Game 70. Up 5-1, Yanks’ miscues lead to 10-5 loss.

Since I am leaving early Saturday morning for vacation, and will be trying for sleep tomorrow night before my early morning flight, this will be my last post for a while.

Before the game, Refsnyder down, Tyler Webb, lefty reliever, up.

Ouch. Up 5-1, Yankees’ miscues contributed to a 10-5 loss.

Cameron Maybin  homered on the second pitch of the game from Luis Severino to put the Angels up 1-0.

In the bottom of the first, with two out, Judge and Holliday both walked and Castro blooped a single to tie it.

In the second, Carter doubled, Torreyes singled him to third, and Gardner drove him in on a forceout. Hicks singled and Judge hit a 3-run HR (25) to make it 5-1.

After that, it was all downhill.

Severino gave up 2 in the third.

He still had the 5-3 lead entering the seventh.

In the seventh, a leadoff single by the Angels. Then, the play that changed the game. A play that Castro needs to make. Instead of a DP, 1st and 3rd for the Angels, no out. This play was the turning point in the game.

If the Yanks ever make a move, I can see it here, like Torres taking over for Castro and Castro moving to third. There have been a few plays this week alone that Castro needs to make and he hasn’t, costing the Yanks some games. The bat has been great, but he has cost them two games this week because of the glove.

After the crucial Castro error, Betances came in. I was a bit concerned because Betances came in with a 0.40 ERA. A long baseball season is like the stock market. There are “corrections”. A pitcher with that low of an ERA is due for  a bad outing and that is what happened to Betances.

Betances wasn’t helped by an error on Sanchez. Then again, Betances threw a WP.

Domingo German, the rookie, didn’t help himself in the eighth with a WP and an error on a pickoff attempt.

Judge HR, (25) 3 RBI.  Carter had 2 hits.

Severino (L, 5-3, 3.30) 6 +IP, 6 R, 5 ER, 8 H, 2 W, 5 K, Gave up 1 HR.
Shreve (BS,1 ) 1 Ip, 0 R, 0 H, 0 W, 0 K. 1.80. Should have been out there longer.
Betances 2/3 IP, 2 R, 2 H, 1 W, 2 K. 1.16. Was due for a bad outing.
German 2 IP, 2 R, 1 ER, 1 H, 1 W, 3 K. 1.04

 

Game 69. Yanks snap losing streak, beat Angels 8-4.

The Yanks snapped their seven-game losing streak, beating the Angels 8-4 Wednesday night.

More woes for Tyler Clippard, though. The struggling Clippard faced two batters and gave up a double and HR. It’s looking like his role will be reduced.

The win puts the 39-30 Yanks back in first place by 1/2 a game over the Red Sox.

In the second, the Yanks jumped out in front 2-0 on a 2-run HR by Didi Gregorius (8).

Martin Maldonado hit the first of his two two-run HRs in the fourth to tie it up for the Angels.

Matt Holliday made it 3-2 Yanks in the fifth with his fifteenth HR of the season.

In the sixth, Sanchez singled, and Headley walked. Romine doubled in two runs, and Romine scored on a single by Hicks. 6-2 Yanks.

In the seventh, Holliday doubled and scored on a Castro single. Castro later scored on a single by Headley.

Put into a low leverage situation, up 8-2 in the ninth, Clippard faced two batters, gave up a double and HR, and was pulled. It has been a tough time for him lately. Aroldis Chapman then closed out the 8-4 Yankees’ win.

Holliday double, HR (15), RBI
Sanchez 2 hits.
Gregorius HR (8), 2 RBI
Romine 3 hits, 2 RBI.

Montgomery (W, 5-4, 3.74) 5 2/3 IP, 2 R, 5 H, 2 W, 5 K. Gave up 1 HR.
Green (H, 3) 1 1/3 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 1 W, 2 K. 2.31
Betances 1 Ip, 0 R,.0 H, 0 W, 2 K. 0.40
Clippard 0 IP, 2 R, 2 H, 0 W, 0 K. 3.77. Gave up 1 HR.
Chapman 1 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 0 W, 1 K. 3.07.

Ex-Yankees’ PR announcer James Hall passed away recently.

 

Game 64. Road trip from hell continues as Yankees lose in 10, 8-7, more players hurt.

Before the game, the Yankees made moves, sending down Ron Herrera and putting CC Sabathia on the DL. They brought back Ben Heller  Domingo German (my mistake) and called up Luis Cessa.

After the game, an 8-7 Yankees’ loss in 10 innings, the Yanks may have to make more moves, like maybe bringing up Dustin Fowler, Kyle Higashioka and a reliever.

The road trip from hell continued with not only a Yankees’ loss,  their third in a row, but now more players may be headed to the DL.

In the minors, the Yankees have shut down Greg Bird, who now has a knee injury on top of trying to get over the ankle injury. Poor guy appears to be like Nick Johnson. So much potential, but injuries keep eating him up.

We don’t know when Ellsbury is coming back from that concussion. That’s important because last night Aaron Hicks had to be taken out of the game because of an Achilles injury.

Gary Sanchez had to be taken out because of an abductor muscle injury. Adam Warren wasn’t available because of a sore trap muscle in his pitching arm.

We’ll see if these injuries are day to day or if they require DL stints. But geez…

The loss puts the Yanks at 38-26, and they maintain a 2-game lead in the AL East. It was a tough loss, because the Yanks came back in the sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth and took the lead in the tenth.

In the tenth, Giovanny Gallegos got the first two outs, then gave up two hits and an intentional walk before a blooper just extended past Starlin Castro’s reach, tipped off his glove, found grass, and gave the A’s their 8-7 walkoff win.

The Yanks left the bases loaded in the first, not scoring. They left two on in the fourth.

Jordan Montgomery gave up a solo HR in the first to Jed Lowrie and a 2-run double in the second to put the Yanks in a 3-0 hole.

The Yanks tied it in the sixth when with one out, Castro singled, Sanchez walked and Didi (17 g. hitting streak) singled to load the bases. Headley singled in two runs, Carter tied the game with a single.

The A’s got a run in the bottom of the sixth to go up 4-3 on a Yonder Alonso HR. The Yanks tied it in the seventh. With two out, Castro singled, stole second, and scored on a Gary Sanchez double.

The A’s scored in the bottom of the seventh, going up 5-4. The Yanks came back again to tie it in the eighth on a Chris Carter HR (7).

Once again, the Yanks couldn’t hold the A’s, as the A’s got a run in the bottom of the eighth. The Yanks tied the game at six in the top of the ninth when Castro doubled with one out and Sanchez singled him home. Sanchez was having a big game when he got hurt.

In the tenth, with one out, Gardner and Refsnyder (in for the injured Hicks) each singled. Judge walked to load the bases and Castro hit a SF.

Then came the bottom of the tenth when Gallegos got the first two batters but couldn’t salt the game away.

Gardner 2 hits.
Castro 3 for 5, scored 3, 1 RBI. (.328)
Sanchez 3 for 3, 2 walks, scored 1, 2 RBI. He raised his average to .297 before the injury.
Headley 2 hits, 2 RBI
Carter 2 hits, 2 RBI, HR
Montgomery 5 2/3 IP, 4 R, 7 H, 1 W, 5 K. 3.78. Gave up 2 HR
Green 1 1/3 IP, 1 R, 2 H, 0 W, 1 K. 2.70
Clippard 1/3 IP, 1 R, 1 H, 1 W, 1 K. 2.30
Betances 1 2/3 IP, 0 R, 1 H, 2 W, 3 K. 0.42
Gallegos (BS, 1; L, 0-1; 7.15) 2/3 IP, 2 R, 3 H, 1 W, 1 K.

 

Game 61. Judge’s late HR lifts Yanks, 5-3.

Aaron Judge’s 2-run HR  (22), a 438-ft. shot in the top of the eighth, broke a 3-3 tie and lifted the 38-23 Yankees to a 5-3 win over the Angels Monday night.

With the win, the Yankees maintain a 4-gm. lead in the AL East.

Masahiro Tanaka gave up a HR to the second batter he faced, and you thought, here we go again. But he settled down after that to pitch a decent game.

The Yanks tied the game in the third when with two out, Holliday and Castro walked and Didi Gregorius singled in a run.

Didi singled in another run in the fifth to put the Yanks up 2-1.

Chase Headley singled in a run in the seventh to put the Yanks up 3-1 but the Angels tied it in the bottom of the seventh. Both Angels’ runs were unearned due to a Headley error.

Judge then hit his 2-run HR in the eighth to win it.

Judge 2 for 4, scored 3 runs, HR, 2 RBI  .347
Castro 2 hits. .328
Gregorius 4 for 4, 2 RBI. .344

Tanaka 6 2/3 IP, 3 R, 1 earned, 2 W, 8 K. Gave 1 HR. 6.07
Clippard (BS, 3; W, 1-3, 1.73) 1 IP, 0 R, 1 H, 1 W, 1 K.
Betances (S, 6) 1 1/3 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 0 W, 3 K. 0.45.

The Yanks’ first round pick in the MLB draft was Clarke Schmidt, a RHP from South Carolina. Great numbers this year but it seems high risk, high reward. Schmidt had Tommy John surgery done last month so the Yanks will be showing a lot of patience with the pick.

 

 

Game 57. Pineda and Sanchez bleach the Red Sox, 9-1 Yanks.

Michael Pineda pitched 7 strong innings, and Gary Sanchez continued “owning” David Price, hitting 2 HR off him, as the Yanks bombed Boston, 9-1, on Thursday night.

The win gives the Yanks a 3 game cushion in the AL East at 34-23.

The Yanks got a run in the second on a walk to Sanchez, single by Didi and after two out, a single by Gardner.

In the third, Sanchez hit a 3-run HR to make it 4-0 Yanks.

An error, bunt single and passed ball gave Boston their only run in the fourth.

In the fifth, Sanchez hit his second HR of the game (8) off of Price, a 2-run shot, to make it 6-1 Yanks. After this HR, Sanchez was 4 for 7 off of Price in his career, and all 4 hits were HR.

In the sixth, Judge singled, on a ball with an exit velocity of 119.6 MPH! Holliday walked and Castro singled to make it 7-1.

The Yanks got two more in the eighth on a HR by Gardner (13) (who’d have thought the power surge?), singles by Hicks and Judge, HBP by Holliday, and RBI forceout by Castro. Holliday was hit on the helmet and hopefully is OK.

Girardi got a little cute in the 9th, bringing in Betances to get some work and the last out, and he loaded the bases before finally getting it.

Pineda (W, 7-3, 3.39) 7 IP, 1 R, unearned, 4 H, 2 W, 8 K.
Warren 1 IP, 0 R, 0 , 0 W, 1 K. 2.43
Gallegos 2/3 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 0 W, 1 K. 7.04
Betances 1/3 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 2 W, 2 K. (Batter reached on 1 K on a WP). 0.49.

Gardner 2 hits, HR, 2 RBI
Judge 3 hits
Castro 2 hits, 2 RBI
Sanchez 2 HR, 5 RBI
Didi Gregorius 2 hits.

Game 53. Yanks hit 4 HR in the 8th inning of a 7-0 win. Bad News on Ellsbury.

The Yankees set a team record for most hits in a game without getting a single when they hit 4 doubles and 4 homers in a 7-0 win over Toronto Saturday afternoon.

All four homers, three of them consecutive, came in the eighth inning to break open a tight ball game.

Before the game, the Yankees shut down CF Jacoby Ellsbury, who will go to see a neurologist after the headaches came back from the concussion he received running into the wall making a great catch last week.

The win puts the Yanks at 32-21 as the hit the 1/3 point of the season tomorrow with Game #54.

Jordan Montgomery pitched six shutout innings as he won for the first time in almost a month. Would you believe that right now the two lowest ERAs in the Yankees’ rotation are held by the youngsters? Severino and Montgomery.

In the third inning, Rob Refsnyder reached on an error, and scored on a double by Aaron Hicks. Aaron Judge then doubled Hicks home on a bullet. The line drive off of Judge’s bat had an exit velocity of 116.2 MPH. You often see a first baseman or third baseman eaten up by a line drive, but a CF?

It stayed 2-0 until the seventh, when back-to-back doubles by Starlin Castro and Didi Gregorius made it 3-0.

Then came the eighth and HR Derby.

Gardner led off the inning with his 12th HR of the year. After the next two batters made out, the Yanks got three consecutive HRs from Holliday (12), Castro (9) and Gregorius (4).

Montgomery (W, 3-4, 3.67) 6 IP, 0 R, 3 H, 3 W, 5 K.
Warren (H, 5) 1 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 1 W, 2 k. 2.51
Clippard 1 IP, 0 r, 0 H, 0 W, 1 K. 1.57
Betances 1 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 1 W, 1 K. 0.49

Game 46. “Holliday” weekend. Yanks win despite getting only 2 hits, 3-2.

Matt Holliday got the Yanks’ first hit of the game with a 2-run HR in the sixth inning, and despite only getting two hits in the game, the Yanks edged the Oakland A’s 3-2.

The Yanks got a run in the first without getting a hit. Sanchez walked and Holliday was HBP. After a wild pitch, Starlin Castro hit a SF.

CC gave up a run in the top of the sixth that tied the game at 1.

Then in the bottom of the sixth, Sanchez walked again and Holliday broke up the no-hit bid with his ninth HR of the year.

CC gave up a HR in the seventh to cut the Yanks’ lead to 3-2, but they held on, with Dellin Betances getting the last five outs, as Tyler Clippard ran into trouble again.

The Yanks are 28-18. The only other hit came when Castro singled after Holliday’s HR.

The Yanks got a little lucky when two balls almost resulted in violent collisions with Aaron Judge. There could have been serious injury there.

Sabathia (W, 5-2, 4.42) 6 1/3 IP, 2 R, 6 H, 3 W, 9 K. Gave up 1 HR.
Warren (H, 4) 2/3 IP, 0 r, 0 H, 0 W, 1 K. 2.88
Clippard (H, 6) 1/3 IP, 0 R, 1 H, 1 W, 1 K. 1.74.
Betances (S, 5) 1 2/3 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 0 W, 3 K. 0.52

Hall of Fame pitcher Jim Bunning, who later served as a U.S. Representative and Senator, died at the age of 85. See my other post on this blog for more information.