Another Yankees rainout sets up stretch of 23 games in 22 days
Yankees starting pitcher Gerrit Cole stands on the mound during the seventh inning against the Cleveland Guardians in an MLB baseball game at Yankee Stadium on Sunday, April 24, 2022. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Other teams may have had a hard time stopping the Yankees lately, but the weather sure is making easy work of it.
The AL East-leading Yankees (18-7), who were riding an 11-game winning streak before losing to the Blue Jays on Wednesday, had their second rainout in a row Saturday. Their game against the Rangers will be made up on Monday at 1:05 p.m. at Yankee Stadium.
Because the Rangers don’t come back to New York, the two rained-out games — Friday's and Saturday’s — both will be made up in the next few days, kicking off with Sunday’s single-admission doubleheader, which starts at 1:35 p.m.
Monday originally was an off day, meaning Sunday will mark the start of 23 games in 22 days. Their next day off is Memorial Day, May 30.
Gerritt Cole originally was announced as Saturday’s pitcher, so it’s likely he’ll pitch one of Sunday’s games. Jordan Montgomery and Luis Severino also would line up to pitch in the next two days.
Fans who had tickets to Saturday’s game may use them on Monday or exchange them for tickets to another regular-season game. Those who had tickets for Friday’s game won’t be able to use them for the doubleheader and will need to exchange them. Additionally, Friday’s promotion — a Yoda bobblehead — will be honored on May 25 in a game against the Orioles.
Rortvedt progressing
Ben Rortvedt, who was the Yankees' presumed backup catcher before getting shut down with a right oblique strain in spring training, began his rehab assignment with Class A Tampa, the team announced Saturday.
Rortvedt came to the Yankees in the trade with the Twins that also netted them Josh Donaldson and Isiah Kiner-Filefa in exchange for Gary Sanchez and Gio Urshela. They were aware of the injury then but believed Rortvedt was coming out of it. A setback caused him to be shut down before playing in even one minor-league spring training game.
It’s yet to be seen what role, if any, Rortvedt will have with Jose Trevino in the picture now. Though he’s currently 0-for-22, the Yankees have been pleased with Trevino, whom they acquired from the Rangers after Rortvedt’s injury; he and Kyle Higashioka have formed a tandem behind the plate, if a light-hitting, defensively skewed one.
Rortvedt has only 39 major-league games under his belt and hit .169 in that span. He’s a career .241 hitter in the minor leagues.
“They’ve both been tremendous back there [defensively], but we also expect them to hit, too,” Aaron Boone said of Trevino and Higashioka this past week. “I think in Jose’s case, he’s actually hit a lot of balls well and I feel like he hasn’t gotten rewarded a lot for it. And then Higgy, he’ll get going, he’ll get his power stroke going here. We need those guys to contribute like we think they’re capable of.”
Laura Albanese is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. She's been covering MLB since 2014 after starting at Newsday as an intern seven years earlier.
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