NEW YORK — They may be the Bronx Bombers, but Thursday the Yankees put on a showcase of starting pitching. After Nestor Cortes threw seven scoreless in the Yankees’ afternoon 6-1 win over the Angels, Jameson Taillon took a perfect game into the eighth inning of the Yankees’ 2-1 win in the nightcap at Yankee Stadium.
The Yankees (36-15) swept the doubleheader and the series from the Angels (27-25), who have now lost eight in a row. The Yankees have won seven of their last nine games and regained the best record in baseball.
Anthony Rizzo hit a pinch-hit, two-run single with the bases loaded in the bottom of the eighth inning and Clay Holmes survived a shaky ninth to give the Yankees the come-from-behind win in the nightcap. In the first game, the Yankees lived up to their Bombers’ nickname with four home runs, including a leadoff homer from Matt Carpenter, a major league-leading 19th from Aaron Judge, a 10th on the season for Gleyber Torres (who had nine all of last year) and a tack-on for DJ LeMahieu.
But, the foundation for the Yankees' recent hot stretch has been outstanding starting pitching and they got that Thursday.
Yankees starters have now thrown at least six innings in a season-high seven straight games. Through the first 50 games of the season, the Yankees’ starters—thanks to Cortes and Taillon — had the best combined ERA (2.71) in the American League.
Taillon flirted with history through seven innings Thursday night, but finished with just an impressive line of eight innings allowing only one run on two hits. He struck out five. His second-inning strikeout of Brandon Marsh was the 600th of his career.
Jared Walsh’s sharp groundball up the middle kicked off the glove of a diving Isiah Kiner-Falefa to lead off the eighth inning with a double that ended Taillon’s bid for a perfect game. Advancing to third on Marsh’s groundout to first, Walsh scored the first run of the game on Kurt Suzuki’s line drive to left that fell in front of Miguel Andujar.
After seeing Taillon this season, it wasn’t a surprise to see him dominate the Angels lineup, which has been scuffling throughout this three-game series. Taillon had not allowed more than three earned runs in his first nine starts and not more than two earned runs in eight of them. He had walked no more than one batter in each of those previous nine starts.
Maybe it was surprising that Taillon was even in this situation this season. The 30-year old has been through Tommy John surgery not once in his career, but twice. He battled testicular cancer. At the end of last season, his first back from his second elbow reconstruction and first with the Yankees, Taillon suffered a torn ankle ligament. The Yankees weren’t even sure he’d be back from October surgery by this time.
But Taillon has overcome all that and become a stronger, better pitcher through the years. Cortes outdueled Angels star Shohei Ohtani in the first game of the double-header, a 6-1 win for the Yankees that had the Angels two-way star chased off the mound with five runs charged to him after just three innings. The Angels got better pitching from Reid Detmers in the nightcap. The lefty held the Yankees scoreless, scattering five hits and three walks, over 4 1/3 innings of work.
In the early game, Cortes tossed seven scoreless, scattering five hits and two walks. He struck out seven and lowered his ERA to 1.50. He got 12 swings and misses, six with his cutter and another eight called strikes with it. Cortes had 12 called strikes on his four-seam fastball.
Opponents are hitting just .176 (38 for 215) against him this season. He has allowed three earned runs or less in his last 19 starts, the second-longest such streak in franchise history.
“It’s a special start to the season. It’s fun to watch him compete. He goes out with a lot of conviction in his plan of attack and what he wants to do and he and the catcher (are) on the same page,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “Even today, he wasn’t necessarily as dominant as his last start. They made it a little tough on him. He had a pretty high pitch count there in the first few innings. They had some traffic against them. He walked a couple guys, gave up some hits. But when he needs to make a pitch he does. He’s got a lot of things going for him. He’s got weapons but he’s got that Nestor-savvy out there and it serves him well in whatever situation he’s in.”
