The Yankees’ series losing streak will stop at three.
The Bombers put out another strong pitching effort in their second consecutive shutout of the Chicago Cubs in their 2-0 win on Saturday afternoon at Wrigley Field. A day after Luis Gil returned from an injury, it was Clarke Schmidt’s turn in his first outing since May 26 as he missed several months due to a lat injury.
The right-hander tossed 4.2 innings allowing four hits and zero runs while striking out two. Schmidt’s season ERA dropped to a dazzling 2.34 as his will continue to make his case to play a crucial role as a starting pitcher in October.
With Schmidt making his return, Nestor Cortes may be relegated out of the rotation as the southpaw relieved Schmidt who was limited to just 75 pitches. Cortes carried the torch and was brilliant out of the bullpen. The 29-year-old tossed 4.1 shutout innings allowing 0 hits with one walk while striking out three.
The Yankees offense was silent again but did enough to get the job done. With howling winds at Wrigley Field, it was difficult to hit the ball out of the ballpark as fly balls were knocked out of the air — Giancarlo Stanton flew out to right at 110.2 MPH and Aaron Judge flew out to center at 107.7 MPH.
The Bombers had to turn to a bit of small ball as Austin Wells opened up the scoring in the top of the first with an RBI groundout off of Cubs starter Javier Assad. In the top of the sixth, Judge scored after stealing third and Christian Bethancourt threw the ball away down the left field line plating their second and last run of the afternoon.
Aaron Boone allowed a different arm to register the final three outs of the game, this time it was Cortes — who dominated out of the bullpen — who retired the side in order to secure the victory.
The Yanks will turn to Gerrit Cole on Sunday afternoon to grab a much-needed sweep on the road. Former Yankee Jameson Taillon will take the ball for Craig Counsell’s squad.
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