Game 17. Yanks sweep Bosox behind Gardner’s slam.

J.A. Happ entered the game with an ERA of 8.76, and things didn’t look too promising early on because he gave up a HR in the first and a 2-run HR in the second to put the Yanks (8-9) down 3-0.

Happ settled down, however, and Brett Gardner’s 100th career HR—a grand slam—enabled the Yanks to beat Boston 5-3 to take both games of the two game series.

The Yanks got a run in the fourth on an RBI double by Clint Frazier, who had three of the Yanks’ five hits.

Gardner’s slam came in the seventh. It was his fourth HR of the season.

Ottavino got into, and out of, trouble in the eighth.

Happ 6 1/3 IP, 3 R, 6 H, 1 W, 4 K. Gave up 2 HR.  7.23
Kahnle (W, 1-0, 3.38) 2/3 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 0 W, 1 K.
Ottavino (H, 2) 1 IP, 0 R, 2 H, 1 W, 1 K.  1.00
Chapman (S, 3) 1 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 0 W, 1 K.  2.57

 

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Game 12. In Houston, Yanks have a problem. Get swept by Astros, 8-6.

Jose Altuve killed the Yanks (5-7) in their three game series, hitting four HR, two last night, in Houston’s 8-6 win.

Brett Gardner led the game off for the Yanks with a HR (2) but Altuve tied it in the bottom of the first with a HR and Yanks’ starter James Paxton gave up another run in the bottom of the first.

The Yanks had first and third, one out in the second, but both Austin Romine and Tyler Wade struck out.

Houston got one in the third to go up 3-1.

A double by Gleyber Torres, single by Greg Bird and SF by D.J. LeMahieu made it 3-2 in the fourth.

Houston got four in the fifth to go up 7-2. Altuve hit his second HR of the game in that inning, and Carlos Correa added a two-run shot.

The Yanks tried to come back in the eighth. Aaron Judge walked, and Luke Voit hit a 2-run HR (4) to make it 7-4. Torres singled, Bird walked, and LeMahieu doubled in a run. Clint Frazier hit a SF to cut it to 7-6.

Houston got an insurance run in the bottom of the eighth.

The Yanks struck out 13x. It seemed they weren’t recognizing and couldn’t hit the slider.

Voit HR, 2 RBI
Torres 2 hits
LeMahieu 3 for 3, 2 RBI

Joe Harvey was brought up to replace Jonathan Loaisiga for a few days until the Yanks activate CC.

Paxton (L, 1-2, 6.00) 4+ IP, 5 R, 8 H, 3 W, 5 K. Gave up 2 HR.
Kahnle 2/3 IP, 2 R, 4 H, 0 W, 0 K. Gave up 1 HR.
Harvey 2 IP, 0 R, 1 H, 1 W, 3 K.  MLB DEBUT  0.00
Tarpley 1/3 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 0 W, 0 K.  6.00
Britton 1 IP, 1 R, 3 H, 1 W, 1 K.  4.76

 

Game 11. Bullpen blues. Yanks lose late again, 6-3. Severino shut down for 6 weeks.

The bullpen, supposed to be a strength of this Yankees’ (5-6) team, so far hasn’t been. Leading 3-2 going into the bottom of the seventh, the Yanks’ bullpen gave up four runs after that as the Yanks lost 6-3 to Houston.

Clint Frazier had, let’s say, an interesting night in LF playing defense, and Brett Gardner made a mistake on a bunt attempt in thinking a ball was foul when it was fair. That resulted in bunting into a DP.

Jonathan Loaisiga (who was sent down after the game, what with CC coming back off of the DL) struck out the side in the first, but Houston worked up his pitch count and he was gone after just three innings. He did strike out five in those three innings.

Luke Voit homered (3) for the Yanks in the first, and Gary Sanchez had a two-run double in the sixth.

Loaisiga 3 IP, 2 R, 4 H, 2 W, 5 K. 3.86
Tarpley 1 IP, 0 R, 1 H, 0 W, 0 K. 6.75
Cessa 1 2/3 IP, 0 R, 2 H, 1 W, 2 K.  1.29
Holder (BS, 1) 1 IP, 1 R, 2 H, 0 W, 1 K.  5.40
Green (L, 0-2. 9.00) 2/3 IP, 3 R, 2 H, 2 W, 0 K.
Kahnle 2/3 IP, 0 R, 0 R, 0 H, 2 K. 0.00

So far this season, we’ve seen Chapman take a loss, Green take two losses, Ottavino one. Not the bullpen that was expected so far.

Luis Severino has a grade 2 lat strain and has been shut down for six weeks. Since he’ll need to build himself back up (basically have to go through a “spring training”), we won’t see him on the mound for the Yanks until late June/early July at the earliest.

Gio Gonzalez (see minor league report) is a possibility. Gio rebounded well last night from two prior poor performances. Gio can opt out if not with the Yanks April 20.

Another possibility could be looking into free agent Dallas Keuchel.

 

Game 7. Yanks hit 4 HR (2 by Gleyber) to win 8-4.

After the first inning, it didn’t look good. James Paxton gave up 3 runs in the first, and one run scored on a balk, another via a WP.

Gleyber Torres homered in the third, but after five innings, it was 4-1 Orioles and you feared the worst.

But in the fifth, Sanchez homered (3) to make it 4-2 and later that inning, Torres homered (2) to give the Yanks a 5-4 lead.

Luke Voit, who was slumping, hit a 3-run HR (2) in the top of the ninth for the cushion and the final score of 8-4.

The win puts the Yanks at 3-4 on the season. Tampa Bay is off to a good start, but take a look at Boston, 2-6.

Paxton did settle in after the first inning to get the win.

Torres 4 for 4. Single, double, 2 HR, 4 RBI
Voit HR, 3 RBI
Sanchez HR
Gardner 2 hits

Tough day for Aaron Judge, who may be trying to do too much to carry the team with all the injuries. 0 for 5, 4 strikeouts.

Paxton (W, 1-1, 4.09)  5 1/3 IP, 4 R, 8 H, 2 W, 9 K. Gave up 1 HR.
Kahnle (H, 1) 1 2/3 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 1 W, 1 K. 0.00
Britton (H, 2) 1 IP, 0 R, 1 H, 1 W, 1 K. 0.00
Chapman 1 IP, 0 R, 1 H, 0 W, 1 K. 4.50.

Greg Booker, a setup man who pitched for the Padres in the 1984 WS, passed away, age 58.  1983-1989 SD, Twins 1989, Giants 1990. 5-7, 3.89 in MLB career, ERA+ 95.

HOF manager Bobby Cox, mostly known for his managerial work for the Braves, but a Yankees’ 3B 1968-1969, is in the hospital after what appears to be a stroke. Prayers go out to him.

The Yanks are off Friday.

The Yanks did make a move, acquiring Jake Barrett from the Pirates and he will go to AAA SWB.

From Pinstripe Alley

In order to make room on the 40-man roster, the Yankees moved pitcher Ben Heller to the 60-day injured list.

Barrett has just 93.1 major-league innings to his name, all out of the bullpen with the Diamondbacks, along with a 4.05 ERA. The 27-year-old posted his best season in 2016, when he ran a 3.49 ERA, good for a 129 ERA+, across 59.1 innings. He’s spent little time in the majors since, making just seven appearances in 2018, allowing four runs in seven innings in the process.

He did play well in the minors last season, maintaining a 2.87 ERA in 53.1 innings for Triple-A Reno. Barrett struck out 11.3 batters per nine, but also ran a 4.9 BB/9 rate. According to Statcast, during Barrett’s brief time in the bigs last year, he relied heavily on his fastball, throwing his four-seamer 60% of the time. His slider made up 35% of his repertoire, while a splitter served as more of a show-me pitch with 5% usage. He averaged just over 94 mph on his fastball.

Now that the minor league season has started, I’ll be posting reports on the Yanks’ farm teams.

Spoiler alert: Gio Gonzalez sucked for SWB in their opener Thursday. Minor league Report coming tomorrow morning.

 

Game 5. Chapman blows game in 9th, Yanks fall 3-1.

Without some power like Sanchez, Bird and Tulo (nights off), Stanton, Hicks or Andujar (injured) in the lineup, the Yanks batting lineup looked like something out of a spring training game what with Frazier, Wade and Romine in the lineup and Gleyber Torres hitting cleanup.

You can still win games like that, especially with speed, pitching and defense, and for eight innings, it looked like the Yanks might just do that.

Masahiro Tanaka was brilliant, and so was Adam Ottavino.

But Aroldis Chapman came in and blew the game in the ninth. The Yanks lost, 3-1, to fall to 2-3 on the season.

Personally, I don’t think Brett Gardner should be the leadoff hitter anymore, but with this spate of injuries, I am wondering who should be. D.J. LeMahieu comes to mind, as does Tyler Wade. Gardner isn’t what he used to be. Not to me, anyway. I think he should be at the bottom of the order.

Why Wade leadoff for now? Because he’s faster than Gardner right now. He may see better pitches batting in front of Judge, enabling him to hit better, and also, with Wade’s speed at first, maybe Judge sees more fastballs.

LeMahieu did have 2 hits tonight, 2 of the Yankees’ six.

The Yanks’ only run came in the second when LeMahieu singled, Tauchman doubled and Clint Frazier hit a SF.

With Wade on second and two out in the fifth, Judge was intentionally walked but Voit struck out.

The only run Tanaka gave up came when with two outs, he gave up back-to-back doubles, the first hitting the bag and bouncing past Voit. Otherwise it would been the third out of the inning. Tough break.

Tanaka 6 2/3 IP, 1 R, 8 H, 0 W, 7 K. 1.46
Ottavino 1 1/3 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 0 W, 3 K. 0.00
Chapman (L, 0-1, 6.00) 1 IP, 2 R, 3 H, 1 W, 2 K.

Gio Gonzalez will start for SWB Thursday in a minor league game. CC will go Sunday, but I forget where.

 

Game 4. Yanks win 3-1 on combined 2-hitter, but Stanton & Andujar go on I.L. Andujar could be lost for the season.

The Yanks evened their record at 2-2 with a 3-1 win over the Tigers, but the injured list grew even bigger when before the game, the Yanks had to put Giancarlo Stanton and Miguel Andujar on the injured list for 10 days each.

Stanton has a strained bicep, suffered on a funky swing he took. Andujar’s injury could, and appears to be more serious, since he (per MLB.com) has a small labrum tear in his right shoulder and the team will handle him conservatively for two weeks, MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch reports. But Andujar could soon undergo season-ending surgery. In any case, he’ll be out much longer than 10 days.

To replace them, the Yanks called up Clint Frazier (for Stanton) and Tyler Wade (for Andujar).

Unfortunately, neither was an “April Fool’s Joke.”

The duo joins an injured list that includes Jordan Montgomery, Luis Severino, CC Sabathia, Dellin Betances, Aaron Hicks (still no where close to returning), Didi Gregorius and Jacoby Ellsbury.

As for the game, the Yanks struck first when Gary Sanchez hit his second HR of the year to make it 1-0 in the second.

With two outs in the third, Luke Voit walked and Greg Bird singled. When OF Christian Stewart made an error on Bird’s single, Voit came all the way around to score while Bird took second. 2-0 Yanks.

With two on in the fourth, a WP by Yankees’ starter Domingo German moved the runners up, and a throwing error by Sanchez enabled the lead runner to score. 2-1, Yanks. It’s Sanchez’ third error of the season already, all throwing, but in seeing the play, it appears that Gleyber Torres needs to make a better play in keeping the ball in front of him. The throw wasn’t too bad. It was a bang-bang play and Torres may have “heard footsteps” or may have been spiked on the play.

Brett Gardner led off the fifth with his first HR of the season, making it 3-1 Yanks, which was the final score. Gardner had two of the Yanks’ five hits.

It almost wasn’t the final score, however. With two on and no one out in the eighth, Aaron Judge made a diving catch to save the day.  It was a play that put your heart in your throat, because it was a play where Judge could have hurt his wrist really bad if he fell on it wrong. Fortunately, nothing happened. The Yanks can’t afford to lose anyone else right now, ESPECIALLY Aaron Judge.

Domingo German was a bit wild, but pitched great and four relievers backed him up.

German (W, 1-0, 0.00) 5 IP, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 H, 5 W, 7 K.
Green (H, 1) 1 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 0 W, 0 K. 4.50
Britton (H, 1) 1 IP, 0 R, 1 H, 0 W, 1 K. 0.00
Ottavino (H, 1) 1 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 2 W, 0 K. 0.00
Chapman (S, 1) 1 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 0 W, 1 K.

OF Jim Holt, a member of the 1974 WS Champion Oakland A’s, passed away recently.

Game 2. Yanks fall to Orioles, 5-3.

These are the games that the Yanks need to win in order to win the division this year.

Facing a lousy team (47-115 last year), the Yanks got a good performance from their starter, but also made 3 errors, had lack of clutch hitting and the bullpen didn’t shut Baltimore down in a 5-3 loss. The Yanks are now 1-1 on the young season.

James Paxton pitched well, giving up 2 runs, just 1 earned, in 5 2/3 innings.

The game may have turned in the very first inning. With one out, three straight walks loaded the bases, but Miguel Andujar GIDP. Andujar would also have a chance in the ninth, but struck out to end the game.

The Yanks got a run in the fourth on an RBI single by D.J. LeMahieu.

Baltimore got two in the sixth. One run was unearned because of a throwing error by Gary Sanchez.

Chad Green gave up a run in the seventh to make it 3-1 O’s.

LeMahieu, who had 2 hits and that RBI I mentioned earlier, made some nice plays on the day, but an error he made in the ninth led to one of the two runs Baltimore got that inning to be unearned. 5-1 O’s.

The Yanks tried to come back. Troy Tulowitzki homered (1) to make it 5-2. LeMahieu doubled. Gardner (0 for the season so far) made out. Judge singled LeMahieu to third. Stanton struck out. Voit dunked a single in to make it 5-3. Andujar came up as the potential game-winning run but struck out to end the game.

Gleyber Torres had 2 hits.

Paxton (L, 0-1, 1.59) 5 2/3 IP, 2 R, 1 ER, 4 H, 1 W, 5 K.
Ottavino 1/3 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 0 W, 0 K. 0.00
Green 1 IP, 1 R, 2 H, 0 W, 2 K.  9.00
Holder 2 IP, 2 R, 1 ER, 3 H, 0 W, 2 K.  4.50.

The Yanks gave up 2 unearned runs, made 3 errors, and left 11 on base.