MILWAUKEE — The Yankees are about to get their first look at the team they spent most of last season peering up at.
After busting out again for a 15-5 win over the Brewers on Sunday, the Yankees flew to Baltimore, where they will begin a four-game series on Monday against the defending AL East champions.
“We’re excited,” Aaron Judge said. “We’ve been watching them from afar, they’re a great team. They got a great young team. They did a lot of good things last year, especially winning the division. We’re excited to get out there and have some fun.”
The series will begin with the Yankees holding a one-game lead over the Orioles at the season’s one-month mark, though manager Aaron Boone insisted he was not putting much stock into the divisional showdown.
“Look, we know they’re a really good club, but it’s just part of the long season,” Boone said. “You know that’s a team, especially going to their place, if you’re going to beat them, you gotta play really well. I don’t get too much into barometers and messages and all that, especially this time of year. It’s about trying to stack together consistent performances.”
The Orioles, who finished last season 101-61, have a bevy of young talent and added ace Corbin Burnes in a trade with the Brewers over the offseason, making them an even more formidable foe.
“We like what we have in here,” Anthony Rizzo said. “We have a lot of respect for them with what they do and [Brandon Hyde] managing them, it’s a great team. … It’ll be a good series. This division will be tough through the end of the year.”
Anthony Volpe, on his 23rd birthday, gave the Yankees a 4-0 lead in the top of the fifth inning Sunday when he crushed a three-run home run.
Entering the at-bat 7-for-his-last-49, Volpe jumped on a cutter down the middle and went the other way for his first home run since April 8.
“He put a charge into that ball,” Boone said. “That ball’s smoked. I still feel like he’s been having the right at-bats, competitive at-bats. Not getting as great of results of late, but feel like he’s been in a good spot.”
Marcus Stroman walked a season-high five batters and threw only half of his 88 pitches for strikes across four-plus innings.
He navigated his way around traffic in each of the first four innings — including stranding a leadoff triple in the third inning — but could not survive the fifth, when the Brewers erased a four-run deficit keyed by ex-Yankee Jake Bauers’ three-run homer.
“Struggled a bit mechanically,” Stroman said. “Too many walks overall. That’s very uncharacteristic of me. I just gotta get back in the zone.”
Infielder Jon Berti (left groin strain) began a rehab assignment on Sunday with Double-A Somerset, going 0-for-3 with two strikeouts and playing five innings at third base.
Berti is expected to play again on Tuesday and likely Wednesday as well before potentially rejoining the Yankees.
Gerrit Cole (nerve inflammation) threw off flat ground again on Saturday and could advance to pitching off a mound this week.
“I just know [Saturday] was a fairly intense day from a flat-ground standpoint,” Boone said. “Sounds like it went well.”
Tommy Kahnle completed a 15-pitch live batting practice session on Saturday in Tampa. He is expected to throw another on Tuesday or Wednesday.
The Yankees outrighted reliever McKinley Moore to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre after he was designated for assignment this past week.
