YANKEES DROP 2 GAMES TO BRAVES

Friday night the Yankees started a 3 game series against the Braves. Carlos Rodon pitched against Chris Sale. Unfortunately Sale got the win and Rodon earned his second loss after winning seven in a row. Rodon pitched 3 2/3 innings and gave up 7 earned runs. Sale pitched 5 innings and only gave up 1 earned run and struck out 8. The Braves won 8-1. The Yankees lone run came in the second inning when Jahmai Jones hit a triple and scored on a ground out by DJ LeMahieu. The Braves started off scoring right away. Ozzie Albies hit a 2 run home run and Austin Riley hit a solo home run in the first inning. They scored the rest of their runs off a few singles and doubles as well as a fielding error and a 2 run home run by Matt Olson. Sale became the third pitcher to have 10 wins this season. Yoendrys Gomez, brought up from Triple-A, pitched 4 2/3 shut out innings after replacing Rodon. Phil Bickford made his MLB debut coming out of the Yankees bullpen in the ninth inning and earned two outs.

Saturday night was better. Marcus Stroman pitched against Chris Morton. Stroman pitched a strong 6 2/3 innings, giving up only 3 hits and 3 runs and striking out 6. Morton pitched 5 2/3 innings gave up 5 hits and 5 runs. The Braves went ahead first when Marcell Ozuna hit a solo home run in the first inning but the Yankees answered back with a 2 run home run by Aaron Judge. Oswaldo Cabrera hit a single in the bottom of the third and later scored on a ground out double play by Judge. They scored another run in the fourth inning off an RBI double by Gleyber Torres. The Yankees had a busy sixth inning. Ben Rice and Austin Wells walked and scored on a single by Cabrera. Then Anthony Volpe hit a double and Juan Soto walked to load the bases. Next at bat was Judge who walked, allowing Cabrera to score. This put the Yankees up 7-1. Travis D’Arnaud hit a 2 run home run in the seventh inning making the score now 7-3. Trent Grisham hit a solo home run in the eighth inning which made the final score 8-3. The Yankees won. Juan Soto walked 3 times in this game, Aaron Boone got thrown out for arguing calls and Giancarlo Stanton injured his hamstring.

Sunday the Yankees were without Giancarlo Stanton as he headed to the 10 day injured list. Nestor Cortes took the mound against Max Fried for a pitchers dual in 92 degree weather. Cortes pitched a strong seven innings giving up 3 runs, 0 walks and struck out 7. Fried pitched six innings giving up only one run, 0 walks and struck out 4. Fried earned his seventh win and Cortes earned his sixth loss. The score was 0-0 heading into the third inning until Jarred Kelenic hit a solo home run. Neither team scored again until the fifth inning when the Braves added 2 more runs. The Yankees lone run was from an RBI double by Anthony Volpe in the bottom of the sixth. The Braves won 3-1.

In other news the Yankees acquired 1B/OF J.D. Davis from Oakland for a minor league player.

Tuesday we see Gerrit Cole making his second start of the season as the Subway Series against the Mets begins at Citi Field.