Spencer Jones crossed home plate in the second inning Tuesday night at Progressive Field, and for just a second, he had no idea what to do with himself. First career home run'll do that.
The New York Yankees beat the Cleveland Guardians 3-2, picking up win No. 40 and becoming the first American League team to reach that mark this season. Jones put the Yanks up early with a 443-foot, 112.2-mph shot to dead center -- the longest home run hit at Progressive Field all year -- and Jazz Chisholm Jr. drove the dagger in the eighth with a solo blast off Tim Herrin. Three straight wins. Ten-and-four since May 24.
The At-Bat That Started It
Jones said before the game that he prepares by studying opposing starters: "I'm watching his most-recent starts against lefties. I like to see the motion, the way that they release the baseball, those kind of things to kind of sync myself up."
Then Slade Cecconi threw him a 1-0 cutter down the heart of the plate.
Jones hit it 112.2 mph off the bat. It went 443 feet to dead center -- the hardest-hit first career home run by a Yankee since Statcast started in 2015, and the second-longest, trailing only Aaron Judge. (Cecconi probably doesn't include that distinction on the scouting card he hands to his agent.) It was the third-longest home run by any Yankee this season and the longest ball hit at Progressive Field all year.
Chisholm had worked a leadoff walk to put a runner on. Jones made him pay. The two-run shot put the Yankees up 2-0, and for two innings, it felt like more than enough.
Cole Gave It Back
The Guardians got to Gerrit Cole in the third and didn't need much room to work. Jose Ramirez reached and got himself into scoring position. Chase DeLauter singled him in to make it 2-1 -- DeLauter's hit, for the record, snapped Cleveland's 0-for-18 skid with runners in scoring position, so credit where it's due -- and then Angel Martinez beat out a grounder toward first to score DeLauter and tie the game.
Cole finished four innings: 5 hits, 2 runs, 2 earned, 2 walks, 4 strikeouts, 83 pitches. He's had better nights. He's also had worse ones, and he kept it from becoming a multi-run mess. Paul Blackburn came in and threw 1.2 scoreless innings. Tim Hill got an out. Camilo Doval worked a scoreless seventh and picked up the win (2-0), because baseball's unofficial rules for pitcher wins remain aggressively weird.
Star of the Game
Spencer Jones. Two-for-four, one home run, two RBI. He earned it.
He's 25. He was the 25th overall pick in the 2022 draft. He was called up four days ago -- June 5 -- when Aaron Judge went on the IL with a rib stress fracture. He had 85 career minor-league home runs before Tuesday. He'd gone 4-for-8 across his first three games since being recalled, after a May stint where the quality at-bats didn't show up in the box score. And after he crossed the plate in the second inning, he had a pretty clean explanation for how it came together: "It's all instincts, baby!"
Aaron Boone had been patient about Jones' development even when the box score wasn't cooperating: "Before (last Friday) he obviously didn't get a ton of results, but I felt like he was giving quality at-bats. If he has those level of at-bats, it gives him a chance to impact the ball like he's capable of." That's manager-speak for: we knew this was in there.
The Statcast comps to Judge on a first career home run -- hardest hit, second-longest -- aren't lost on anyone in the organization.
Chisholm Drives the Dagger
Tim Herrin was on the mound for Cleveland to start the eighth. Chisholm led off and, reportedly, grabbed one of Judge's bats for the at-bat (the power transfer theory is unverified but compelling). He ran the count full. Then he turned on a slider and hit it 360 feet into the right-field stands. Yankees 3, Guardians 2.
It was Chisholm's third home run in his last six games. He's been picking up the slack in a lineup missing Judge and Jasson Dominguez, and right now he looks like the middle-of-the-order enforcer this team needed.
Fernando Cruz came in for the last 1.2 innings and made it look easy -- four strikeouts, no hits allowed, first save of the season. The Guardians didn't score again after the third.
Volpe went 0-for-4, Bellinger 0-for-3. Neither has found a consistent groove, and those are two lineup spots that will matter a lot more in September than they did tonight. But on a night where Jones hit the ball 443 feet for the first time in his career and Chisholm took a swing with someone else's bat -- the Yankees didn't need those guys to come through.
Judge can watch from his couch and feel reasonably good about the state of things. Forty wins before June 10. The schedule doesn't get easier, but right now, neither does beating this team.
Jimmy writes the Bronx Pinstripes game recap after every Yankees game. Beat-reporter pacing, fan's heartbeat. He calls opposing players by last name and has no patience for dead-air innings.
