Batting Cleanup: Walk-Off Weekend
Gleyber was wildly clutch against the Nationals this weekend (Andy Marlin / USA Today Sports)
Game 1: Yankees Lose 11-4
The game when everything except the BABIP luck regressed to the mean.
It’s French for ‘The Mahieu’
The Nats ran Patrick Corbin (not the one I lived across the hall from freshman year of college, sup Corbin?) out to start on Friday, and DJ LeMahieu chose violence immediately. He hit his 12th leadoff, first inning homer as a Yankee to snag a 1-0 lead. As we know, the short porch giveth, and the short porch taketh away. This time it gave… eth… It gave again in the bottom of the sixth, when LeMahieu took Corbin deep again for his second homer and third hit of the game to tie things up. Thank you to DJ for being one of few bright spots in this one.
Jameson: Shots
Jameson Taillon looked great in the first inning. He got two pop ups and a soft groundout from the Nats’ three best hitters, Turner, Harrison, and Soto.
The second inning was not nearly as good. He gave up an absolute bomb to his former teammate Josh Bell, who had been struggling mightily coming into the game. Instead of settling down after that, he proceeded to walk Kyle Schwarber before allowing Yan Gomes (shoutout Brazil) to sneak a homer over the wall in left and give the Nats a 3-1 lead.
He did settle in a bit after the Gomes homer, sitting 15 Nationals down in a row before allowing an infield single to Starlin Castro that knocked him out. Final line for Jamo was 6.1 IP (deepest start of the season) 4H 3ER 5K. Works for me. That streak of consecutive outs included this beautiful fastball to get Juan Soto looking. It was Soto’s 9th strikeout of the year (that’s not many) and only his third looking. Jamo accomplished a rare feat. AND THEN HE DOUBLED DOWN ON IT, striking out Soto looking AGAIN to end the sixth inning.
Starting Catcher Discourse (#HotGarySummer)
If only there were some Yankees blog that has been emphasizing the fact that we should expect Gary Sanchez to get into a groove soon… Ah, well.
The Kraken came up with one out in the second inning and LAUNCHED a ball to left field to cut the Nats’ lead to 3-2. Gary homers are beautiful, man.
Bullpen Regresses to the Mean
Wandy Peralta was good, so there’s that.
For the second straight game, the Yankees brought in a reliever from the middle of the Circle of Trust, and that guy blew it. On Thursday it was Chad Green. On Friday it was Jonathan Loaisiga. Josh Harrison wanted Lasagna tonight, and broke the game open with a 3-run homer that gave the Nats a 7-3 lead. Brutal stuff when the strength of your team lets you down in consecutive games.
Luis Cessa came in and things went from already really bad to marginally worse when he allowed an RBI single to Kyle Schwarber. Gleyber Torres picked up an error on a chopper by Yan Gomes, giving the Nats another run. Man, things got bad fast. By the time the top of the 8th was over, it was 9-3 Nats.
Soto tacked on a homer in the 9th against Cessa to make it 11-3 Nats * vomits *
Notes
Everyone acted like the world was ending, as if the team hadn’t still won 5 of their last 7
Gary very nearly had two homers, we’ll have to settle for one
Clint ripped the ball 3 times, but twice he ripped it directly at Victor Robles
No drama at first base from Andújar
Game 2: Yankees Win 4-3 (11 Innings)
Klubot v Blue Eye
5 Cy Young awards went at it on Saturday afternoon after a rain delay of almost 2 and a half hours. Max Scherzer looked… well he looked like Max Scherzer. He retired the first 7 batters of the game, and struck out 6 Yankees in a row at one point, beginning with Aaron Judge and ending with Mike Ford before Kyle Higashioka tied the game with this homer.
Higgy’s homer and LeMahieu’s single (both in the third inning) were the only blemishes on Scherzer’s line. He went 7.1 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 14 K, 1 BB. That’s the Max Scherzer you expect to see when you’re facing him, and you better have a good pitching performance on your end, otherwise a start like that will take you right out of the game.
Corey Kluber gave the Yankees the start they needed. He was not nearly as dominant as Scherzer, and he really labored in the third inning, when he ultimately walked in a run, but his line of 5.2 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, was enough to keep the Yankees in the game. After getting two outs to start the sixth inning, Kluber allowed a double to Kyle Schwarber and a single to Starlin Castro (come on man, cut your old team a break). That gave the Nats a 2-1 lead and knocked Kluber out.
Where Did This Situational Hitting Come From? (The answer is it came from Gleyber Torres)
The Yankees went into the bottom of the 9th down 2-1, and sent the top of the order up against Brad Hand, who had not allowed an earned run all year. DJ walked. Stanton advanced him to third on a ground ball. Judge blooped a single into right field that was in too much danger of getting caught by a diving Ryan Zimmerman to allow DJ to score, so that gave the Yankees runners on first and third. Gleyber came to the plate and dunked a game-tying single into right field to score LeMahieu. That was all the damage the Yankees could muster in the 9th, but it was all the damage they needed to extend the game. Here’s the game-tying hit.
After Chapman allowed Andrew Stevenson, the automatic runner on second, to score in the 10th, the Yankees again found themselves in need of a run. With Clint Frazier on second base, Mike Ford showed bunt a few times against Brad Hand, but when the count got to 3-1 he had the green light, and beat the shift beautifully with this single to score Frazier. I don’t mean to take any credit away from Ford with the shift beating comment. He ripped this ball, and placed it really nicely.
Justin Wilson worked a phenomenal 11th inning, striking out two of the three batters he faced. He had been struggling mightily in his recent outings, but came through in a HUGE spot in this one. Hopefully regression to the mean works both days and we’re about to see him become a shutdown guy.
Folks, Gleyber Torres was at it again in the bottom of the inning. After Tanner Rainey walked Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Judge (like an idiot, frankly), Gleyber came up with the bases loaded. Behind in the count 1-2, Gleyber hit a dribbler into no man’s land, despite the Nationals bringing in former Yankee Jordy Mercer to employ a 5 man infield, and Rainey was not able to barehand it cleanly. DJ scored, Gleyber got the job done again, and the Yankees won. The irony of the team that lives and dies by the hard-hit ball winning a game on a 49.5 MPH infield single is not lost on me and I do find it funny. Check out how psyched the boys were to get their first walk-off win of the year.
Praise Time
It would’ve been really easy for the Yankees to lose this one quietly. Scherzer shut them down, and the Nationals’ bullpen has been darn near untouchable all year. The fact that they were able to manufacture runs in the 9th, 10th, and 11th innings to get the win is great. Instead of going on a three game losing streak, they have now won 6 of their last 8 and are 12-6 since their 5-10 start. They saved a chance to win the series despite not being able to produce anything for most of the game (they went into the ninth inning with only two hits). This was a very non-Yankees way to win a game, but I am so glad to see this team showing grit and adaptability.
Notes
Justin Wilson was unbelievable in the 11th, I just wanted to praise him again. He deserves it
Gleyber’s infield single in the 11th was the 4th walk-off hit of his tenure with the Yankees, and first since June of 2019 against Toronto
Stanton, Judge, and DJ were a combined 2-12 and the Yankees won anyway
This was the first time the Yankees won a game all year in which they trailed after 8 innings
Game 3: Yankees Win 3-2
Anonymous
Joe Ross, which sounds like the kind of anonymous name you get when you’re in the witness protection program (and I would know… or would I) is not a big time name, but pitched a pretty big time game against the Yankees in this one. It might be time to learn the name Joe Ross for a lot of baseball fans.
Ross didn’t do a great job of avoiding the walk (he walked one batter in the first and second and two in the third), but looked to be doing a good job of preventing those walks from hurting him early. That changed in the third, when Aaron Hicks broke up the no-hitter with a single to center with two men on and one out. That hit also gave the Yankees their first run of the game and a 1-0 lead.
That hit was all the Yankees managed to put up through 4.1 innings (DJ singled to right center with 1 out in the fifth), so it’s a darn good thing the Yankees scored on it.
Ultimately, the walks pumped up Ross’s pitch count, and despite only allowing 2 hits in 5 IP, those innings took him 90 pitches.
Ross’s season high in pitches before this game was 91. On his 93rd pitch of this game, he gave up this home run to Gleyber Torres, his first of the year, and it was a no-doubter. All day I thought it was Mother’s Day, but it turns out it was Gleyber Day Weekend. Pink bat homers are sick.
Ross followed up the homer with a walk to Gary Sanchez, and that was it for him. All in all, Ross was solid. He went 5+ IP, 3 H, 2 R, 7 K, 5 BB (ouch). The walks didn’t hurt his run suppression abilities, but they prevented him from going deep into the game. The Nats had to turn to their bullpen to get 12 outs after an extra innings game on Saturday.
Sunday Best
Domingo Germán was great. He held the Nationals scoreless through 6 IP despite allowing a baserunner in each of his first 4 innings. It really is surprising to me that this game looked so easy for him despite the fact that he didn’t have a 1-2-3 inning until the fifth. The first 5 innings (2x through the order) only took Domingo 63 pitches (12.6/inning). That’s pretty good.
Things got questionable in the seventh. Josh bell led off with a double to left center. After Germán got Starlin Castro to pop up to Gary, Kyle Schwarber hit a ball a really, really, really, long way and tied the game.
That did it for Germán, who went 6.1 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 6 K, 1 BB. Tough way to finish the start, but a really good performance out of him. His ERA was 9.00 when he came back from the alternate site, and is down to 4.02 now.
King of Anything
The Yankees picked an interesting time to use Mike King, the seventh inning of a tie game, but he continued his scoreless streak to start the year. He allowed a single to Yan Gomes but promptly got Yadiel Hernandez to ground into a 6-3 double play to end the inning. That sent the Yankees to the bottom of the seventh, looking to retake the lead.
He came back out for the eighth, and got Robles and Harrison out on either side of a single by Trea Turner. Harrison was his last batter.
I Wand You to Want Me
Boone turned to Wandy Peralta with two outs and one on in the top of the eighth with the express purpose of getting Juan Soto out. Wandy Peralta got Juan Soto out.
More Runs Please?
With one man out in the bottom of the seventh, Brett Gardner hit a ground-rule double (that would have been a triple if the wall were a bit higher). DJ followed that with a walk, and Stanton came to the plate with runners on first and second and one out. He grounded into a double play.
With Aaron Hicks on second and two outs in the bottom of the eighth, the Nationals intentionally walked Mike Ford to face Clint Frazier. Frazier popped up to Josh Harrison to end the inning.
With runners on first and third and one out in the bottom of the ninth, Giancarlo Stanton came to the plate. He took a bad swing at a pitch that Brad Hand did not even mean to throw for a strike, and then ripped a 112.6 MPH single between Trea Turner and Starlin Castro to drive in Tyler Wade and give the Yankees the win.
Notes
The Yankees had two straight walk-off wins for the first time since DJ and Mike Ford hit back-to-back walk-off homers on August 31 and September 1 of 2019
Luke Voit and Gio Urshela appear to be coming back on Tuesday for the series against Tampa
The Yankees went 7-2 on the home stand. That’ll play.
Yankees are now 18-16, winners of 5 of their last 7, and have not lost a series since being swept by Tampa on April 16-18. The boys are boppin’. Let’s go Yankees.
