays a key role when Boone’s “winning stuff” happens.

“Walk into the building with a head start, gear up and go into battle,” said Boone. “And rinse and repeat. And they do that at a very high level.”