The Yankees ended their series in Atlanta against the Braves with a win

On Sunday in the series finale at Truist Park against the Braves, the Yankees won 4–2 to give them a series win over the Braves in the first series after the All-Star break.

The Yankees lost the first game of the series 7–2 and then won the next two games outscoring the Braves 16–11 in those two games. After Friday’s loss the Yankees had gone 1–6 against the Braves in their previous seven games, so these two wins were much needed to improve their success against Atlanta and go into their series with the Blue Jays with some momentum. The Blue Jays won on Sunday and have won their last three games, so these two wins were needed to keep pace with Toronto as well.

The Yankees needed some length from Marcus Stroman and that is exactly what he was able to give the team. He continued to pitch well since coming off of the injured list. He allowed just one earned run (on a solo homer) with five hits in 6.0 innings pitched. It was his first time pitching more than 5.0 innings this season.

Stroman had an 11.57 ERA after his first three games this season, but in his last four starts since coming back from the injured list he has lowered his ERA all the way down to 5.64.

Stroman turned a great double play and had a really good splitter in this game. Stroman has been very effective since coming off of the injured list. He had pitched exactly five innings in first three starts since coming off the injured list and lasted one inning longer in this start. Stroman’s location is very important since he is not overpowering.

He did really good job staying on the corners, keeping his pitch count down and getting ground balls when he needed to. He had six ground ball outs and seven fly ball outs to go with his four strikeouts. The only run he allowed was Home Run Derby participant and Georgia native Matt Olson’s long 442 foot solo homer to right in the sixth inning.

Olson’s homer went all the way on to the roof of the chop house bar in right field. There are not many homers hit that far in right field at Truist Park. The ball by Stroman was not inside enough and that was his only real mistake pitch of the game. That was Olson’s 18th homer, which is tied for 15th most in the National League.

Stroman had an impressive strikeout of Ronald Acuna on 3–2 pitch in the 6th inning. He got cleanup hitter Drake Baldwin to fly out to Cody Bellinger at the start of the warning track to end the sixth inning. The Yankees needed some length and Stroman gave them six dominant innings. Stroman retired the side in order in the second and fifth innings and the Braves only had one runner in scoring position against Stroman. Everybody congratulated Stroman when he returned to the dugout after the bottom of the sixth inning.

In his last four starts since coming off of the injured list, the Long Island native has a 3.00 ERA (seven earned runs in 21 innings). Stroman has allowed two runs or less in three of those four starts. This was one of Stroman’s nasty splitters that he threw during Sunday’s game. He was very on target with his location and did not allow much hard contact.

Stroman has not been affected by the skepticism about if he could have success again when he was on the injured list.

“I’m so detached from what everyone’s thinking, to be honest with you,” Stroman said when asked about the noise and doubt surrounding him. “I don’t see it. I don’t hear it. It’s very non-existent to me, to be honest with you. I’m in my own world when it comes to preparing, so I’m not concerned about that at all. “I always have a chip on my shoulder. That’s how I was born. That’s how I was raised; my dad raised me like that. That’s always gonna be there. But as far as caring what people are thinking or saying, I’m far from that these days.”

Braves starting pitcher Grant Holmes allowed three earned runs with seven hits and a homer allowed in six innings. Stroman out pitched the Braves 6-foot righty. Holmes had a 3.44 ERA on July 6 but after allowing eight earned runs in his last two starts his ERA is now up to 3.81.

The one homer that Holmes allowed was a 409 foot solo homer to right center by Aaron Judge in the first inning of the game. This was his 36th homer of his season, which is only two behind Mariners catcher and Home Run Derby winner Cal Raleigh for most in MLB.

Through 99 games this season, Judge has a .355 average, a 1.191 OPS and 36 homers. Last season, when he won his second MVP, through 99 games he had a .308 average, 34 homers and a 1.112 OPS. In 2022, when he won his first MVP, through 99 games he had 38 homers, a .292 average and a 1.021 OPS. He impressively has better stats in the three above categories so far this season than in his MVP season last year and has been much better in average and OPS through 99 games than in his 2022 MVP season.

Judge has tied Alex Rodriguez for the 6th most home runs in Yankees history with 351 homers. Judge hit his first career homer 16 hours after Rodriguez retired. Next on the Yankees all time homers list is the much smaller Yogi Berra (5-foot-7 and 185 pounds), who had 358 homers in his 2,120 games across 19 seasons with the Yankees (he played at least 116 games in 14 of those seasons). Judge has his 351 homers in 1,092 games in his first 10 MLB seasons with one of those seasons being the Covid shortened 60-game season when he played in just 28 games. Judge could pass Berra and Joe DiMaggio (361) on the Yankees all time list in the next two weeks.

Later in the first inning, Paul Goldschmidt singled to center to score Giancarlo Stanton to give the Yankees a 2–0 lead off of Holmes. The third run that Holmes allowed was when Jorbit Vivas took one for the team while not really trying to get out of the way leading to a bases loaded hit by pitch that scored Goldschmidt and give the Yankees all the runs they would need to win the game. Vivas went 1–3 in this game after going 2–16 in his previous eight games. He is part of the rotation at third base that the Yankees are very likely to upgrade before the trade deadline.

Jazz Chisholm had a hard hit double to the wall on a low pitch that scored Judge to give the Yankees a three run lead (4–1) again in the 7th inning. Ian Hamilton pitched well in the 7th needing only needing six pitches to retire the side in order with one strikeout.

Acuna, who is one of the best all around players in the league, had a massive 456 foot solo homer in the ninth inning off of Devin Williams. Acuna went 4–11 with a double, a homer and two RBI in this series.

Williams picked up his 14th save this season while only having one blown save. Williams has now allowed one run in back-to-back games after not allowing a run in 12 of his previous 13 games.

The Yankees will begin a 3-game series Monday night in Toronto against the Blue Jays. So far this season, the Yankees are 2–5 against the Blue Jays and 10–16 overall against the American League East. The Yankees will need to play better and improve their success rate against their division rivals if they are going to win the AL East. The Yankees had a seemingly commanding seven game lead in the AL East on May 28 but they now are three games behind the Blue Jays for first place in the AL East with a chance to tie the Blue Jays with a sweep in this upcoming series.

These were manager Aaron Boone’s thoughts on the team’s lack of success so far against the AL East: “Not good enough to win a division, probably. So hopefully that changes here in the final couple-plus months. We’re in position to do that. That’s likely and obviously going to have to improve here in the second half if we’re ultimately going to win the division. I would say our first goal is to get in the playoffs. Then it’s to win the division, and then obviously go play for it all. But we know we’ve got to play better within the division.”

The Yankees second rated prospect Spencer Jones has been elite and firing on all cylinders since being promoted to Triple-A Scranton. He could be the top prospect the Yankees trade if they make a deal for third baseman Eugenio Suarez (he has the third most homers in MLB with 35) before the deadline. In Jones’s 16 games at Triple-A since being promoted for Double-A, he has an outstanding .426 average (29–68), a .481 OBP, a 1.422 OPS, five doubles, 10 homers and 20 RBI. He has a multi-hit game in nine of his 16 games at Triple-A and in his last seven games, he is 16–33 (.485) with six homers and 12 RBI. He does not have much else to prove at Triple-A.