began life without him again on Friday night<\/a> in encouraging fashion.\u00a0<\/p>\nIn a tribute to Judge, who has fueled much of their first-inning damage over the years, the Yankees put up a five spot in the opening frame before Gerrit Cole took care of the rest in an important bounce-back start.<\/p>\n
Coming into the day having allowed seven home runs over his last two starts, Cole gave up another but limited the damage to just one on the way to the Yankees\u2019 9-2 win over the Diamondbacks at Chase Field.<\/p>\n
On a day that began with news of Judge going on the injured list with a right calf strain that very much threatens his availability for the postseason, the Yankees (89-64) inched within four games of the Rays for the division with nine games remaining, while staying 5 \u00b9\/\u2082 games clear of the Red Sox for the top AL wild card.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re obviously bummed for Aaron and Aaron\u2019s probably bummed too,\u201d Cole said. \u201cBut we\u2019ve been in this position before this year, so unfortunately, it\u2019s our reality at this point. We came out tonight with a good mentality and we played really good baseball and that\u2019s a recipe for success, regardless of who\u2019s in the lineup. Aaron\u2019s a quick healer and a hard worker, and he\u2019ll be back sooner than later for us. In his absence, we\u2019ll hold the fort.\u201d<\/p>\n
Barring a Rays collapse, the Yankees will almost certainly be facing the Red Sox in the AL wild-card series, and Aaron Boone said before Friday\u2019s game that he would expect Cole to make a start in that series despite getting roughed up of late.<\/p>\n
Designated hitter Ben Rice lets a low pitch go as he earns a bases-loaded walk during the first inning of the Yankees\u2019 9-2 blowout win over Diamondbacks on Sept. 18, 2026 in Phoenix. AP Photo\/Ross D. Franklin<\/p>\n
Cole then took the mound and backed up that faith, tossing six innings of two-run ball in his penultimate start of the regular season. <\/p>\n
The runs both came on Corbin Carroll\u2019s two-run shot in the second inning, which came on a 97 mph fastball, the pitch that opponents have hit hard lately against Cole. <\/p>\n
And though he still only generated four whiffs on 20 swings against his fastball, he found a way to minimize the damage and get back on track.<\/p>\n
George Lombard Jr. celebrates while running the bases after
hitting a solo home run in the sixth inning of the Yankees\u2019 win
over the Diamondbacks. Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cI think a lot of people probably overreacted to a couple of outings that, frankly, are inevitable in a long season,\u201d Boone said. \u201cThe reality is he\u2019s having an outstanding season, he\u2019s throwing the ball really well, and a great pitcher like him is going to be able to make some adjustments when you have a couple where they get to you.\u201d<\/p>\n
The veteran right-hander struck out six while walking none and scattering just four hits \u2014 all of which came off his fastball \u2014 against the Diamondbacks (80-74), who are on the outside looking in for the final NL wild card.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGo beyond the box score with the Bombers\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Yankees by Greg Joyce, exclusively on Sports+.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Boone said Cole \u201cgrinded pretty hard\u201d between starts, which the former Cy Young winner indicated was about tightening up his delivery to create more deception.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think we did a perfect job tonight,\u201d Cole said. \u201cI think we moved the needle in the right direction, but there\u2019s still some meat on the bone there. It\u2019s not easy, but it\u2019s necessary. It\u2019s the big leagues.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ben Rice celebrates with Spencer Jones after hitting a solo home run in the third inning of the Yankees\u2019 win over the Diamondbacks. Getty Images<\/p>\n
It helped that the Yankees gave Cole a 5-0 lead to work with before he threw a single pitch, as they made Diamondbacks All-Star lefty Eduardo Rodr\u00edguez throw 45 pitches in the top of the first.<\/p>\n
Each of the first five batters reached base, as Paul Goldschmidt walked, Cody Bellinger singled, Heliot Ramos walked, Ben Rice walked and Amed Rosario singled.<\/p>\n
One out later, George Lombard Jr. roped a two-run single up the middle to make it 5-0.<\/p>\n
Gerrit Cole, who held the Diamondbacks to two runs over six innings and picked up the win, throws a pitch during th fifth inning of the Yankees\u2019 road victory. Getty Images<\/p>\n
Rice added a solo shot off Rodr\u00edguez in the third inning, for his 39th home run of the season \u2014 a number Boone insisted he predicted back in spring training \u2014 before Lombard knocked him out of the game in the sixth with a home run of his own that made it 7-2.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously we were missing [Judge] for a long time there, so this one is especially hard to swallow, him just being back for a brief period and now already gone,\u201d said Rice, who added a triple and two walks. \u201cBut we have no choice but to keep playing hard, keep doing our thing.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHOENIX \u2014 Who needs Aaron Judge? The Yankees do, of course, but they began life without him again…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":350963,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[10094,48671,71821,22383,20,9,11,10,321,319],"class_list":["post-350962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-aaron-judge","tag-ben-rice","tag-george-lombard-jr","tag-gerrit-cole","tag-mlb","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-yankees","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=350962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350962\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/350963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=350962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=350962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=350962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}