Yankees Overcome Early Pitching Struggles, Defeat Blue Jays 8-6

The New York Yankees would improve to 17-9 on the season after Wednesday night’s game against the Toronto Blue Jays.  After CC Sabathia gave up 6 runs in the first 2 innings, the Yankees Bats came alive to bail him out and the bullpen held the Blue Jays scoreless late to salvage the game.

Sabathia did not look good from the very start.  After giving up 4 runs in the 1st inning, he gave up 2 more in the 2nd.  Luckily he was able to settle down over the next few innings, and the Yankees pitching staff didn’t look back.  He would finish the game with 4 innings pitched, 7 hits, and 6 earned runs.  The bullpen would only give up 1 hit over the last 5 innings.

After being down by 4 runs in the first, the Yankees bats kept up with the Blue Jays from the start. After a Gardner single and a Hicks walk, Holliday smashed a 3 run home run to center field, the 300th of his career.

In the 3rd inning with the score 6-3, Starlin Castro would hit a bloop single to center field.  Next up, none other than Aaron Judge would blast a 2 run home run to center shaving the Blue Jays lead to 1 run.  That home run would be his 13th on the season, which leads the Major Leagues.

One thing that persisted throughout the game was the home-plate umpire’s lack of consistency in the strike zone.  In the 6th inning, Brett Gardner would get struck out looking at a pitch outside of the zone and would take his frustrations out on the dugout recycling bin.  Matt Holliday would also later get caught looking at a bad strike call for the 3rd out of the inning.  During Starlin Castro’s at bat in the 7th, Yankees’ Manager, Joe Girardi had had enough and subsequently let the umpire know his feelings on the matter.  He was tossed from the game of course.

Sparked by Girardi’s ejection, the rest of the Yankees’ scoring would occur in the bottom of the 7th.  It all began with an Aaron Judge single to left followed by a Chase Headley double down the right field line.  With 2 men in scoring position, Chris Carter would hit an inside pitch, breaking his bat, over the short stop’s outstretched glove which would score Judge from 3rd, tying the game.  Didi Gregorius would then pinch hit for Ronald Torreyes hitting a ground ball to the pitcher who was unable to make a timely throw to 1st for the out.  Headley would score on the play giving the Yankees the lead 7-6.  Brett Gardner would later draw a walk, and an Aaron Hicks walk with the bases loaded would score Chris Carter from 3rd plating the 8th Yankees’ run.

The Yankees head to Chicago to take on the Cubs in what looks to be a fantastic series this weekend.  The first game will begin Friday at 2:20pm.  It’ll be interesting to see if Judge can continue his hot streak and hit a few tape measure shots out of Wrigley.

 

New York Yankees April Impressions

The New York Yankees would finish April with a 15-8 record, sharing first place in the American League East with the Baltimore Orioles.  The starting pitching has been dominant at times early in the season.  The team also seems to consistently be in every game with a chance to win in the 9th, which we saw again tonight as the team fell to the Orioles in extra innings after tying the game late.  A team that many thought was a year away from playoff contention during a rebuild season seems to be on track for at least a shot at making some noise in October.

There’s not much to say about the pitching other than it’s been pretty solid all around.  Sabathia has given up early runs in his last 2 starts but the bats always seem to keep the game close.  Tanaka seems to be getting better with every start.  Severino and Pineda have been electric.  Jordan Montgomery has pitched well, but the run support hasn’t shown up in his last 2 starts.  The bull pen seems to be holding their ground as well, with nothing to realistically complain about.

One of the major standouts thus far has been rookie right fielder Aaron Judge.  Standing at 6 foot 7 and weighing in at over 280 pounds, he looks like a guy who would be right at home on the football field, but he plays the outfield just as well as anyone, and is an absolute monster at the plate.  During his limited action last year, Judge flashed prodigious home run power, but struck out far too often.  This year, through April he has 10 home runs, 20 RBIs, and is hitting .303 with an OBP of .402.  He is a must see player every time he comes up to bat.  He may just hit a ball over the Yankee Stadium bleachers before the season is over.

The depth on the roster has been impressive thus far with Austin Romine and Ronald Torreyes stepping in for injured starters.  Starting catcher, Gary Sanchez went down with an injury to his bicep early in the month. While many thought this would be a huge setback for the team, Austin Romine stepped up and performed more than admirably in his place batting .314 with 10 RBIs.  Torreyes came in at Short Stop when Didi Gregorius was injured during the World Baseball Classic, and is also batting over .300 with 13 RBIs through April.  As Didi recently was reinserted into the line-up and Sanchez looks to return later next week, quality depth all around the diamond is nice to see.

The baseball season is a long haul, and the Yankees will probably cool down a bit at some point, but something feels different about this team compared to years past.  When down by multiple runs, the players never look to get too down on themselves in the dugout and  late inning success may have them believing that they are never out of a game.  Everyone looks like they are genuinely having fun out there.  Of course, that’s what winning can do for a ball club.  We’ll see if they can keep the ball rolling.  If they do they are likely looking at a 85-90 win season and a shot at the playoffs.

The Yankees will host the Toronto Blue Jays tomorrow night for game 1 of a 3 game series.

2017 A Rivalry Reignited, Yankees Defeat Red Sox 3-1

 

After Tuesday night’s game being rained out, the Yankees and Red Sox were finally able to get things going tonight.  Dominant pitching and a few runs were enough for the Yankees to improve to 12-7 on the season as they defeated the Boston Red Sox 3-1.

It just so happens that today was also Yankees rising star Aaron Judge’s birthday, and boy did he have a great game.  Aaron judge came to the plate in the 2nd inning with Starlin Castro on base, and sent the first pitch he saw the opposite way into the bullpen in right field for a 2-run home run.  In the 3rd, he also made a diving catch along the right field foul territory that sent him into the bleachers; shades of Derek Jeter on the mind. He came up with the ball but it took the umpires several minutes to finally rule the play an out.  In the 7th, Judge drew a walk and scored when Greg Bird hit a ball off of the Green Monster for a double.  3 runs would be all the Yankees needed.

Yankees’ pitcher Luis Severino pitched a phenomenal 7 innings giving up only 3 hits, walking 2 batters, and striking out 6.  In the 8th, Dellin Betances was called out of the bull-pen and got things done striking out 2 in a clean inning.  In the 9th, flame thrower Aroldis Chapman came in and struggled throwing over 30 pitches and giving up 1 run in the misty rain.  The Red Sox had the winning run at the plate late but Chapman got out of a dramatic inning with a strikeout to end the game.

The Yankees and Red Sox are back at it tomorrow night.

Yankees take Series from White Sox with Powerful Bats and Solid Pitching

With Masahiro Tanaka on the mound the Yankees would improve to 10-5 on the season as they defeated the Chicago White Sox 9-1 Wednesday Night.  The Yankees bats were hot, and the pitching was solid as the team bounced back from yesterday’s loss.  The team has now won 9 of it’s last 10 games.

Tanaka, who hasn’t looked his sharpest thus far this season, performed well giving up only 1 run on 6 hits through 7 innings.  He is now 2-1 on the season.  While Tanaka’s stuff wasn’t electric, and he had to grind through several innings and at-bats, you can’t really complain about 1 earned run through 7 with 6 strike-outs.   Tanaka carried his lunch pail to the ball park, made a solid start, and got the W.

After a cold night for the Yankees bats last night, they were screaming hot right out of the gate tonight.  Lead-off man, Brett Gardner, opened the evening with a triple that was misplayed in right-center field.  Red hot Chase Headley came up to bat next and promptly served up a home run into the right-center field bull-pen.  Headley is now hitting .396 on the season.

In the second inning, Aaron Judge and Greg Bird hit back-to-back singles and were driven in shortly after by Austin Romine and Ronald Torreyes.  The White Sox would score their only run of the game in the 4th inning when Tim Anderson scored on a Jose Abreu double.

The flood gates would open in the fifth during a 2-out rally in the bottom of the inning that would net 4 runs across the plate for the Yankees.  Matt Holliday and Jacoby Ellsbury got the ball rolling with a singles to center field.  The next man up, Starlin Castro brought everyone home on a home run that landed in the left field bull pen.  Then, Aaron Judge absolutely destroyed a ball that went sailing 448 feet deep into the night that brought everyone watching to their feet.  His 5th homer of the year.  In the eighth inning, while pinch hitting, Aaron Hicks hit a line drive home run to right putting the Yankees up 9-1.  The team would finish the night with 11 total hits.

The Yankees have tomorrow off, and look to stay hot as they travel to Pittsburgh to take on the Pirates for a 3 game series beginning Friday night.