Yankees 10, Orioles 2: Gardner drives the offense and Cessa surprises on the mound

Now that’s more like it. After dropping the first game of Monday’s doubleheader, the Yankees bounced back in a big way in the nightcap, demolishing the Orioles 10-2. Hooray for treating a team on pace for 118 losses like a team on pace for 118 losses. Let’s recap with bullet points:

• More Early Runs: Much like the first game of the doubleheader, the Yankees got on the board early Monday night. A Brett Gardner single and a Didi Gregorius double into the right field corner gave the Yankees a quick 1-0 lead in the first inning. Gardner then planted a long two-run home run into the right field seats in the fourth inning, and, in the fifth, Greg Bird poked a single to single to second to score Giancarlo Stanton. Stanton had doubled as the previous batter.  The Yankees had a 4-0 lead after five innings.
• Sensational Cessa: Okay, sensational is overselling it, but six shutout innings from Luis Cessa? Who saw that coming? Cessa absolutely got some help from his defense early in the game — Gardner and Stanton made several great running catches to turn line drives into outs — though he settled down and retired nine of the final 12 batters he faced. Cessa’s line: 6 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 4 K on 85 pitches. Couldn’t have asked for more.
• Tack-On Late: The Yankees made sure to tack on runs in the late innings after dropping the first game. Seven straight Yankees reached base with two outs in the eighth inning, including four on extra-base hits. Austin Romine smacked a two-run homer, Gardner doubled in a run, and Stanton reached on an error to bring home another run. Romine doubled in a run in the ninth as well. Would be cool if he started hitting again with Gary Sanchez sidelined.
• Leftovers: Whale of a game for Gardner, who went 4-for-6 with a double, a homer, three runs scored, three runs driven in, and three very good catches in center field … Gregorius, Stanton, Romine, Aaron Judge, and Neil Walker each had two hits … every starter reached base at least twice except Miguel Andujar, who had a double … the Yankees went 11-for-25 (.440) with runners in scoring position in the doubleheader … 26th man Gio Gallegos threw three mop-up innings and got a save (!). He allowed a two-run homer in the eighth to ruin the shutout. Meh.

Here are the box score, video highlights, and updated standings. Here’s our Bullpen Workload page. The Yankees and Orioles are already halfway through his four-game series. Masahiro Tanaka will return from the disabled list to start Tuesday night’s game, so that’s cool. Looking forward to getting Tanaka back. Andrew Cashner will be on the mound for the O’s.

Source: FanGraphs