The New York Yankees took on the Baltimore Orioles on Monday evening, securing a 7-1 victory. The Yankees have simply dominated Baltimore the past few years, and that didn’t end in their first game of the season against one another.
The home runs were flying, but it wasn’t until Giancarlo Stanton hit a grand slam to blow things open in the fifth inning, driving in DJ LeMahieu, Aaron Judge, and Aaron Hicks.
The Yankees needed this blowout win after struggling offensively the first three games of the season, scoring a high of five and a low of three against Toronto.
Good news and bad news for the Yankees:
The good news was plentiful in the win, with Stanton finally showing a bit of life after struggling the first few games. Sample sizes are incredibly small and shouldn’t be taken too seriously, as a solid sample would be 4-6 weeks until we can make any realistic predictions. However, this grand slam for Giancarlo is exactly what he needed to get back on track, as he currently has a .083 average.
In addition, Aaron Judge launched his first homer of the season, opening the score between both teams in the fourth inning. He secured two hits, currently sitting at .294.
However, it was the pitching that really impressed, as Jordan Montgomery lasted 6.0 innings, allowing four hits and zero runs, striking out seven batters over 73 pitches. Montgomery could’ve continued on, but the Yankees wanted to mitigate fatigue, and they already had such a daunting lead they felt as though concluding his day was the right move. Clearly, he walked away with a stellar performance and enough juice to start again on a short schedule.
The bullpen was also stellar, with Luis Cessa lasting two innings and striking out three batters. Aroldis Chapman logged in his first action of the year with three consecutive Ks to secure the win.
There wasn’t much bad news against Baltimore in game one, aside from Gary Sanchez, who struck out three times and has seen his offense continue to struggle after hitting home runs in the first two games of the season. Hopefully, he can get back on track, as we know, his home run production is really his only value as a hitter these days.