Bookends Deliver

The Yankees 7-0 Monday win over the Orioles came right from the textbook: power and pitching. 

Start with the power -- which was impressive, and although just the fourth game of the season, seemingly overdue.  

Aaron Judge zipped a line drive just beyond the right field wall in the 4th inning. Nice, but, thanks to the Stadium's cozy configuration, hardly headline-generating.

But Giancarlo Stanton's grand slam an inning later was eye-popping. Traveling 471 feet into the concourse beyond the left-center bleachers, that ball didn't soar as much as explode. Did it bear the commissioner's signature or the head of NASA?

FYI: It was just the fifth time that Judge and Stanton had homered in the same game since becoming teammates in 2018.

Even better news came from mound, where Jordan Montgomery, finally back at full health nearly three years after Tommy John surgery, turned in a dominating, Andy Pettitte-like performance: six shutout innings, with seven strikeouts, no walks and just four hits allowed. Relievers Luis Cessa and Aroldis Chapman finished things off. allowing just a pair of walks while pitching with the big lead.

Panicky Yankee fans, after watching their team waste scoring chances all weekend, had to be encouraged by the first home runs of 2021 by the club's towering power sources. 

OK, time for the reality checked. They faced the Orioles, not the Blue Jays. But to win in a tough division with two other legitimate contenders, you have to beat up on the weaklings. And that means dominating Baltimore. And at least for one night, that's what the Yankees did.