NEW YORK — Willie Calhoun picked a fitting moment for his first home run as a member of the Yankees. His solo home run in the seventh inning gave the Yankees the lead and took them there 4-2 win over the Guardians Tuesday at Yankee Stadium.
Calhoun’s drive to right-field shortstop James Karinchak helped the Bombers snap a four-game losing streak, their longest skid of the season.
Anthony Volpe put New York on the scoreboard with his third major league home run, a solo shot in the sixth off Cleveland rookie starter Tanner Bibee. Anthony Rizzo hit a walk-off single against Karinchak in the same inning to tie the score.
“We’ve definitely had difficulties, results wise,” Volpe said. “But I think we were very good at-bats and we did well hitting hard balls. As an offense, as long as we do those types of things, we can show that we can fight and come back.”
Volpe finished the day with two hits, two runs scored and two steals, to reach 10 in as many attempts.
“We had some very good at-bats when we needed them the most,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said.
For five innings the Bombers’ bats were silenced by Bibee, and Cleveland’s top prospect (No. 57 in the majors, according to MLB Pipeline) made his second major league outing against Yankees ace Gerrit Cole, who had a strong start.
Cole held the Rangers to five hits in six innings, giving up two runs. Josh Naylor and Andrés Giménez drove in the runs against Cole, who struck out eight and walked three in a 108-pitch effort. The Bronx club improved to 7-0 in Cole’s outing.
Calhoun put the Yankees ahead with a 370-foot drive — according to Statcast technology — that fell into the right field bleachers, which ultimately turned out to be the key shot as the Yankees snapped their four-game losing streak. Calhoun has at least one hit in five of his past six starts, hitting .318 (7-for-22) in that stretch.
“It was a team win,” Calhoun said. “I feel that each of us contributes our grain of sand. Especially in the middle of that tough patch we were going through, to be able to battle it out and get that win, it was great.”
