On Friday, theNew York Yankees picked up their second consecutive series sweep, overcoming the Baltimore Orioles to string together their seventh straight win.
At home against Baltimore, the Yankees finally found their offensive groove, posting 12 runs in the first game of the series, five in the second, and 10 in the third. Over the last four games combined, the Bombers have tallied 37 total runs, completely blowing expectations out of the water after a tough start.
Now that the team is finally headed in the right direction, things are looking up for the Yankees.
Let’s take a look at the good and bad news for the Yankees from Friday’s win over the Orioles:
Thanks to five fielding errors from Baltimore, the Yankees easily managed to overcome their opponent. Collectively, the team recorded 10 hits, nine RBIs, and four walks, striking out nine times. Anthony Rizzo continues to rake, recording two hits and an RBI, elevating his average on the season to .290. Aaron Judge is nearly hitting .300, contributing two hits and four RBIs, including a three-run homer in the 8th inning.
Reserve outfielder Tim Locastro was phenomenal on the base paths, driving in two runs and tallying two walks to boot. He hosts a .286 average this season and has served valiantly defensively in centerfield.
As for the team’s pitching, Jameson Taillon lasted 4.2 innings, giving up two earned runs and seven hits, striking out four batters. It was a great sign to see Taillon toss 83 pitches, 55 of them being strikes. He has earned a 3.26 ERA on the season, and while he might not be happy with the number of hits he gave up, two runs over nearly 5 innings isn’t anything to be concerned about.
The bullpen was mostly great until the latter portion of the game, and the individual performances were stout in the final game of the series.
There were two primary negatives from the win — the performance of Joey Gallo and Ron Marinaccio. Gallo reserved back to his strikeout ways, tallying three on the afternoon but driving in a run after picking up a walk in the 6th inning.
On the other hand, Marinaccio was given an opportunity to close the game with a sufficient lead but gave up three earned runs and four hits over 0.2 innings. He struck out two batters, but the team needed to call in Lucas Luetge to finish off the game.
Marinaccio has now put together two iffy performances, giving up two earned runs in one inning against Cleveland last Sunday. He’ll be looking to get back on track in the future, but the Yankees won’t be putting him in any high leverage situations anytime soon.