Coming into this weekend’s series against the Cubs, one of the more interesting storylines from a Yankees perspective involved the returns of Luis Gil and Clarke Schmidt from the IL to the starting rotation. Both young arms have the potential to deepen the Yankees’ pitching staff ahead of the playoffs. Two games in, and it’s hard to have any complaints.

Coming off the IL and made his first start since May, Clarke Schmidt looked like he didn’t miss too much of a beat, following Gil’s gem by throwing 4.2 scoreless innings, allowing four hits and a walk on 75 pitches. Getting an outing out of the bullpen with his start skipped this weekend, Nestor Cortes followed Schmidt with a very nice performance of his own, as the Yankees shut out the Cubs for a second-straight day. The offense wasn’t particularly dominant, but they didn’t need to be, as New York left with a 2-0 victory to clinch the series.

Schmidt did about as well as you could possibly ask of someone making their first start in well over three months. After issuing a walk to the first batter he faced, he followed that up by retiring the next eight in a row, and never looked in any real danger at any point. The additions of Gil and Schmidt make the rotation a bit crowded, but if the two of them look like they did, that’s a problem the Yankees will happily accept.

In general, the story for the Yankees’ offense was that, yes, they scored, but they probably should’ve had more, which included what they did in the first inning. Gleyber Torres reach on an infield single to start the game after he beat out a Dansby Swanson throw to first. Juan Soto then followed that with a walk, with both runners then advancing a base on a wild pitch. Aaron Judge struck out, but Austin Wells followed with a grounder to the right side that was enough for a run. However, it took the Yankees awhile to add to the quick lead.

By the time the Yankees finally added to the lead, it was the sixth inning, and it came with a bit of help. Following a leadoff walk by Judge, the next two hitters went down in order, leaving the inning up to Jazz Chisholm Jr. He kept things going with a grounder that went just far enough into no man’s land that second baseman Nico Hoerner had no play to make after fielding it. In the next at-bat, the Yankees decided to be a little aggressive, attempting a double steal. Christian Bethancourt’s throw to third to try and get Judge ended up skipping up the line, allowing Judge to advance another base and score.

While the Yankees had other near chances to score, especially on two long fly balls by Judge and Giancarlo Stanton that the wind killed on the warning track (both had an xBA of .990 per Baseball Savant), the Yankees couldn’t add onto their lead ahead of the bottom of the ninth.

As was the plan coming into this series, Cortes was set to piggyback off one of the returning starters, and he did so, coming in to relieve Schmidt in the fifth. He came in for a bit of a difficult spot, as the Cubs had a runner on third, after Patrick Wisdom had tripled on a flare down the right-field line that Soto couldn’t corral. The score was still 1-0 at the time so there was little margin for error, but the southpaw induced a popup to foul territory beyond third base, which Anthony Volpe caught to end the inning.

Cortes went on to put in a very nice outing himself. In 4.1 innings of no-hit work out of the bullpen, the lefty allowed just one walk and no hits, as he struck out three.

In the process, Cortes finished off the game and was awarded the win, as Schmidt fell an out shy of five innings due to pitch count restrictions in his first MLB start post-May injury.

The victory took the Yankees to 82 on the season, which matches their 2023 total. This season obviously hasn’t been perfect, but it’s not nothing to get there with still 20 games left of the schedule. It locks in their 32nd consecutive winning season; they have not finished under .500 since 1992.

The Yankees will go for the sweep tomorrow as they wrap up the series with the Cubs tomorrow afternoon at 2:20 pm ET. Gerrit Cole is expected to pitch for the Yankees, with close friend and former Bomber Jameson Taillon getting the ball for Chicago.