Good news and bad news as Yankees get crushed by Vlad Jr.

Gerrit Cole, New York Yankees

After blanking the Toronto Blue Jays on Tuesday, the New York Yankees lost 6–4 after another problematic start from ace Gerrit Cole.

In Cole’s first outing of the season, he allowed three earned runs over 4.0 innings, giving up a homer in the first. While he was able to last a little bit longer, specifically 5.2 innings, he gave up four hits and three earned runs, including two homers.

The Yankees’ offense hasn’t scored more than four runs since opening day, when they recorded six. That is simply an unacceptable benchmark, especially when facing tough AL East opponents like the Blue Jays.

Good news:

The good news for the Yankees is that they recorded 10 hits, with four batters recording a minimum of two.

Anthony Rizzo tallied two hits and a walk, driving in an RBI, with Aaron Judge replicating that stat-line. DJ LeMahieu showed signs of life, recording two hits, including an infield single and double to right field, driving in Josh Donaldson. Aaron Hicks also posted his second consecutive quality performance, reaching on an infield single in the 2nd and singling to left field in the 8th.

As for the team’s bullpen, Chad Green had a scoreless inning, and JP Sears enjoyed his first action of the season to close out the game, striking out one and finishing the inning in eight pitches.

Overall, there was far more bad news than good in this game, aside from a few individuals performances.

Bad news:

Once again, Yankees top pitcher Gerrit Cole had a difficult outing. Cole gave up home runs in the 1st and 3rd inning to Vladimir Guerrero Jr., both of which exceeded 415 feet. Guerrero was simply on fire, and Cole noted as much, tipping his hat at the end of the game to the budding star.

“If you had a cap, you’d tip it too,” said Cole. “It got better after that, too. My goodness.”

There were several pitches that seemed unhittable, which made Guerrero’s performance even more impressive. It seems as if he’s taking after his Dad after all.

Offensively, the duo of Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Kyle Higashioka continue to struggle, going o-for-7 on the day. IKF currently hosts a .059 average, while Higashioka has earned a .056 average, unacceptable numbers that need to be corrected moving forward.