Batting Cleanup: Camden Conquest
The Judge held court this weekend in Baltimore (AP News).
Another Yankees series, another Yankees series win. The Yankees completed their fifth straight series victory against the Orioles, winning the first two games of their weekend set before dropping today’s series finale. A 4-2 start ain’t too bad on this road trip. Winning two out of every three games is a pace that will play. Let’s recap a weekend in Birdland!
Friday: Yankees Win 5-4
Just when it seemed like the Yankees offense was going to falter yet again and drop this (very winnable) game to the Orioles, one man stepped off the bench and said “Not today, Baltimore.” Gio Urshela’s pinch hit, three run home run in the seventh inning saved the Yankees and allowed them to take the series opener against the O’s. Save this one for the World Series highlight reel.
He’s the Most Happy Fella!
Throughout the ups and downs of this season, Gio Urshela has been the Yankees most consistent offensive player. He’s avoided the slumps that have plagued pretty much every other member of the lineup at some point and is batting .298/.347/.482 with 5 home runs and 19 RBI. Combine that with above average defense at the hot corner and you have a really good player. However, Urshela has been hobbled in the last week by knee soreness that he first suffered after a diving play against Houston. He was on the bench tonight resting his knee, but stepped up in a big moment in the seventh inning, with two runners on against Cole Sulser and the Yankees down 4-2. Urshela pinch hit for Tyler Wade and delivered in the clutch, sending a bomb over the right center field fence to put the Yankees on top. We showed you a three run Urshela home run in Baltimore in the series preview and it is my greatest honor to announce that Gio Urshela is at it again.
The Yankees hadn’t scored more than four runs since the second game against Houston and they hadn’t had a home run that wasn’t a solo home run since that same game. Urshela broke both of those streaks and provided a huge lift to a flagging offense. The most happy fella, indeed.
Judge and Jury
Before Gio’s big hit, Aaron Judge was the offensive star of the game. Judge hit two home runs off of Dean Kremer, which were his ninth and tenth home runs of the year. Before the road trip, Judge had been in a week-long slump, batting .083 with 14 strikeouts in 24 at-bats during the last seven games of the homestand. At that point, with murmurs of lower body soreness going around, you had to wonder if he was injured in some way. However, he is such a talented hitter that it was inevitable that he would turn it around, and during the first four games of the road trip, he has done just that, going 8 for 14 with 3 home runs. Judge is the MVP of this lineup when healthy for the power and plate discipline combo that he provides, and he has shown all of that this year.
Down But Not Out
The Yankees were playing down in this game from the start because of numerous injuries to their lineup. It was revealed that Aaron Hicks tore a sheath in his wrist tendon, and as of now his prognosis is uncertain. This was the same injury that knocked out Mark Teixeira for most of the 2013 season, so it doesn’t look promising for Hicks. With Gleyber Torres sidelined by COVID-19, Giancarlo Stanton sidelined by quad tightness, and Urshela initially on the bench with his knee issues, the Yankees brought their B lineup to support Corey Kluber tonight. Until the seventh, Judge’s home runs were all that the offense could muster. Kluber was not as sharp as he had been in his previous outings, giving up four runs in six innings. However, the bullpen supported him by pitching three scoreless and ultimately secured Kluber his third win of the year. The untouchable Aroldis Chapman was unavailable, but Chad Green, Wandy Peralta (who’s been a stellar pickup so far) and Jonathan Loisaiga locked down the victory. They aren’t all pretty, but a win is a win is a win.
Saturday: Yankees Win 8-2
That’s another series win for the Yankees, as they won the middle game of this set against Baltimore in a walk. They haven’t lost a series since the terrible Tampa series almost a month ago. The score was 5-0 in the second inning and the outcome was never really in doubt. It’s been a while since the Yankees had an easy win and this was much needed after Friday’s nailbiter. To the recap!
Quick Offense
The story of the Yankees offense this season has been inconsistency and disappointment. An offense that was supposed to be the best in baseball has been decidedly not that, ranking in the middle of the pack in most statistics. However, with a talented collection of players such as the ones that they have, it’s never too long before the offense can put up a crooked number. On Saturday, instead of “swinging it just enough to win” as DJ LeMahieu said of their performance in Tampa, they swung more than enough to win, and then some. A Gary Sanchez two run single and an Aaron Judge two run home run (as he continues his hot streak, becoming the first player this year with three multi home run games) gave the Yankees five runs across the first two innings off of Jorge Lopez.
Lopez wasn’t fooling anyone on the mound, but we’ve seen the Yankees miss hittable pitches and make average pitchers look like Cy Young this year (Matt Harvey, anyone?). This time, the Yankees were on Lopez early and put up the kind of cushion that very few of their starters have enjoyed this year.
Domingo Dominance
On April 23rd, after Domingo German gave up three runs in the first inning to the Indians, I texted the coauthor of this blog, saying “German should not start another game for this team.” Since then, I have been proven very, very wrong. Little Sunday has posted a 2.37 ERA and gone 3-0 in his last five starts, finding his 2019 success after being out of the league for a year. He pitched six efficient innings on Saturday, giving up just one run and striking out six. When German is on, he works quickly and effectively, mowing down hitters in his way with his nasty curveball. The Orioles lineup, much as they were two weeks ago, looked helpless against the Yankee righty, who became the third pitcher to win his first six career starts against the Orioles. The Yankees bullpen pitched three innings of one run ball to follow German, but this day was all Domingo. It’s been an excellent run of success after a start to the season that made some doubt his future with the Yankees (sorry, Domingo).
MVoitP
One other aspect of this game worth touching on is the first hits and RBI of the season for Luke Voit, who, in case you’ve forgotten, is the defending home run champion of the American League. Voit returned earlier this week, but had been quiet at the plate until his two RBI single today that cushioned the Yankees lead. With Stanton, Torres and Hicks all out of the lineup, Voit adds a power/patience combo only matched by Aaron Judge of the Yankees. When healthy, he’s a game changing presence and it was nice to see him get on the RBI board. This is a player who hit .278/.341/.541 from 2018-2020 and it cannot be understated how valuable he is to the Yankee offense. The boys are boppin, indeed.
Sunday: Yankees Lose 10-6
It seems to be a common theme with this Yankees team - take the first two games in the series and then drop the finale. The Yankees could not outscore their own pitching on Sunday and lost a very winnable game to the Orioles. They are now 3-10 in series finales, the worst record in baseball. Still, that shouldn’t obscure the fact that they’ve won five series in a row. This team, it’s good. Let’s clean up a messy one on a humid, rainy Sunday afternoon.
Montgomery Meltdown
Unfortunately, the story of this game will not be the offense, but rather the poor performance of the Yankees pitching staff. Jordan Montgomery could not hold the four run cushion that he was spotted with, giving it all back and failing to complete four innings while allowing five runs. The bullpen, which had been spotless all series, gave up three more runs, which came on a go-ahead double to Trey Mancini and a tack on two run home run to Maikel Franco. Montgomery had looked very sharp against Tampa on Tuesday, but was far from sharp today. He struggled with his command and the Orioles righties in particular teed off on him. When Monty doesn’t have his best stuff, he often can’t pitch through it, and that was the case today. His ERA is 4.75 this year, which reflects his inconsistency. His next outing will be on Friday night against the first place White Sox, so things aren’t getting any easier, but Jordan will look to pitch closer to the Tampa Monty rather than the Baltimore Monty.
Summer of Gary (and Aaron)
The Yankees came out of the gates hot in this one, jumping on Orioles starter Adam Plutko for four runs in the first inning. After Gio grounded into a double play to score a run but put a damper on a potentially bigger inning, Gary came through with a line shot to right that made it 3-0 Yankees.
We have written and spoken ad nauseam about our optimism for #HotGarySummer, but eventually you have to turn that xWOBA into actual production. In his last six games before today, Gary has quietly turned on the heat, batting .238/.360/.571 with two home runs and four RBI and adding another home run to that total on Sunday. You love to see the underlying stats turning into real counting stats. Clint Frazier followed up with his fourth home run of the year (BACK TO BACK, BELLY TO BELLY) and Aaron Judge provided his fourth home run of the series later on to cushion the Yankees lead. The Orioles pitching isn’t the gold standard, but it’s good to see the offense showing some life. (It’s also criminal to reduce Aaron Judge’s dominance to an afterthought, so let’s turn to the video. Lots of Judge dingers this weekend and it’s a glorious thing.
Air Frazier
As detailed in yesterday’s excellent analytics article, Clint Frazier has struggled this year by making more contact but having the quality of the contact be worse. On Sunday, he showed signs of turning it around, going two for four with a home run and an absolutely stellar play in right field. Check it out - this catch was one of the best we’ve seen in a while.
Frazier has a very important role to play in the coming weeks, with Aaron Hicks on the IL and Giancarlo Stanton hobbled by a quad injury. The Yankees outfield has not been a strength this year outside of Aaron Judge, but if Frazier can start hitting, he can anchor down a group that saw Miguel Andujar and Ryan LaMarre comprise two thirds of the starters today. We’ll keep an eye on Clint to see if this is the beginning of a run of sustained success.
The Yankees will head to Texas for four games to close out this 10 game road trip. Gerrit Cole will be on the hill tomorrow against some random Rangers pitcher that Will will profile in tomorrow’s series preview. And hey, Ian Kennedy is closing for the Rangers. What a thing. Enjoy your Sunday night and check back tomorrow morning for the series preview!
