Game Recap: Bellinger's 3-homer game leads the way as Yankees blank Cubs |
Dustin Riese
· · 5 hours ago
BRONX - When you saw the pitching matchups for this weekend's series between the Chicago Cubs (55-39) and New York Yankees (53-41) at Yankee Stadium, you knew it was going to be a tough draw the first two games as left-handers Carlos Rodon and Max Fried were lined up to take the ball.
Not only are those two of the better left-handers in the game, but the Cubs are at a historic pace for how bad they have been against left-handed pitchers, as that has been their kryptonite more often than not this season. Friday saw more of the same for the Cubs as Rodon carved up the Cubs for eight shutout innings en route to an 11-0 Yankees win. The bigger story of the day was watching former Cub Cody Bellinger come back to haunt his old team as he connected for not one, not two, but three homers in the game while driving in six. That was more than enough for the Yankees in this one, as both offseason trades the Cubs made have come back to bite them this season. As bad as things were in this one, Chris Flexen did his job to keep things close early as the right-hander gave the Cubs three innings of three-run baseball. Flexen, along with Jordan Wicks, are two of the guys expected to fill in for Jameson Taillon for the time being, but with Wicks getting lit up for six runs in three innings, that plan may be coming to an end almost as quickly as it started. To show you how good Rodon was, the Cubs had four hits against him, three coming in the first three innings before he went into kill mode. That alone is a big reason why things were scoreless entering the bottom of the third, which is when the Yankees' offense started to take off. Singles from Ozwald Peraza and Jasson Dominguez started the inning off and put runners on the corners with no outs while an Aaron Judge sacrifice fly put the Yankees on top for good 1-0. One batter later, it was a 3-0 game as Bellinger touched up Flexen for the first of his three homers, and the Yankees never looked back. That was the beginning of the end for the Cubs, who saw their offense handcuffed as their next 16 hitters were retired in order, including a Judge robbery of Pete Crow-Armstrong from putting the Cubs on the board in the fourth. Looking to build off his first homer, Bellinger went deep again in the fifth, this one coming off Caleb Thielbar as the Yankees pushed their lead to 5-0. The Yankees added to their lead in the sixth off a pair of doubles from Paul Goldschmidt and Anthony Volpe to grow their lead to 6-0 before teeing off on Wicks in the later innings. Despite this being a rather ugly game for the Cubs, Kyle Tucker brought with him some excitement in the seventh as he robbed Bellinger of a homer for the first out of the inning. The excitement from that play was short-lived as the Yankees responded with four straight singles, including a pair of RBI knocks from Goldschmidt and JC Escarra to push the Yankees' lead to 8-0. After going nearly five innings without a baserunner, Michael Busch put an end to that as he worked a one-out walk in the eighth to give the Cubs a baserunner. Nico Hoerner would add a single later in the inning to give the Cubs their best scoring chance of the day, only to have Rodon escape without further damage. As if one Cubs killer wasn't enough, why not make it two as Bellinger unloaded for his third homer of the game in the eighth to push the Yankees lead to 10-0, only to have Goldschmidt tack on an RBI double later in the inning to make this an 11-0 game. The Cubs had their opportunity to score in the ninth with a leadoff Vidal Brujan double, but once again, the Cubs' offense went silent as the Yankees pounded the Cubs 11-0. Hoerner, Tucker, Brujan, and Justin Turner had the hits for the Cubs in what was otherwise an ugly game. The Cubs will look to even things up tomorrow as they send their All-Star Matthew Boyd to the mound against fellow Southpaw Max Fried.
