George Lombard Jr. stepped to the plate for the first time in his major league career Tuesday night at Yankee Stadium. By the end of the fifth inning, the 21-year-old shortstop had already made history.
Lombard launched a solo home run into the left-field seats off Cardinals starter Hunter Dobbins in the fifth inning. It was his first major league hit and made him the first Yankees shortstop ever to homer in his MLB debut. New York won 2-0, according to a report by Yahoo Sports, taking the second game of their three-game series against St. Louis.
The only other run came in the second inning, when Jazz Chisholm Jr. connected for a home run. That broke an 0-for-12 skid over his previous three games. Two runs turned out to be plenty.
Left-hander Ryan Weathers was exceptional. He worked six scoreless innings, allowed just four hits, struck out six, and did not issue a single walk. It was the Yankees' American League-leading 12th shutout of the season. After the Cardinals beat New York 13-7 in Monday's opener, Tuesday looked more like the Yankees that have been dominant most of the summer. New York sits at 64-50. St. Louis dropped to 56-58.
Wednesday's rubber game features a 7:05 p.m. first pitch at Yankee Stadium. St. Louis is expected to start Andre Pallante, who is 11-6 with a 3.72 ERA. His last outing came against the Cubs, where he allowed two runs over 6.1 innings. New York plans to send Will Warren to the mound. Warren is 8-5 with a 4.14 ERA and blanked the Cubs at Wrigley last Friday over 6.2 innings.
DraftKings has set the moneyline with New York at -146 and St. Louis at +137. The total is listed at 8.5 runs.
On the offensive side, Ben Rice has gone 0-for-11 in August and is 1-for-his-last-18. Trent Grisham is 3-for-9 in the series. Alec Burleson of St. Louis is 2-for-4 in his career against Warren.
The series finale will stream on MLB.TV, Cardinals.TV, and Prime Video.
