Without a late-inning meltdown or an almost hitless affair, the Yankees, for at least tonight, looked like the Yankees. They took an early lead and held onto it through the game’s completion, an equation they’ve scarcely made good on either half of this season. In a bizarre turn of events, the Yankees relief pitching made light work of a historically great offense, albeit without two of their best hitters in Yuli Gurriel and Carlos Correa, while the Yankees’ sticks scraped together four runs of their own on a dozen hits, none of which left the yard.
In the first, Gary and Judge smoked back-to-back singles bookended by a couple of groundouts to Carlos Correa’s replacement at short, Robel García, with the latter resulting in an inning-ending double play.