About Last Night: Yankees 8 - Cubs 0

by Cary Greene

June 12, 2022

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Quick Stats:

● Winning Pitcher: Jordan Montgomery (2-1) 7 IP / 5 H, 0 ER / 5 K, 0 BB / 96-55 PC-ST

● Losing Pitcher: Matt Swarmer (1-1) 5 IP/ 7 H, 6 ER / 4 K, 0 BB / 90-57 PC-ST

● Yankee Home Runs: Aaron Judge (2), Giancarlo Stanton, Gleyber Torres, Jose Trevino, Anthony Rizzo

● The Yankees are on pace to win 117 games this season.

● Most projection sites have the Yankees chances of making the playoffs now set at 99%, with an 18% chance of winning the World-Series!

● The Yankees ERA+ is presently 133. Since 1903, the average World Series winners have averaged a 113.66 ERA+

● The Yankees have now won 10 consecutive games in the Bronx, outscoring their opponents 55 to 14.

● Yesterday, June 11, marked the 99th anniversary of the debut of my favorite all-time Yankee - Lou Gehrig!

Who’s Hot?

○ Aaron Judge: 24 Home Runs Leads MLB, Top 1% of league in too many Statcast Metrics to even list. JUST PAY THE GUY! He’s on pace to hit 66 Home Runs this year!

○ Clay Holmes has now pitched 28 straight scoreless innings.

○ Yankee pitching now has 9 shutouts on the season, which ties them with the pace that the 1967 Yankees set (16). The club record is 24 set in 1951.

Who’s Not?

○ The Cubs offense - Chicago will be glad to get out of the Bronx. Yankee pitching has downright stifling in this series.

Big Story:

The Yankees bullpen came into the game pretty much gassed, with Manny Banuelos being the freshest reliever, so Jordan Montgomery needed to give the Yankees some length in order to give the Yankees a chance to win their 10th straight game at Yankee Stadium.

“Monty” wound up doing just that as he pitched 7 innings, throwing 96 pitches - 55 for strikes while holding the Cubs scoreless. The Yankees couldn’t possibly have hoped for a better performance and it went a long way towards helping the bullpen get some rest.

Aaron Judge opened the scoring by giving the Yankees an early 1-0 lead as he hit his 23rd home run of the year, a laser to left field.

Giancarlo Stanton drove one to the deepest part of Yankee stadium in the first inning and narrowly missed a home run of his own. From there, it became a bit of a pitcher’s duel until the bottom of the fourth inning, when Giancarlo Stanton sent a missile out to left field to make it 2-0 Yankees.

Then, the very next batter, Gleyber Torres hit one out to center field and all of a sudden, it was 3-0 Yankees.

In the bottom of the fifth, Jose Trevino continued his offensive output with another home run, this one hooked off the left field foul pole.

Then, Aaron Judge then hit his second dinger of the game and his 24th of the season but the Yankees fifth-inning party wasn’t quite finished yet.

Anthony Rizzo decided to pile on and he took one out to right field for a 6-0 Yankee lead, with five-innings in the book.

The Yankee offense kept putting runs on the board as Kiner-Falefa singled home Gleyber Torres to make it 7-0 Yankees and then Aaron Judge drove in his third run of the game with a sacrifice fly to right field and the Yankees led the Cubs 8-0.

Player of the Game:

Aaron Judge was a beast last night, not only did he set the tone but he’s having fantastic at bats these days. He not only hit two home runs, but he was able to impact the game from the DH position as Aaron Hicks, Giancarlo Stanton and Joey Gallo comprised the starting outfield.

Notable Performances:

● Jose Trevino’s defense was on full display last night and was highlighted by his cat-quick putout of Wilson Contreras. He blocked a Montomery Change-Up that bounced in front of him and then he collected the ball in the blink-of-an-eye and gunned out Contreras who was attempting to advance on the play.

● Jordan Montgomery threw shutout baseball through 7-innings and he leaned on his Sinker, his Change-Up and his Curve but also mixed in some Cutters and a few 4-Seam Fastballs - throwing 68% of his pitches for strikes.

● The Yankee bullpen was once again bullet proof. Ron Marinaccio and Lucas Luetge both worked scoreless innings in relief of Jordan Montgomery.

Better to Forget:

● The Cubs offense has so far looked very over-matched against Yankee pitching. Their lone run in Friday’s 13-inning loss was a solo home run.

● Joey Gallo continues to struggle against right-handed pitching. He’s swung through nearly 40% of the pitches righties have thrown him this season. Gallo was 0-3 with 2 strikeouts in the game.

● Aaron Hicks was 0-3 but he did score a run and make a very lucky recovery on a shallow fly to center field, which he fortunately caught.

My Take:

Yankee fans have waited a long time now to watch Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton both play together regularly and this year’s team has been quite a treat because that’s exactly what they’re doing these days. Last night, the Yankees were scary-dominant. Jordan Montgomery looked really stingy and the Yankee offense was simply relentless - as they have been for most of the season. What team hits six home runs through the first six innings of a game, the very day after playing a 13 inning marathon?

A much tougher stretch of the schedule begins after Monday’s off-day, but the Yankees have to feel extremely good with where they are playing.

Up Next:

The Yankees host the Cubs at Yankee Stadium in game three of this fantastically fun interleague skirmish this afternoon. Jameson Taillon, 6-1 with a 2.73 ERA and 47 Strikeouts takes the mound for the Yankees and the Cubs will oppose him with a mystery man known only as TBD. Game Time is set for 1:35 pm. There is a chance of thunderstorms. Monday will be an off-day ahead of a treacherous homestand that includes pivotal series with both the Rays, the Blue Jays.