Yankees hold on to defeat Cardinals after taking four-run lead
Yankees starting pitcher Luis Gil reacts after getting the Cardinals' Pedro Pages to ground out ending the fifth inning on Friday in St. Louis. Credit: AP/Jeff Roberson
ST. LOUIS — Brian Cashman didn’t want to be misunderstood.
In saying late Friday afternoon that “there’s a lot of time on the clock” regarding the regular season, the Yankees’ general manager quickly pivoted.
“I don’t want to misrepresent there’s not urgency,” he added. “Because there is.”
On Friday night, his struggling team didn’t exactly play like it throughout.
But given how things have gone for the Yankees for the last two months, they got what counted most — a win.
Behind 5 1⁄3 strong innings from Luis Gil, a two-run homer from Jazz Chisholm Jr. that highlighted a three-run first inning and a standout all-around night defensively by Cody Bellinger at two positions, the Yankees held on to beat the Cardinals, 4-3, in front of 31,169 at Busch Stadium.
“I feel like we’re starting to click as a team,” said Chisholm, whose 21st homer of the season, a two-out shot in the first, made it 3-0 off Cardinals righthander Andre Pallante. “I feel like the energy’s starting to come back.”
It is probably too soon to say that. The Yankees (65-57) are only 23-32 since June 13 and 5-8 since the July 31 trade deadline in which Cashman — who makes few trips with the team and said there was no particular reason he chose to come on this one — added seven new players.
They stayed 6 1⁄2 games behind the AL East-leading Blue Jays and increased their lead over the Guardians to 1 1⁄2 games for the American League’s third and final wild-card spot.
“I feel like we need to step it up anyway, no matter if he was here or not,” Chisholm said of Cashman. “We need to win games, we need to get the playoffs and we need to win the World Series. That’s where all our thoughts are right now.”
The Yankees, who surged to a 4-0 lead through three innings, saw the Cardinals (61-62) claw back. Gil, who allowed one run, four hits and three walks, departed after back-to-back doubles by Lars Nootbaar and Masyn Winn in the sixth. Mark Leiter Jr. walked Alex Burleson before Ivan Herrera hit into a 6-4-3 double play, the Cardinals’ fourth inning-ending double play of the night.
“No. 1 tonight, the defense,” Gil said through his interpreter. “That’s what really helped me out tonight and allowed me to get to the sixth inning.”
Gil had escaped a second-and-third, none-out situation in the fifth, thanks to a pop-up, a strikeout and a groundout.
Camilo Doval, one of the trade deadline additions, allowed two runs in the seventh to make it 4-3. Luke Weaver replaced him with runners at second and third and struck out Nootbaar on a changeup to end the inning.
Weaver allowed a two-out single by Herrera in the eighth and committed an error while trying to pick off pinch runner Garrett Hampson, though first baseman Paul Goldschmidt — who was looking down and didn’t appear to pick up the ball until it was sailing past him — should have made the catch. Weaver struck out Nolan Gorman to strand the tying runner in scoring position.
After the Yankees left the bases loaded in the top of the ninth — they went 3-for-17 with runners in scoring position and left nine on base — deadline acquisition David Bednar struck out two in a perfect inning for his second save as a Yankee.
Bellinger, who started at first but moved to left in the late innings when Jasson Dominguez was subbed out, made a running catch of Yohel Pozo’s sinking liner to end it. It capped a terrific night in the field for the former Gold Glove winner, who started and ended a 3-6-3 double play in the first and turned one on his own to end the third, catching a screaming liner by Victor Scott II before doubling off Pedro Pages.
“Hadn’t been over there in a while and just looks like a complete natural over there at first,” Aaron Boone said. “And then doing what he normally does in the outfield. Has a ball sinking, hooking, not an easy play at all [Pozo’s liner]. That’s what he does. That’s why he’s Cody Bellinger.”
The Yankees gave Gil a cushion before his first pitch of the night. Trent Grisham led off with a seven-pitch walk and Ben Rice slashed a double to right-center. Aaron Judge’s groundout to short made it 1-0. After Bellinger lined to left, Chisholm lasered a 2-and-1, 95-mph fastball to right for a 3-0 lead.
Dominguez’s two-out RBI single on a 3-and-0 pitch in the third made it 4-0.
Notes & quotes: Judge is closing in on playing the outfield, but there remains no specific timeline. “I think sooner [rather] than later,’’ Cashman said, “but I don’t have that answer.”
Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.
More Yankees headlines
