Well, it's Masters week. To Hell with that: Golf is not a sport. Let's talk baseball:
The Yankees and the Philadelphia Phillies wrapped up a 3-game series at Yankee Stadium this afternoon. The threat of rain was a factor. So was the wind. But they got the whole game in. Gerrit Cole got through the 1st 4 innings without much trouble. He walked 2 batters with 2 out in the 5th, but got out of it. He breezed through the 6th.
In the bottom of the 1st, Aaron Judge singled and stole 2nd base, and was singled home by Gleyber Torres. In the bottom of the 2nd, Josh Donaldson started limping while running out a popup, and was replaced at 3rd base by Isiah Kiner-Falefa. He will be re-evaluated tomorrow.
The Phillies weren't happy with home plate umpire Nic Lentz, and he gave them a little leeway until the top of the 5th, when he threw hitting instructor Kevin Long out of the game. Long, of course, previously held the same job with the Yankees, and later with the Mets.
DJ LeMahieu led off the bottom of the 6th with a double into left-center. Torres singled him home, to make it 2-0 Yankees. Cole struck out the 1st batter in the 7th, and was cruising. He had allowed no runs on 2 hits and 2 walks. Then he walked a batter. And, since he had thrown 103 pitches, Brian Cashman had Aaron Boone take him out. Mistake: Jonathan Loáisiga allowed a single, hit a batter, and allowed a sacrifice fly before getting out of the inning.
However, Cliché Alert: Walks can kill you, especially
the leadoff variety. Oswaldo Cabrera led off the bottom of the 7th by drawing a walk, and Jose Trevino hit a home run to make it 4-1 Yankees. Loáisiga gave up a homer to Kyle Schwarber in the 8th, making it back-to-back games with a homer for Schwarber. But that would be the last baserunner for the Phils, as Loáisiga got out of the 8th, and Clay Holmes struck out the side in the 9th.
Yankees 4, Phillies 2. WP: Cole (2-0). SV: Holmes (1). LP: Aaron Nola (0-1). It was just like in days of old, if not at the old Yankee Stadium: An afternoon game, with a big crowd (35,847), the Yankees won with a home run and good pitching, and it took only 2 hours and 30 minutes to play.
This concludes the Yankees' 1st homestand of the season. They were supposed to be the opponents for the Baltimore Orioles' home opener tomorrow afternoon. But the O's have looked at the weather forecast, and postponed the game to Friday at 3:05 PM. This is why teams tend to have an off day the day after their home opener, so they don't lose that big crowd.