Stroman Starts It, Wells Finishes Off Big Friday Night For Yankees

 

Marcus Stroman striking out Jordan Walker in the seventh inning. Photo by Jason Schott.

The Yankees returned home on Friday night after a brief trip to the nation's capital, and they outlasted the St. Louis Cardinals, 6-3, backed by a solid start from Marcus Stroman and two home runs from catcher Austin Wells.

The Yankees improved their American League-best record to 79-56, while St. Louis ticked just below .500, at 67-68, as they try to stay in the National League Wild Card race.

The Yankees got on the board first against Cardinals starter Erick Fedde in the bottom of the second inning, when Giancarlo Stanton crushed one off the center field fence for a double, went to third on a groundout from Jazz Chisholm to the right side, and scored on a sacrifice fly to right field by Anthony Volpe.

This came after St. Louis had two on base and one out in the top of the second when Paul Goldschmidt doubled and Lars Nootbar singled. They were left at first and third bases when Stroman struck out Jordan Walker and got Pedro Pages to fly out to center field.

The Cardinals came right back in the third when they had a two-out rally. Alec Burleson and Nolan Arenado singled before Brendan Donovan and Goldschmidt each got RBI singles to make it 2-1.

Nolan Arenado racing home on Paul Goldschmidt's single. Photo by Jason Schott.

That lead would be short-lived, as the Yankees rallied in the bottom of the third. Gleyber Torres led off with a walk, and he would come in to score on a double by Juan Soto.

Then, after Aaron Judge popped out foul to first base, Austin Wells crushed one to right field for a two-run shot to put the Yankees back up, 4-2. It was the 11th home run and 40th RBI for the rookie catcher.

St. Louis then had their chances the next few innings, but each time, the runner was erased. 

Walker led off the fourth with a single and was nabbed as part of a double play hit into by Pages.

In the fifth, Burleson rapped a double to right field, but Soto fired a rocket to second base, and with Volpe covering, got the out.

The Yankees send salutes out to right field to Juan Soto after he threw out Alec Burleson in the fifth. Photo by Jason Schott.

Then, in the sixth, Goldschmidt singled and was erased when Nootbar bounced one to Stroman for a 1-6-3 double play.

Stroman left after the seventh, and he was relieved by Jake Cousins, who allowed a solo shot to Arenado with two outs in the eighth. Tommy Kahnle came on to get out of the frame.

The Yankees got some insurance in the bottom of the eighth when Wells came up with two out - after Judge notched his third strikeout of the night - and he blasted one to right-center field for another two-run shot, and just like that, it was 6-3 Yankees.

This was Wells' first-career multi-home run game, and matched a career high in RBI with four, done twice before, on September 29, 2023 at Kansas City and on August 10 vs. Texas in Game 1 of a doubleheader. His 12 home runs on the season are now second-most for a rookie catcher in franchise history, trailing the 20 Gary Sanchez hit in the final two months of the 2016 season. 

In the 20 games that Wells has hit cleanup, he's hitting .346 (28-for-81), with five home runs, 21 RBI, nine walks, nine runs scored, and three doubles.

Yankees Manager Aaron Boone said of Wells' night, "Two big at-bats, two two-run homers, thought he was really good behind the plate with Stro, you know, just two big swings, continues to be a real presence in the middle of our order."

The skipper also said he has seen "massive" growth in Wells the past couple of months, and added, "Again, you go back, I feel like the catching was ahead of where we expected, you know, last year and the start of this year, kind of waiting on the bat to come. It sure has, he's just, he puts together really good at-bats, and then he's got that power in there, too, so this is what we've seen from him now for, like you've said, probably more than a couple months now, real middle of the order presence."

Stroman earned the win, as he went seven innings, and allowed two runs (both earned) on nine hits and no walks, with five strikeouts. He earned the win to improve to 10-6 on the season, with a 3.81 ERA (earned run average).

Boone said of how Stroman handled the Cardinals lineup, "I thought he was off the barrel (referring to where the pitches were coming in to their bats) for most of it, you know, or they hit a couple sharp singles against him, obviously, we had a great play by Soto in the outfield, and Soto and Volpe cutting down a runner there. He didn't walk anyone, which was big, but scattered the hits around, and I thought kind of settled in to a pretty good groove in the middle of the game, and even finishing his outing, I thought was probably at his best there, even the sixth and the seventh, so because I was going to be short with him there in the sixth and seventh, and I thought he just, he finished really strong."

This came after the Yankees went through a disappointing series in Washington, in which they lost two out of three to the Washington Nationals, who are 61-73. This brought the total of losses this month by the Yankees against weak opponents to ten, starting with when they dropped one to the Toronto Blue Jays, then two to the Angels, one to the Texas Rangers, one at the woeful Chicago White Sox, two to the Detroit Tigers, and one to the Colorado Rockies before dropping a pair in DC.

Boone was asked in his pregame press conference about how they have had trouble with these kinds of teams, while doing better against elite competition, and he said, “I view it as, we can play this game every year. You know, unless you’re going to win 110, 115 games, one year you’re going to beat teams you’re supposed to beat, and one year, you’re going to beat the great teams. You can always pick apart the schedule, you know. In a game where the best teams usually win 95, a hundred games, we lose 60, 65, 70 games, too, so you can find whatever you want in a schedule. You can go pick apart anyone’s schedule, bottom line is we’re a pretty good team, we’re not perfect, we’ve got a great opportunity with a month or so to play to give ourselves a chance to plays in October, and that’s what we’re working towards, so, whoever were playing, we respect every opponent, knowing that if we don’t play well, we can get beat, but we also know that when we play well, we can beat anyone in the league, so that’s kind of how we look at it. It’s like, we’re starting an important series tonight, and the expectation is you’ll play well.”