The Holidays Came Early in Baltimore: (Cole) Trains and Other Shiny New Toys

The Holidays Came Early in Baltimore: (Cole) Trains and Other Shiny New Toys

by Ethan Levine

August 22, 2026

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The Yankees improved to 17 games over .500 on Thursday night, tying their season’s “high water mark” for the first time since June 12th.  On an evening when the ‘pen was taxed entering play, the Bronx Boys rode Gerrit Cole and Ryan Yarbrough the entire distance.  Offensively, the newcomers led the charge as the Bombers wrapped up a comfortable 6-1 victory over Baltimore.  Mired in a stretch in which stress-free wins have been rather unheard of, Yankees fans will gladly put away the Lisinopril for at least one night.  

How It Went Down

The Yankees entered play sporting an 18-game streak of coming up scoreless in the 1st inning.  That streak will have to wait another day to be broken.  

The more impactful moment of the top of the 1st, however, was Orioles catcher Carlos Narvaez’ questionable challenge on the 6th pitch of the game.  With Trent Grisham leading off against Baltimore starter Kyle Bradish, Narvaez tried to convert the called third ball into strike three.  ABS confirmed the ball call, leaving the O’s with one challenge for the rest of the night.  This early decision hovered over the following innings, with Narvaez appearing noticeably tentative on a couple of subsequently close calls.  Grisham walked on the following pitch but, following a Ben Rice flyout to left, Heliot Ramos grounded into an inning-ending double play to extend the Yankees’ 1st-inning scoreless streak to 19 games.

Gerrit Cole took to the bump in the bottom of the 1st, featuring a 3-1 record and a 1.99 ERA over his last 5 starts.  Considering Fernando Cruz, Brent Headrick, Paul Blackburn, and David Bednar had each come out of the ‘pen in both of the series’ first two games, the Cole Train didn’t leave too much room for optimism following a 25-pitch inning in which he surrendered an opposite-field single to Pete Alonso and an 8-pitch walk to Gunnar Henderson.  He escaped the inning when Christian Encarnacion-Strand lined out to Jose Caballero at third base, touching 99.2 mph on his 4-seamer during the at-bat.  

Both starters had 1-2-3 second innings, with Cole bouncing back from his laboring 1st with a 10-pitch follow-up.  He would also set the O’s down in order in the 3rd and 4th innings, ultimately retiring 11 batters in a row following the 1st inning walk to Henderson.   

In the top of the 3rd, Spencer Jones scorched a hanging curveball into right field for a leadoff single.  Austin Wells “monkey see, monkey do’d” his own line drive single to right and Jones went from first to third.  Caballero, starting at third base due to Ryan McMahon’s Wednesday night thumb injury, then grounded a ball into the 2nd base hole.  Jackson Holliday ranged to his left to field the ball, looking to start what likely would have been a double play had a slower runner been barreling down the line.  Holliday spun and slung the ball to second base and a waiting Henderson.  With Caballero running, Henderson dropped the throw while attempting to transition to his relay to 1st for the attempted double play, before he had secured the ball in his glove.  Considering Caballero’s speed, as well as the range Holliday had to cover, converting the double play would have been unlikely regardless.  Henderson was saddled with his 15th error and Jones crossed the plate to give the Yanks a 1-0 lead.  

After Grisham grounded into a double play, advancing Wells to 3rd, Rice directed a Bradish sinker to the opposite field for a single to score Wells.  Ramos followed Rice, still searching for his first RBI since joining the team under the wire at the deadline on August 3rd.  With the count full, he registered that and nearly some more, clanging the payoff pitch high off the right field wall, allowing Rice to round the bases while Ramos chugged into 2nd.  It was the 3rd hit in the inning with an exit velocity greater than 100 mph (Jones and Wells were the others).  The Yankees led, 3-0.  

With Ramos on 2nd, Luis Garcia, Jr. nubbed an elevated curveball right down the third base line, which Encarnacion-Strand allowed to roll.  The ball failed to nudge foul, Ramos advanced to 3rd, and the Yankees had runners on the corners with two outs.  Jazz Chisholm, Jr. flailed at a curveball down to conclude the festivities, which announcer Michael Kay colorfully described as “an offensive orgy.”  Indeed, Michael, indeed.  The Yankees pressured Bradish into a 38-pitch inning.

But Bradish would recover in a big way over the 4th and 5th, recording 6 outs on 21 total pitches across the two innings.

Leading off the bottom of the 5th inning, Orioles left fielder Dylan Beavers launched an elevated Cole four-seamer towards Eutaw Street to cut the lead to 2.  Cole quickly recovered, retiring the following three O’s on 10 pitches.  

The comeback was rather short-lived, as Garcia ambushed the opening pitch of the 6th inning from Bradish. With the catcher Narvaez setting up down, Garcia sent a hanging slider 413 feet into the right-center field seats for his 25th homer of the season and to return the Yankees’ lead to 3.  Three hitters later, with two outs and on Bradish’s 100th pitch of the night, Jones cranked his 6th big fly of the year to left-center.  The solo shot made it 5-1 and chased the Orioles’ starter, giving way to lefty Grant Wolfram, who induced a rollover to 1st by Wells to stem the bleeding.

Like the 1st inning, Cole found himself back in deep waters in the bottom of the 6th.  After striking out Holliday, he gave up consecutive singles to Alonso and Henderson.  He subsequently went Changeup-Slider-Changeup to send DH Samuel Basallo walking back to the dugout for the 2nd out, before finally emptying the tank to Encarnacion-Strand.  Touching 99 on the radar gun for the final time of the night, Cole ultimately coaxed a flyout to Jones in right.  He had thrown 93 pitches.

After the Yankees went down in order in the top of the 7th, Ryan Yarbrough emerged from the ‘pen and copied and pasted, striking out Beavers and Colton Cowser along the way.

The top of the 8th inning saw the final scoring of the night.  With 1 out, Garcia laced a single to right.  Chisholm stepped in and, with Garcia running, lined a curveball from Albert Suarez into the right field corner.  Garcia scored to make it 6-1 while Jazz blazed all the way to 3rd.  George Lombard, Jr. then tapped one right back to Suarez.  With the contact play on, Suarez, an unlikely candidate for “web gem” of the game, charged and flipped the ball to Narvaez using only his glove.  The tag was applied to Chisholm charging home to leave Lombard on 1st with 2 outs.  

With Jones following Lombard, the Yankees executed their second successful hit-and-run of the inning, with Lombard cruising into 3rd on the Yankee right fielder’s 108 mph single to right.  However, nothing materialized further, and Yarbrough was left to shut down the remaining Baltimore batters.  In the end, the duo of Cole and Yarbrough held the Orioles to 4 hits, 1 walk, and 0 for 4 with runners in scoring position.

Star Player(s) of the Game

Tonight’s awards go to the ‘pen savers:

Gerrit Cole - 6.0 IP, 4 hits, 1 ER, 8 K’s

Ryan Yarbrough - 3 IP, 0 hits, 0 ER, 4 K’s

“Hey, at least you play again tomorrow” Player(s) of the Game

After a thrilling opening two weeks to his major league career, George Lombard, Jr. was uncharacteristically quiet last night.  He went 0-4 at the dish with two strikeouts.  Most stunning of all, we did not see any sparkling defensive plays, although the man deserves a night off.  Sigh. I suppose one can’t have it all.

Key Takeaways

-Of the 23 hitters he faced, Gerrit Cole threw first-pitch strikes to 22 of them.  That 95.7% mark is a record for his career, according to MLB.com’s Yankees beat reporter, Bryan Hoch.  The only first-pitch ball Cole threw was to Gunnar Henderson in the bottom of the 1st.  Following Henderson, Cole dealt first-pitch strikes to the next 20 hitters. 

-Aside from his first-pitch-strike mastery, Cole came into the game dominating the first time through the order.  Entering, his season ERA the first time through was 1.22.  That trend continued on Thursday, with Cole settling down following a shaky 1st inning.

-Ryan Yarbrough hadn’t pitched in a week, a veritable godsend due to the thin nature of the Yankees’ bullpen.  Yarbrough retired all 9 batters he faced.  In 14.1 innings pitched since the start of July, he has allowed only 2 earned runs.

-Jose Caballero started at 3rd base in place of Ryan McMahon, who was held out of the lineup following a thumb injury sustained while sliding into 2nd base during Wednesday night’s game while attempting to leg a single into a double.  X-rays indicated no structural damage, just a significant amount of swelling.

-It was quite a night for the shiny new toys.  Luis Garcia, Jr. and Spencer Jones each collected 3 hits, including a homer.  Jones also added his 7th stolen base.  

Random Musing

What is the record for the most consecutive hitters in a lineup with the moniker “Junior” attached to their last name?  The Yankees’ half of the 6th inning began with Luis Garcia, Jr., Jazz Chisholm, Jr., and George Lombard, Jr. hitting in order. 

What Comes Next

The Yanks fly home to begin a weekend series with the 63-66 Blue Jays.  Cam Schlittler (10-6, 2.19 ERA, 189 K’s) will take the ball for New York, while Toronto’s anticipated starter is not yet named as of this summary.  Most likely, either Spencer Arrighetti will start or it will be a bullpen game for Toronto.  As of the conclusion of play on August 20th, Toronto sits just a half game back in the American League Wild Card standings.

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Cover image from DC Travel Magazine (https://dctravelmag.com/baltimore-christmas-markets/)