Game 84. Yanks’ free fall continues with 9-4 loss.

Because I have to work today, there will be no full minor league report. SWB lost 4-1, with Chance Adams (6-3, 2.50 at AAA, 2 R, 5 H, 3 W, 6 K. Gave up 1 HR) taking the loss.  Adams is 10-3, 1.94 overall AA/AAA this season.

This is getting quite painful. The Yanks’ free fall continued with a 9-4 loss Friday night which dropped their record to 44-40, 4 1/2 behind Boston. They are only a game ahead of the third place Tampa Bay Rays. They dropped into a virtual tie with the Twins for the first wild card spot.

If they continue like this, even a wild card spot could be slipping away.

They need to right the ship, and soon.

They lost despite Milwaukee making five errors in the first four innings of the game,  and lost despite Brett Gardner drawing four walks, because the Yanks only managed four hits.

The Yanks struck out 12x.

Tyler Clippard was awful again.

The Yanks took a 1-0 lead in the second on a SF by Clint Frazier. Milwaukee got two in the top of the fourth on a 2-run HR by Jesus Aguilar, who had 2 HR and 7 RBI on the night.

The Yanks went ahead 3-2 in the bottom of the fourth when Ji-Man Choi hit his second HR in as many games since the Yanks called him up.

In the fifth, Aaron Judge hit #30, breaking Joe DiMaggio’s record (1936) for most HR in a season by a Yankees’ rookie. 4-2 Yanks.

Then the bullpen failed again.

Clippard came in to pitch in the sixth inning with men on second and third and no one out and allowed both runners to score, one on a wild pitch. Game tied.

In the seventh, he walked three batters, one intentionally, before giving up a grand slam to Aguilar. Milwaukee tacked on another run later in the inning. 9-4 Brewers.

Montgomery 4 1/3 IP, 2 R, 7 H, 0 W, 4 K. Gave up 1 HR. 3.65
Webb 2/3 IP, 2 R, 1 H, 1 W, 0 K. 4.76
Clippard (BS, 5; L, 1-5, 5.24) 1 2/3 IP, 4 R, 1 H, 3 W, 1 K. Gave up grand slam.
Shreve 1/3 IP, 1 R, 2 H, 1 W, 0 K. 2.96
Cessa 2 IP, 0 R, 3 H, 0 W, 0 K. 4.18

Disconcerting were a couple of comments made. One by Clippard who says he feels good on the mound (then why the bad results?). The other by some coward in the Yanks’ front office who is suggesting that Greg Bird is jaking it and doesn’t want to play. Why doesn’t that person come out publicly and say that straight to Bird’s face? I am sure Bird wants to play but cannot. Those comments are uncalled for.

 

 

 

Minor League Report. Torres needs TJ surgery, done for year.

Yankees’ top prospect, INF Gleyber Torres, needs TJ surgery and is done for the year. He injured his non-throwing elbow sliding into home the other day and hyperextended the elbow, injuring ligaments as well.

The Yanks were possibly grooming Torres to take over at 3B for Chase Headley later this year. They also now have promoted 3B Miguel Andujar to AAA. Andujar is an option for the future at 3B, also the Yanks may look at the trade deadline for a 3B. They aren’t happy with Headley’s performance so far.

Besides 3B, the Yanks may also look to upgrade at starting pitching and 1B. With CC out until early August and Tanaka struggling, an upgrade in the rotation, via Chance Adams being called up,Fo or a trade, looks imminent.

Also, 1B has been a problem with Greg Bird hurt and shut down, and the disappointing performance of Chris Carter. Here, the Yanks could look at a promotion (Tyler Austin, Mike Ford, Ji-Man Choi) or look to trade.

These are three positions that bear watching over the next month. How do the Yanks upgrade here? Is there a big deal brewing?

AAA: SWB (42-26) won 6-1. CF Dustin Fowler double, HR, 2 RBI. 3 hits, HR, 2 RBI LF Jake Cave. 3 hits, RBI 2B Donovan Solano. RF Clint Frazier 2 hits.

Lail (W, 4-2, 4.78) 6 2/3 IP, 1 R, 4 H, 2 W, 3 K.
Layne (H, 1) 1 1/3 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 0 W, 0 K. 0.00
Heller 1 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 1 W, 1 K. 2.48.

AA: Trenton off.

High A:   Tampa (37-31) won 4-2. 2B Nick Solak 2 hits, solo HR. LF Tito Polo 2 hits, rbi. C Sharif Othman 2 hits.

Widener (w, 4-6, 3.94) 6 IP, 1 R, 2 H, 2 W, 4 K.
Foley (H, 1) 1 2/3 IP, 1 R, 3 H, 1 W, 3 K. 1.59
Gomez (S, 2) 1 1/3 IP, 0 R, 1 H, 1 W, 3 K. 2.55

Low A: Charleston off.

UPDATE: Yanks’ minor league pitcher Matt Marsh has been suspended 50 games for using a banned substance.

Ex-All Star Piersall, subject of movie, dies at 87.

Jimmy Piersall, a 2x All-Star whose battle with bipolar disorder was the subject of the 1957 movie “Fear Strikes Out” starring Tony Perkins and Karl Malden, died at the age of 87.

Piersall was a 2x All-Star and 2x Gold Glove winner who played for the Red Sox 1950, 1952-1958, Indians 1959-1961, Senators 1962-1963, Mets 1963, and Angels 1963-1967.

Upon hitting his 100th career HR with the Mets in 1963, he ran the bases backward.

He suffered a nervous breakdown in 1952 and his experiences were portrayed in the movie.

He and Billy Martin once had a huge, celebrated fight.

He was named an All-Star in 1954 and 1956, and won Gold Gloves in CF in 1958 and 1961. He led the majors in doubles in 1956, sacrifice bunts in 1953 and sac flies in 1956.

Primarily a CF, he also played LF, RF, SS and 3B in his career.

He got MVP consideration five times, finishing 9th in 1953.

He hit .272 in his career, with a 162 g. average of .272-10-55, 11 SB, OPS+ 93.

He later became a broadcaster for Texas, and also for the Chicago White Sox.

 

For more on Piersall, check out his biography on Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Piersall

 

 

 

Game 40. Yanks lose 3rd straight, 9-5. Concerns after Tanaka bombed again.

If I were the Yankees, I’d make Masahiro Tanaka take an MRI. For if he isn’t hurt, he’s certainly lost right now.

But maybe we need to know if he is hurt.

Tanaka can opt out of his contract at the end of the year, but the way he’s pitching now, no one would take him.

Tanaka didn’t make it out of the fourth inning, and gave up 3 HR. In his last two starts, he has pitched less than six innings combined, and has given up 14 runs and seven HR.

That is just not him. Neither is that unsightly 6.56 ERA.

You wonder if he’s ok. You wonder if that partially torn UCL is a fully torn one now, and if Tanaka isn’t saying anything but hiding something.

You don’t have to wonder if he is lost out there right now. He is.

He gave up a HR right away, on his third pitch of the game.

The Yanks came back in the top of the second and tied it at one on Aaron Judge’s 15th HR of the year, but Tanaka gave up a run in the bottom of the second. 2-1 Rays.

Evan Longoria homered off Tanaka in the third. 3-1 Rays.

The Yanks tied it in the fourth on a two-run double by Chase Headley, but Tanaka gave up a 3-run HR to Corey Dickerson in the bottom half of the inning. 6-3 Rays and Tanaka was out of there.

Gary Sanchez hit his fourth HR of the year to make it 6-4 in the top of the fifth, but Tommy Layne, who has been struggling badly himself, gave up three runs in the bottom half of that inning.

Headley got an RBI groundout in the sixth for the final run of the game. 9-5 Rays.

Both manager Joe Girardi and pitching coach Larry Rothschild were ejected by the HP umpire. Hearing about the ejections and what the HP umpire, Scott Barry, did or didn’t do, Barry deserves a reprimand. Hey buddy, people don’t come to see YOU. For example, Rothschild was ejected just for saying “you missed a few”. Touchy, touchy, snowflake. Then, when Girardi was ejected just for demanding an explanation of Rothschild’s ejection, Girardi spread dirt over the plate, ala Billy Martin, that Barry left there. He didn’t dust off the plate for the pitcher afterward, and it stayed there for several pitches until Sanchez cleaned it off. Totally unprofessional.

Sanchez 2 hits, solo HR. Now at .303. The Kraken has awoken.
Matt Holliday was 0 for 3, 3 strikeouts. Played 1B.
Aaron Judge 2 hits, double, solo HR, was HBP which forced the ejection of the Rays’ starter, Andariese, who hit two batters. No, Judge didn’t charge the mound. What a sight THAT would have been! Judge DH’d.
Headley  3 RBI

Tanaka (L, 5-3, 6.56) 3+ IP, 6 R, 9 H, 3 W, 4 K. Gave up 3 HR.
Layne 1 1/3 IP, 3 R, 2 H, 1 W, 0 K. 8.18. 1 HBP.
Gallegos 1 1/3 IP, 0 R, 1 H, 2 W, 1 K. 5.06
Shreve 1 1 /3 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 0 W, 3 K. 0.00
Holder 1 IP, 0 r, 0 H, 0 w, 1 K. 1.93

The Yanks need to either get Tanaka straightened out or find out if he is hurt.

As for Layne, I wouldn’t be surprised if a move is made regarding him, like maybe replacing him with Tyler Webb, who is now at SWB.

But something needs to be done about both of them. Both have to get their mojo back.

The loss drops the Yanks to 24-16. It’s their third in a row, and they’ve lost seven of the last 10. It dropped them out of first place, into second, 1/2 game behind the Orioles.

Game 25. Judge (2 HR), Jury (Gardner, 2 HR) and Executioner (Hicks) as Yanks win 11-5.

Aaron Judge hit 2 HR and so did Brett Gardner as the Yanks beat Toronto tonight, 11-5, to go to 16-9 on the season.

One bit of concern. Austin Romine left the game with a groin injury. Will the Yanks be forced to rush Gary Sanchez back from rehab? (See my minor league report on what Sanchez did in his first rehab game tonight. I should be posting that tomorrow morning.)

Before the game, a couple of moves. Cessa down, Shreve up. Bird to the 10-day DL. Refsnyder up.

Doubles by the resurgent Brett Gardner and by Matt Holliday gave the Yanks a 1-0 lead in the first.

In the second, the Yanks got a 2-run HR by Hicks (5) and Gardner’s first HR of the game (3), also a 2-run shot, to make it 5-0.

Aaron Judge sliced a HR around the opposite field (RF) foul pole (11) to make it 6-0 in the third.

Gardner, who had no RBI in the first 20 games, had his second 2-hr game of the week by hitting a HR in the fourth to make it 7-0. You need this. Guys hot will cool off, and then guys cold need to heat up. Not everyone is hot at the same time. You need the guys who are cold to heat up when the hot guys cool off.

Chase Headley got an RBI single in the sixth, but Steve Pearce hit 2 HR for Toronto, one in the fifth and another in the seventh, and Dellin Betances balked home a run in the seventh, and the next thing you know, it was 8-4 Yanks.

Aaron Judge then hit his second HR of the game, a three-run shot (12) in the seventh to put the game away, 11-4.

Toronto got a run in the eighth, but that was the end of the scoring. Yanks win 11-5.

Gardner 3 hits, scored 3, drove in 3, 2 HR.
Headley 2 hits, rbi.
Holliday 3 hits, rbi.
Castro 2 hits (.360).
Judge 2 for 3, scored 3 runs, drove in 4, walked twice. 2 HR.
Hicks 2 hits, 2 RBI. HR.

Hopefully Kyle Higashioka gets his first MLB hit soon. The poor guy is 0 for 15.

Tanaka (w, 4-1, 4.46) 6 1/3 IP, 4 R, 8 H, 0 W, 4 K. Gave up 2 HR.
Clippard 1/3 IP, 0 R, 1 H, 1 W, 0 K. 1.80
Betances (H, 5) 1/3 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 1 W, 1 K. 1.08
Layne 1 IP, 1 R, 2 H, 0 W, 1 K. 6.00
Holder 1 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 0 W, 1 K. 3.00

Some Red Sox’ fans hurled racist epithets at Baltimore’s Adam Jones last night. Disgusting. Boston was the last of the original 16 teams to integrate. They even had a disgusting, racist thing happen to Celtics’ legend Bill Russell in the 1960s. Not all Red Sox fans are assholes like this. All fan bases have jerks. But what happened is uncalled for.

Manny Machado, Jones’ teammate, blasted the Red Sox. Nice job, asshole fans who did that. Machado is a free agent soon. He is a superstar. If he signs with, say, the Yankees over Boston, you have no one to blame but yourselves.

Gossage, like Levine, needs to zip it.

Besides Randy Levine needing to zip it more often, another person who needs to zip it is Rich “Goose” Gossage, who showed up in camp with his annual rant against relief pitchers, and particularly the great and classy Mariano Rivera.

Goose was great. His plaque is in Monument Park, deservedly so. In his prime, 1978-1983 as a Yankee, he averaged 7-5, 2.10, and 25 saves/yr. Remember that he missed 1/2 of 1979 due to the Cliff Johnson fight and 1/3 of 1981 due to the players’ strike. He is in the HOF, rightfully so, with a record of 124-107, 310 saves, 3.01 ERA and ERA+ of 126. (Goose also spent part of 1989 with the Yanks, at the end of his career). In that 1978-1983 time frame, he averaged 1 2/3 innings per appearance.

Goose spent one year starting for the White Sox in 1976.

Now Goose did pitch 2 2/3 innings in that famous Bucky Dent playoff game vs. Boston in 1978.

In what seems to be his annual rant against baseball today, he says (with expletives) not to compare him, Sutter, Fingers, etc. to pitchers like Rivera, Chapman, etc. because the latter day pitchers are one-inning guys. Fair enough.

But the way Goose disparages Rivera is uncalled for. Mariano’s #42 is retired by the Yankees, rightfully so, and Mo should be joining Goose in the HOF in 2019. He should get in almost unanimously, if not unanimously (there is always one jerk out there) on the very first ballot. What’s Goose going to do, boycott the ceremony?

Taking away Mo’s rookie season of 1995, when he started 10 games, from 1996 to the end of his career, Mariano pitched in 950 games, 1216 2/3 IP, averaging almost 1 1/3 innings per appearance—not too far off of Goose’s 1978-1983 average of 1 2/3. Rivera, of course, finished his career 82-60, a record 652 saves, 2.21 ERA and ERA+ a record 205.

And Mo did pitch three innings in Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS.

The game changed. Goose should not hold Mo responsible for that or disparage Mo. Mo did his job, as the job requirements demanded at that time, as good or better than anyone else, just as Goose did his job, as the requirements demanded at the time, as good or better than anyone else.

The game has changed. Pitchers don’t throw complete games anymore. You don’t see starters throwing 300 innings in a season anymore. But you don’t hear Sandy Koufax or Bob Gibson bitching about today’s great starters, do you?

In the same way, relief pitching has changed. I’m old school, and can agree with and sympathize with Gossage’s opinion.

But at the same time, Goose comes across as a bitter, classless, crotchety old man.

It’s to the classy Rivera’s credit that he doesn’t respond in kind. Mo’s not like that.

Enough already. Goose should just praise Mo for the great reliever he was, add that there were two different kinds of eras, and say I was great in mine, Mo was great in his, and be done with it.

Because Goose’s bitching is getting rather tiresome.

Between Goose’s rant and Randy Levine’s gloating over the Dellin Betances’ arbitration case, I was a little ashamed this week—a week I usually can’t wait for, what with spring training starting.

Hey guys, zip it, and let’s concentrate on baseball. Don’t disparage the game and the players but respect and honor good players.

Because your comments this week were very sad to hear, and I’m sure I am not the only Yankees fan saddened, disheartened, and quite frankly, a bit pissed at what I saw and heard.

Betances loses arbitration case, Bleier DFA’d, and not too nice thoughts on Randy Levine.

In his three full years as a Yankee, Dellin Betances has been an All-Star all three times, and has averaged 5-3, 1.93. That wasn’t good enough for him to win an arbitration case, where he wanted $5MM for 2017. He’ll settle for $3MM instead.

But that is where it should have ended. Now you start the season. But no, team president Randy Levine, whom I have never liked because of various arrogant things he has said and done (remember his quotes from last year’s trade deadline?) came out afterwards and basically rubbed the decision right into Betances’ face, like doing a touchdown dance and spiking the ball right into your face.

Why? Why rub it in and piss off your player, especially when he is one of the best players on the team and one of the best setup men in baseball? For a $2MM difference? Why not just say it’s over with and wish Betances a good year?

Betances was pissed at what Levine had to say and I don’t blame him. I hope it doesn’t affect Betances for the season.

As for Levine, once a jerk, always a jerk.

The Yanks earlier this week DFA’d Richard Bleier to make room for newly acquired Chris Carter on the roster. I was sad to see this. Bleier, 29, LHP, did a good job for the Yanks in 2016. In 23 games, 23 innings pitched, he had an ERA of just 1.96. Maybe he’ll be re-signed and go to AAA, we’ll see. But he did a good job in 2016 and I was sad to see that he got the axe because of the Carter signing.

That Carter signing doesn’t look as bad now that Austin got hurt. You never know.