Yankees open doubleheader with 5-1 loss as Braves tee off on Gerrit Cole

After getting rained out of yesterday’s series opener, the Yankees played a seven-inning version of baseball today, with another seven innings awaiting them. Unfortunately, the first set did not go well for the Bombers. For one thing, most of the bombs went the Braves’ way, and for another the team nearly got no-hit by a rookie making his major league debut.

There’s a short shift between the afternoon and night games, so let’s get right into a bullet-point recap of a mostly-forgettable game.

• Gerrit Cole did not have his best stuff after getting delayed for a day. The Yankees’ ace surrendered a leadoff homer to Ronald Acuña Jr. that flew for 473 feet to left. Cole bounced back to strike out the side, but he wouldn’t stay on form for long. Dansby Swanson swatted another dinger, this time a two-run shot to right, in the third inning. Two batters later Marcell Ozuna launched another ball out to straight center for a solo home run.
• The rough start broke a pair of streaks for Cole. He was riding a 20-game win streak when he drew a decision in his outing, and a 28-game undefeated streak overall. Both are now history, as he takes his first loss since the middle of last season.
• A big part of why Cole took that loss was also the Yankees offense, who got stymied by Ian Anderson. Anderson, making his major-league debut, didn’t give up a hit until the sixth inning, which would prove to be his final inning of work. Luke Voit earned the honor of breaking up the no-hitter (albeit an unofficial one since the game was only going to go seven innings) by clearing the right-field wall for a solo shot. Anderson was the third overall pick of the 2016 draft and a highly-anticipated prospect, and it’s safe to say he made an impression in his debut.
• Aside from Voit, the rest of the offense wasn’t able to do much of anything. The team worked two walks off of Anderson, and Tyler Wade was able to steal second base after earning one of those free passes. Old friend Shane Greene entered for the seventh inning and allowed a two-out single to Brett Gardner, but nothing else. Miguel Andújar gave a fly ball a ride, but it landed just in front of the wall and into Adam Duvall’s glove to end the game.

The Yankees have a half-hour to shake this game off and try to split the doubleheader. Masahiro Tanaka will get the ball looking for a better outing than Cole got, and a better one than he had in his last start. Here’s the box score for the first game, and a chart of the win-probability for the match.