The New York Yankees' winning streak continued on Friday as they pulled off a 4-2 victory against the Chicago White Sox at home. They have now won eight of their last 10 games, and a lot of credit goes to their starting pitchers, who, despite the absence of Gerrit Cole, have found their footing this season.
One of the big reasons why the Yankees didn't play in the postseason last year was their underwhelming pitching. They were on the brink of another pitcher collapse after their star ace and 2023 AL Cy Young winner went down with an elbow injury just a week before the Opening Day. However, they have found a new leader in Carlos Rodon and other rotation members.
Friday's game saw a strong, scoreless seven-inning outing by lefty Nestor Cortes Jr. This, coupled with homers from captain Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton, helped improve the club's season record to 31-15.
Fans rejoiced online, particularly applauding the Yankees' starting rotation, with one fan saying:
"Whole starting rotation heading to the Allstar game it seems."
Another special mention by fans was for Clay Holmes who has been doing a good job closing out games for the Yankees:
"Clay holmes white stripes closer entrance would feed families," one wrote.
"Clay Holmes is another orbit. Keep it up!" another fan added.
Others were just happy to see the Yankees getting wins easily:
"What a wonderful way to start the weekend," one fan posted.
"Let's goooo," another added.
Yankees' Nestor Cortes Jr. riled up after his quick pitch strikeout was called off
In an otherwise great outing, Yankees ace Nestor Cortes Jr. threw a quick pitch in the top of the sixth inning, which was called off by the home plate umpire, Laz Diaz.
Immediately, Cortes took an objection to it and confronted the home plate umpire. Seeing him getting riled up, Yankees manager Aaron Boone ran to the field and calmed him down.
That certainly helped, given that if the pitcher had continued he would have likely been thrown out of the game. Instead, Cortes threw two more scoreless innings, to help the Yankees win.
They have an early second game scheduled for Saturday against the White Sox in the three-game series.