Yankees 2, Cardinals 0, and the whole night came down to two solo shots and six shutout innings from a guy who's been doing this for exactly one week.
George Lombard Jr. got the call to the Bronx and made his big-league debut Tuesday, and his first career hit was a home run. Not a bloop single he can tell his grandkids about apologetically -- a 392-foot shot into the left-center seats off an 0-2 sweeper. First game, first hit, first homer. Same swing.
It wasn't a night for a big crowd of hits either way. The Yankees managed five total -- two of them the solo shots that decided the whole thing -- and Ryan Weathers made sure that was plenty.
The Turning Point
The Yankees were still only up 2-0 in the 8th when St. Louis made its real push. Pedro Pagés singled off Brent Headrick to start it, Bryan Torres walked, and a JJ Wetherholt groundout moved both runners into scoring position for the first out. That's the kind of jam that turns a comfortable shutout into a white-knuckle finish.
Headrick got the second out, striking out Iván Herrera on a foul tip. Then David Bednar came on, intentionally walked pinch-hitter Alec Burleson to load the bases (loading the bases on purpose with a two-run lead is not for the faint of heart), and got Nelson Velázquez to chase a splitter and end the inning. Those two strikeouts were the two biggest win-probability swings of the entire game, and neither one went St. Louis's way.
Star of the Game: George Lombard Jr.
Lombard started at shortstop, hit eighth, grounded out his first time up, and then did this:
A 392-foot solo shot to left-center off Hunter Dobbins in the 5th -- the first hit of his career, and the second run of the game. He finished 1-for-2 with a walk, made a backhand play to rob Blaze Jordan of a hit in the 2nd, and helped turn a couple of double plays behind Ryan Weathers along the way. Not a bad way to introduce yourself to the Bronx.
CC Sabathia was watching too.
Key At-Bats and Pitching Lines
Before Lombard did anything, Jazz Chisholm Jr. got this whole thing started -- a 397-foot blast to right-center off Dobbins in the 2nd, his 17th of the season, for the game's first run. Dobbins actually settled in after that (6.1 innings, four strikeouts, three walks), and outside of the two homers he was fine. Two solo shots turned out to be one more than his offense could answer, and he took the loss to fall to 2-2.
Weathers was the other half of this story, and honestly the bigger one. Six innings, four hits, zero runs, one walk, six strikeouts, 88 pitches, and he needed all of one mistake-free jam in the 3rd (a leadoff single he stranded) to keep the shutout intact into the 6th. His scoreless streak is up to 18 innings now, and his ERA is down to 3.79.
Fernando Cruz and Headrick bridged the gap after Weathers. Cruz gave up a leadoff double to Velázquez in the 7th, but Headrick came on and got Nathan Church to ground out and strand him at third -- nobody crossed the plate before the 8th-inning fireworks. Bednar closed it out with a perfect 9th -- lineout, strikeout, strikeout -- for his 25th save.
Boone's Call
Starting a shortstop making his major-league debut is the kind of call that either looks great or blows up by the third inning. Aaron Boone rolled with Lombard anyway, and it paid off before the 5th inning was even over.
The Yankees are 64-50 now, 3.0 back in the East but comfortably ahead in the Wild Card race. They dropped the series opener 13-7 on Monday, so Tuesday's shutout just squares things up. Rubber match Wednesday, and the kid's only getting started.
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.
