Gerrit Cole pitched seven strong innings for the host New York Yankees, who hit a pair of homers and earned a 5-4 victory over the Atlanta Braves on Saturday afternoon
Aided by solo homers from George Lombard Jr. and Ben Rice, Cole (6-5) won a third consecutive start for the first time since returning from Tommy John surgery on May 22 as the Yankees won for the 16th time in 25 games.
Cole allowed both runs in the fifth when he allowed four of his six hits. The right-hander struck out nine and walked two.
Cole struck out Matt Olson twice to extend his dominance over the Atlanta first baseman to 0-for-24 with 16 strikeouts. Cole struck out Olson to end the fifth and became the 13th pitcher in team history to reach 1,000 strikeouts for the Yankees. Cole owns 1,002 whiffs over 839 2/3 innings since joining the organization prior to the 2020 season.
Spencer Jones drove in two runs and scored the tiebreaking run in the fifth on a balk by Chris Sale (12-7) that resulted in Atlanta manager Walt Weiss getting ejected by plate umpire Dan Merzel.
Jones hit an RBI single that scored Trent Grisham in the second for a 1-0 lead. Following a walk by rookie Lombard after winning consecutive ABS challenges, Jones hit his first triple for a 2-2 tie.
Before Sale threw a pitch to Austin Wells, he was called for his third career balk and Jones scored the tiebreaking run.
Sale appeared to get charged for the balk due to a slight hitch in his motion, but he argued fiercely until Weiss took over the discussion to prevent the left-hander from getting tossed.
In his first start since July 29, Sale allowed three runs and five hits in six innings. The left-hander struck out eight and walked two during first loss since June 28.
Sale also fell to 0-3 in three head-to-head matchups with Cole.
Cole allowed an RBI double to Mike Yastrzemski and a run-scoring single to Jim Jarvis in the fifth before retiring Drake Baldwin, Ronald Acuna Jr. and Olson to end the inning.
Lombard added his second career homer in the seventh off reliever Victor Mederos and his drive to the short porch proved crucial when Acuna Jr. homered off Brent Headrick in the eighth to cut the Braves’ deficit to 4-3.
After Paul Blackburn retired Ozzie Albies to end the eighth, Rice poked his 32nd homer to push the lead to 5-3. David Bednar allowed an RBI single to pinch hitter Dominic Smith in the ninth before recording his 26th save.
