Yankees lose to Nationals as Gerrit Cole allows back-to-back home runs, Aaron Judge goes homer-less
Yankees pitcher Gerrit Cole throws during the first inning of a game against the Nationals on Tuesday in Washington. Credit: AP/John McDonnell
WASHINGTON – Gerrit Cole stood on the mound with his back to home plate, peering out at leftfield long after the fourth-inning home run off the bat of Andres Chaparro had landed in the seats at Nationals Park on Tuesday night.
One pitch later, Cole struck a similar pose. Except this time he was staring out at rightfield long after the home run off the bat of Jose Tena had landed in the seats.
Two fastballs, two home runs. Two disbelieving stares.
Cole allowed three runs in five innings as the Yankees lost to the Nationals, 4-2.
“I thought we executed,” said Cole (5-3, 3.86 ERA), who gave up six hits, walked one and struck out seven. “I thought we were convicted to both pitches and executed both of them pretty well. But they were the wrong pitch and they put great swings on them.”
In his previous four outings after missing a July 30 start because of “general body fatigue,” Cole was 2-0 with a 1.17 ERA.
Manager Aaron Boone said he thought it took an inning or so for Cole’s fastball velocity to look normal. The homers came on fastballs that were 95 and 96 miles per hour, respectively.
The matchup against lefthander Patrick Corbin seemed like a dream one for the Yankees. But Corbin, who came in with a 3-12 record and a 5.73 ERA, threw six shutout innings. He allowed two hits, walked two and struck out six.
One night after Aaron Judge and Alex Verdugo made stellar defensive plays in a 5-2 victory, the Yankees committed four errors. They only allowed one unearned run. But the errors – a throwing error by Jazz Chisholm Jr. in the first and three errors in a ghastly sixth -- looked shabby.
“Did not play clean tonight defensively,” Boone said. “On a night when we’re not scoring a bunch of runs, we’ve got to make sure we’re tighter than that.”
And, oh, did the Yankees have chances in the late innings.
Down 4-0 in the seventh with two men on, Verdugo banged into an acrobatic inning-ending double play started by shortstop CJ Abrams.
In the eighth, the Yankees had the bases loaded with no outs and Judge at the plate against righthander Jacob Barnes. Judge, the major-league home run leader with 51, has seven career grand slams.
The crowd of 34,334 anticipated … something big.
But, on 3-and-1, Judge grounded into a run-scoring 6-4-3 double play. It was big, all right -- for the home team.
“They were able to turn some double plays when they needed it and get out of some jams,” Judge said. “We had a chance there at the end. A couple chances.”
The Yankees made it 4-2 in the ninth against closer Kyle Finnegan (33rd save) on Chisholm’s leadoff double and an RBI groundout by Anthony Volpe.
Austin Wells and Verdugo followed with one-out singles. With lefthanded options Oswaldo Cabrera, Trent Grisham and Ben Rice on the bench, Boone stuck with DJ LeMahieu against the righthander.
Boone cited Finnegan’s reverse splits. Coming into the game, Finnegan had held lefthanded batters to a .186 average while righties were at .257.
LeMahieu fouled out to right. Gleyber Torres hit a fly ball to deep right to end the game as the Yankees finished 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position.
And about that defense . . . trailing 3-0, Tim Mayza replaced Cole in the sixth and suffered through a nightmare inning.
With one out, Dylan Crews hit a ball in front of the plate that Jose Trevino threw wildly to first. It was scored a single and an error as Crews took second.
Crews stole third even though Trevino’s throw beat him to the bag. Chisholm, who was shifted toward second, fielded the throw on the run, and Crews was able to evade his tag attempt.
Joey Gallo followed with a grounder to first. LeMahieu booted it, collected it, and then stumbled before he could either throw or run to first. Crews only started home after the boot, so it was scored an error and no RBI as Washington took a 4-0 lead.
One more misplay that was embarrassing for the Yankees but did not lead to a run: Neither Volpe nor Torres covered second on Gallo’s subsequent stolen base attempt.
Trevino’s throw sailed into centerfield. It was initially scored as an error on the catcher. Three innings later, the official scorer changed the error and gave it to Torres.
Boone declined to say which infielder was supposed to cover.
Said Trevino: “Stuff happens like that. Miscommunication.”
Rizzo goes deep. Anthony Rizzo (forearm fracture) went 2-for-2 with a home run and played four innings at first base for Double-A Somerset in his third rehab game.
Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.
