Giancarlo Stanton, Oswaldo Cabrera homer as Yankees beat Pirates
The Yankees' Gleyber Torres celebrates with Aaron Judge after the team's win over the Pirates in Pittsburgh on Saturday. Credit: AP/Gene J. Puskar
PITTSBURGH — The Yankees might not finish last or with a losing record after all.
The Yankees (76-73) took a two-game lead over the last-place Red Sox in the AL East on Saturday night with a 6-3 victory over the Pirates at PNC Park.
The Yankees, who have won 14 of their last 19, are looking to avoid finishing last for the first time since 1990. They also would like to extend their streak of finishing above .500 in every season since 1993.
At least the Yankees aren’t ending the season like Boston. The Red Sox fired president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom on Thursday and have dropped eight of 10 after a 13-inning loss to Toronto on Saturday.
The Yankees have not been eliminated from the AL wild-card race; they are six games back of the final spot with 13 games left. "We’re not in a great spot, but we feel like we’re playing for a lot,” Aaron Boone said. “We want to win. We want to play well. There’s young guys with a lot to prove [who] are getting real opportunities.”
Austin Wells (RBI double) and Estevan Florial (two-run single) gave the Yankees a 3-0 lead in the first inning. Bryan Reynolds’ two-run homer off Luke Weaver, making his Yankees debut, brought the Pirates within 3-2 in the bottom of the first.
Giancarlo Stanton’s 24th home run made it 4-2 in the third and Oswaldo Cabrera’s solo shot in the eighth gave the Yankees a 6-3 lead.
The Yankees claimed Weaver, 30, off waivers from Seattle on Tuesday. He was 2-6 with a 6.77 ERA in 26 appearances (22 starts) for the Reds and Mariners. He went four innings, allowing three runs and four hits with two walks and seven strikeouts. Jhony Brito (8-7, 4.52 ERA) picked up the win with three perfect innings as Yankees pitchers retired the final 21 batters.
Misiewicz placed on concussion list
Yankees reliever Anthony Misiewicz was placed on the seven-day concussion list on Saturday, one day after he was hit in the head by Ji Hwan Bae's 100.6-mph line drive at PNC Park.
Boone said on Saturday that Misiewicz, 28, was released from a local hospital on Friday night. The lefthander was carted off the field while sitting up and holding a towel to the left side of his face.
“I saw Anthony [Friday] night when he got back from the hospital,” Boone said on Saturday. “I was able to stop by his [hotel] room and see him. He was in good spirits. Looked and sounded pretty good. He’s definitely got some [concussion-related] symptoms today. But I think, all things considered, he’s doing pretty well.”
He added: “I think he’s going to see the doctor here again and then, obviously, when we get back to New York, he’ll go through more [tests], see our doctors and everything. That’s about as scary as it gets, right? When you see something like that and you see him down, pretty much right away out there, you at least have a decent feeling in how he was able to communicate and answer questions and then sit up. Getting to see him [Friday] night even felt like, all things considered, he was in a pretty good spot.”
Misiewicz was making his third appearance for the Yankees, who are the third big-league team he’s pitched for in 2023.
The Yankees activated reliever Ian Hamilton from the injured list to replace Misiewicz. Hamilton pitched a 1-2-3 eighth.
Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.
