Batting Cleanup: Never Say Never
Rougie notched go-ahead RBI in games 1 and 3 and homered in game 2 (Associated Press)
Game 1: Yankees Win 6-3
Call it a Comeback
The Yankees came into this game as losers of 6 of their previous 7 games, and somehow things appeared to be getting worse in the first inning. In typical 2021 Yankees fashion, they put two runners on against Aaron Civale in the top of the inning (both on walks) and failed to score, with LeMahieu striking out, Ford flying out, and Gleyber striking out. The Indians then pounced on the returning Domingo German in the bottom of the inning, scoring 3 runs (2 earned) on … whatever you call this.
Only one ball was hit harder than 85.2 MPH, continuing the “death by BABIP” theme for the Yankees this year. Also, as is tradition with this team, you could argue there are some plays that one might say the Yankees should have made.
Naturally, the game felt lost at this point. Given that the Yankees had not scored more than 3 runs in any of their prior 5 games coming into this one, it was hard to see them putting together enough offense to mount a comeback.
Your Author is a Faithless Idiot
I, of course, forgot my position that the futility of the Yankee offense is actually a statistical aberration. The Yankees, who are Actually Good, did not forget. In the third inning, they did it all (almost).
Sure, there’s not a home run there, but there’s a lot to be happy about. George Herman “Kyle HIgashioka” Ruth continued his hot hitting (his OPS+ was at 314 after Thursday’s game, which leads all batters who have 20 or more PA this year), DJ hit a ball in the air with a runner in scoring position, and Gleyber picked up an RBI on a single to right center. What more could we ask for?
FRIENDS IT MIGHT BE HAPPENING
— Yankees Files (@YankeesFiles) April 22, 2021
I was quite pleased to see the offense looking like it was constructed of people who have played baseball before.
Jueves, But May as Well Have Been Domingo
German rolled after getting high-key BABIPed in the first inning. He only allowed 4 baserunners the rest of the way, and stranded a couple of those in scoring position. In all, German went 6 innings, and scattered 7 hits (Gardy might have deserved an error for his play on Hernandez’s fly ball in the first) allowing 3 runs (only 2 earned) and striking out 6. He allowed his fair share of hard contact, recording 4 outs on balls hit 95 MPH or higher, but gutted out a strong start. By Game Score, as measured by Baseball Reference, German’s start was only the ninth best from a Yankee pitcher this year, but it felt much bigger than that.
More Runs?
In the seventh, the Yankees scored multiple runs at a time again! At that point, I had no idea how to react, so I decided that the appropriate reaction would be to adapt Harry Styles’s 2019 hit song “Adore You” to be about our beloved backup second baseman.
JUST LET ME ODOR YOU
— Yankees Files (@YankeesFiles) April 23, 2021
I also couldn’t avoid an “odor” joke.
SMELLS LIKE RUNS
— Yankees Files (@YankeesFiles) April 23, 2021
Look, if the guy is going to drive in 2 runs with the bases loaded and 2 outs, he deserves some tweets. Check out the beautiful confluence of plate discipline and hard contact that netted the Yankees their fourth and fifth runs.
Rougie having 5 hits in 30 ABs as a Yankee won’t bother me that much if he can continue to be this clutch.
Super Duper Kyle
I spy with my little eye a backup catcher who just hit ANOTHER BOMB. Higgy provided some insurance when he led off the eighth inning with a homer to center.
The Romine and Higgy becoming Babe Ruth when Gary is injured or has days off phenomenon defies logic (Higgy had a career OPS+ of 59 coming into this season) but I am so here for it and do not want to question it. This rules. Keep mashing, Higster.
Notes
Gleyber Torres had three hits and raised his season average by 33 points (your reminder that sample sizes are still absurdly small). I can only imagine how good he would’ve been if he had been benched, or better yet, optioned to the alternate site!
The Yankees are bad. Has anyone considered scapegoating the 24 year old shortstop who’s a 2x All Star? Might work!
— Yankees Files (@YankeesFiles) April 22, 2021
Odor and Higgy each had two hits of their own, with Higgy providing both XBH for the Yankees in this one. Let’s hope the slugging is on its way now that BABIP luck may be turning
Judge had 3 walks, because teams will not pitch to him with Mike Ford up next. His OBP this season is .377, contributing to his 148 OPS+. His SLG is still about 70 points below his career average. He’s going to be scary again when the XBH start to show up
After the first inning, Yankee pitchers provided 8 shutout innings in which they only allowed 4 hits. Loaisiga, Green, and Chapman combined for 3 innings with 1 H, 1 BB, and 5 K
Chapman struck out the side, meaning that 16 of the 18 outs he had recorded up to that point came via the strikeout. That’s a whopping 24 K/9. Of players with a minimum of 40 IP in a season, Chapman holds the K/9 record with 17.67 in 2014. We will keep an eye on that this year
Free Slurpee Day: With a win in this one, the Yankees moved to 7-11 on the year
Game 2: Yankees win 5-3
Stumbling Out of the Gate
After a reasonably quiet first inning from the Yankees, Montgomery showed up in the bottom of the inning with little interest in throwing strikes or getting outs. He went to 3-2 on Luplow before getting him to fly out, walked Cesar Hernandez, and walked Jose Ramirez. Not ideal! Franmil Reyes made him pay, hitting a double over Clint’s head at nearly 115 MPH. An RBI groundout from Eddie Rosario quickly made it 2-0 Cleveland. The reasons not to walk people abound. Amed Rosario then singled, making it 3-0. Ultimately it took Montgomery 37 pitches to get through the first. Really tough.
THE BOYS ARE BACK
The Yankees decided to pick Montgomery up in the top of the second. After a very unlucky groundout by Gio Urshela (he hit Logan Allen with the ball and Allen miraculously kicked it to Andres Gimenez), Hicks homered (right handed), Gary singled (he almost hit Allen too), Clint hit a deeeeeeeeep fly ball that didn’t quite make it out to center, and Rougie did this.
#ThatBatFlipDoe Just let me Odor you, Rougie. The Yankees hit two home runs in an inning for the first time all year, and tied it up in style.
Not to be outdone, Stanton led off the third by putting everyone in the left field seats in imminent danger with this 118 MPH (!!!) MISSLE. That marked the first time this year the Yankees hit 3 homers in the same game.
Not to be outdone by… himself? He did it again in the fifth, this time to right center. Catch both of G’s homers here.
No-gan Allen
Logan Allen couldn’t keep the Yankees from hitting the ball hard. DJ, Stanton (2), Gleyber, Gio, Odor, and Hicks all had hard hit balls against him (Clint did too, but Statcast didn’t get an exit velo on it so…). Thanks to all that hard contact, and the three homers, he didn’t make it out of the third inning. Final line for Allen was 2.1 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 1 K, 1 BB. Cleveland’s offense gave him a lead that he gave right back. Good job by the Yankees not to go down easy.
Restoring Order
Montgomery settled down in the second (albeit against the 8-9-1 hitters) and worked a 1-2-3 inning. He only allowed one baserunner in the second through fourth innings. Really gritty stuff from Gumby. Boone pulled him with two outs in the fifth after he delivered exactly what the Yankees needed: some length in a game when they considered pulling him in the first inning. Gleyber misplayed a Jose Ramirez grounder leading to an infield single that put runners on first and third for Franmil Reyes, and that’s when Boone went to Lucas Luetge. I would’ve left Monty in for another batter and tried to get him the win, but such is life. Luetge struck out Reyes on a beautiful curveball to preserve the 5-3 lead.
Things Just Looked Right
Stanton’s two home runs are the headline here, but there was more to it than that. Hicks hit a homer right handed, and hit a 103.2 MPH bullet left handed that Eddie Rosario was lucky enough to be in the path of. Gary ripped a ball back up the middle at Allen and poked another into the left field corner that Eddie Rosario (again) did a nice job to track down moving toward the foul line. Could have easily been a double. Rougie hit a sick home run and punctuated it with an even sicker bat flip. Clint hit a deep fly ball just right of dead center (really his best contact of the season) and drew two walks. Gio got unlucky, grounding out and hitting into a double play on two balls he scorched, and added on a walk. Judge drew a walk and hit a hard line drive to center that Amed Rosario caught because the BABIP luck hasn’t fully turned. Speaking of BABIP luck, Gleyber drilled two balls (xBA of .610 and .800) and both went for outs. It was a hard contact festival, and just about everyone got in on the party. Those 5 runs could have turned into a bunch more pretty quickly. It was great to see the offense functioning.
The bullpen continued to look right. Luetge worked 1.1 scoreless innings in the fifth and sixth. O’Day came on in the seventh and worked a 1-2-3 inning on 12 pitches. A nice double play turn by Gleyber and Rougie helped Chad Green face the minimum in the eighth. Chapman pitched on consecutive days for just the second time this year, and his control wasn’t great but he nailed down the save.
Notes
4 home runs were the most the Yankees had hit in a game this year (by 2)
2 home runs were the most the Yankees had hit in an inning this year
Aroldis Chapman’s streak of appearances with 2+ K dating back to last season ended, but he moved to 4/4 on saves and retained his 0 ERA.
Game 3: Yankees Win 2-1
Cy Cole
It set up to be a pitchers’ duel in Cleveland on Saturday, and Gerrit Cole and Shane Bieber delivered.
The Yankees put 2 runners on in the top of the first on a broken bat single by Stanton and a walk by Judge. Bieber settled in impressively after that, potentially exorcising the demons of the 2020 Wild Card series, and retired 11 Yankees in a row between the Judge walk and the Hicks homer. Cole retired the first 7 batters that Cleveland sent to the plate before Roberto Perez doubled to right center. Cole responded by striking out Andres Gimenez and getting Amed Rosario to ground out. Neither pitcher was working particularly efficiently, both taking more than 50 pitches to get through the first 3 innings.
Despite that, both starters went deep into the game. Bieber got into some trouble in the seventh, walking Clint Frazier and Rougned Odor, but got DJ to ground out to shortstop (for the fourth time) to escape. Bieber was phenomenal. His final line was 7 IP, 4 H (broken bat, infield hit, 2 HR), 2 R, 9 K, 3 BB on 119 pitches. As good Bieber was, Cole was even better. He gave the Yankees 7 IP, allowing 3H and 1 R on 111 pitches. He struck out 11 batters (eat your heart out Shane Bieber) and did not walk anyone.
Bless our long-haired ace who loves when the stakes are high.
Bullpen Battle
Bryan Shaw worked himself into a spot of bother in the eighth after Judge doubled and Urshela walked, but Aaron Hicks popped up to Jose Ramirez in foul territory to end the threat.
Justin Wilson came on for the bottom of the eighth, and it was a trip. Yu Chang scorched a ball (xBA .850) directly into Gleyber’s glove. Wilson then walked Roberto Perez, and allowed him to advance to second on a wild pitch. Jordan Luplow, pinch hitting for Andres Gimenez, popped up to Rougned Odor, and Boone called on Loaisiga to face Amed Rosario.
Loaisiga got Rosario to pop up to Gleyber on the second pitch of the AB and sent the Yankees to the ninth with the lead.
The Indians turned to Certified Weird Guy James Karinchak in the ninth to face the bottom of the Yankees’ order. He struck out the side, getting Higgy and Rougie looking.
Save Us (some) Lasagna
With Chad Green and Aroldis Chapman unavailable due to the policy of not using bullpen guys on 3 consecutive days, the Yankees asked Loaisiga to nail down the save with a 1-run lead against the meat of the Cleveland order.
Loaisiga came into the game having blown 3 saves in his career, and without a save to his name.
He got Cesar Hernandez to ground out, preventing the Jose Ramirez walk-off homer that I thought was inevitable. Ramirez hit the ball hard (like, 108.4 MPH hard), but directly at Rougie Odor who had shifted into short right field. Eddie Rosario poked a fly ball into left that Mike Tauchman tracked down to end it.
Runs Still Happened (Though They Were Not Plentiful)
The Indians got to Cole a bit in the bottom of the fourth. Yankee Killer Jose Ramirez hit a would-be home run to right that Judge nearly robbed, but kept in the park. Eddie Rosario then poked a single to left field to put the Tribe up 1-0.
Raise your hand if you had “Aaron Hicks homers left handed off the reigning Cy Young winner” on your bingo card. I didn’t. If Hicks is now hitting from both sides of the plate, things are very, very good.
After Clint and Higgy struck out following the Hicks homer, Rougie did this. Just let me Odor you, Rougie. So much bat flip swag from this man too.
That homer from Rougie gave the Yankees the lead, and they never gave it back. It won the Yankees the game and the series.
Notes
Shane Bieber’s streak of starts with 10+ strikeouts ended with his 9 K performance. That streak started on September 17, 2020
The home run Hicks hit off Bieber was his first as a left handed batter since September 15, 2020
Unusually, Kyle Higashioka went 0-4. While it’s not the first 0-4 of his career, it is the first time he’s gone 0-4 while catching for Gerrit Cole
Jonathan Loaisiga recorded his first career save
Gerrit Cole’s game score of 78 was his second highest this year, and third highest in his tenure with the Yankees
Game 4: Yankees Lose 7-3
After three very positive and uplifting games to start the series, the Yankees dropped this afternoon’s season finale. Things started off promising, but Jameson Taillon faltered in the fourth to put the Yankees in a hole that they wouldn’t recover from. Three outta four ain’t bad, as they say.
Taillon = Not On
Jameson Taillon was not as sharp as he was in his last start, but managed to keep the Indians off the board in his first three innings. In the fourth, the wheels came off as Taillon surrendered four straight hits, capped by a three run home run by Franmil Reyes which gave the Indians a 4-3 lead. Throughout the afternoon, Taillon kept missing with his location up, which is normally a bad sign for pitchers. However, Rob Drake kept calling the high strike, giving Taillon some leeway to pick up a few strikeouts. In the fourth, Taillon gave up hits after getting to two strikes on batters, which was an issue for him two starts ago against Toronto. His final line looks ugly, but it was really a tale of two outings for Jameson - three strong innings to start and then the rough fourth. Taillon will pitch next back at Yankee Stadium against Detroit next weekend and will be looking to pitch deeper into the game than in his first four starts, in which he hasn’t made it past the fifth.
Positive Taillon vibes only!
Back to Back! Belly to Belly!
Contrary to Thursday and Friday’s games, when the Indians jumped out to 3-0 leads and the Yankees had to come back to win, it was the Yankees who took the early 3-0 lead today. This should have set off alarm bells, but in the moment, it was more fun to watch the first back to back home runs this season for the Yankee offense. First, it was Gio Urshela with a moonshot to centerfield, driving in Gleyber Torres. Mike Ford came up next and cracked his first dinger of the year to right. Both home runs were crushed and gave the Yankees offense a jolt after they hadn’t been able to push anything across against Triston McKenzie.
Unfortunately, these two home runs were the entirety of the New York offense today. The offense picked up four more hits otherwise, including singles by Torres, Stanton and Judge, and a double by Tauchman. This series saw the return of the power bats, as the Yankees hit nine home runs over the four games. The whole offensive package is still a work in progress - they only scored 16 runs despite the nine homers, but it’s a whole lot better than what we saw last week.
Waving the White Flag
It did not seem like Aaron Boone was particularly interested in winning this game, based on his bullpen management, specifically in his choice to bring Nick Nelson into a one run game in the sixth inning. Nelson rewarded Boone’s confidence by giving up three runs in two innings, putting the game out of reach for the Yankees. Nelson is a nice young pitcher, but he has not shown anywhere close to the ability to handle important innings this year. Nelson was optioned to the alternate site after the game so that the Yankees can call up Deivi Garcia for tomorrow’s start, so Boone at least got his money’s worth. Nelson’s poor performance isn’t a huge deal because the Yankees didn’t score more runs anyway, but it continues a pattern Boone tapping subpar pitchers to pitch important innings and letting better arms sit on the bench.
Notes
After the game, the Yankees announced both the Nelson demotion and the activation of Miguel Andujar from the 10 Day IL. Andujar will also head to the Alternate Site, but given the state of the Yankees offense, it might not be too long before we see him back in the Bronx.
In the first inning, Giancarlo Stanton’s single was the hardest hit ball in MLB this year at 120 MPH. He strikes out a lot, but this weekend has shown when Stanton hits the balls, he hits them hard and far.
Aaron Hicks and DJ LeMahieu were both out of today’s lineup. Hicks had some back tightness and DJ was getting a day off. We’ll see if Hicks is in the lineup tomorrow night, which would indicate how serious the back issue is.
Clint Frazier had an absolutely nuts catch in left field. This is now a Clint Frazier defensive highlight reel blog.
The Yankees will head to Baltimore to begin a four game series with the Orioles. Deivi Garcia will pitch tomorrow’s opener against Zombie Matt Harvey. Enjoy your Sunday evening and tune back in tomorrow for a preview of Yankees-O’s!
