Yankees knock Phillies around in series opener
Reliever Yunior Marte surrendered four more runs and three more walks before Philadelphia’ s bullpen settled down, paving the way for an easy 8-1 Yankees win in the three-game series opener. Highlights included a third-inning solo shot from Gleyber Torres— his second home run of the season and the 100th of his career— and a two-run, second-deck drive from Anthony...
Phillies starter Taijuan Walker’s Monday evening began with a poorly played triple off the bat of DJ LeMahieu and three first-inning walks, but it wasn’t until later that the Yankees started pouring it on.
The Bombers only came away with a pair of runs in the opening frame, but they scored two more off Walker before his night ended after 4.1 innings. Reliever Yunior Marte surrendered four more runs and three more walks before Philadelphia’s bullpen settled down, paving the way for an easy 8-1 Yankees win in the three-game series opener.
The victory featured contributions from most of the Yankees’ lineup. Highlights included a third-inning solo shot from Gleyber Torres — his second home run of the season and the 100th of his career — and a two-run, second-deck drive from Anthony Rizzo, his first longball of 2023, in the fifth inning.
“It feels great, amazing,” Torres said of hitting the century mark for home runs. “It’s really special, especially [to] do it right here in Yankee Stadium. It’s great to hit that kind of homer here.”
Franchy Cordero lined a two-RBI double in his Yankees debut, while Giancarlo Stanton and Jose Trevino each drove a runner in.
Every Yankees starter reached base at least once, and the team totaled nine walks in the game. Afterward, Aaron Boone praised his lineup’s balanced approach.
“While being aggressive and being willing to be aggressive early in the count, we’re also taking pitches that we should as a group,” the manager said. “I feel like they’re kind of feeding off each other right now.
“DJ set the tone right out of the chute with that bullet up the middle on a good at-bat. And then there were a lot of contributing bats throughout the night.”
On the mound, Nestor Cortes mostly kept the Phillies off the board in his first start of 2023. The southpaw allowed one run and seven hits over five frames. He struck out three while throwing 80 total pitches.
While the Phillies didn’t do much damage against Cortes, Boone noted that the pitcher had to work quite a bit.
“They were fouling off a lot of good pitches early on,” Cortes agreed. “They were making me throw the ball over the plate. I mean, I gave up seven hits through five, so they were definitely putting the bat on the ball.”
Cortes also made a heads-up play when Cordero airmailed a throw to the plate from right field. Cortes backed up the throw and fired the ball to third, where LeMahieu tagged an overzealous Brandon Marsh for the out.
“He’s really athletic,” Rizzo said, repeating a description that’s been commonly used to describe the unassuming Cortes. “Not used to seeing pitchers doing that a lot.”
Elsewhere on the mound, Ian Hamilton made his own Yankees debut. The righty showed off his “slambio” pitch — a slider-circle change hybrid — over 1.2 scoreless innings, though he allowed three hits.
Fellow right-handers Jonathan Loaisiga and Clay Holes finished the game for the Yankees without allowing another run.
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