Archive for 2014

* lol nope

The good news: the Yankees scored a lot of runs and beat the Rangers 12-11 on Tuesday night. The bad news: my cardiologist doesn’t have any open appointments until next week. That was not the easiest win of the season. Let’s put it that way.

(Presswire)

All With Two Outs, Again
For the third time this season and fourth time in his career, Brett Gardner opened the game with a leadoff homerun. That gave him three homers in the span of five plate appearances. I don’t get it but I love it. Brett now has 13 homers on the season and is close to doubling his previous career high of eight, set just last season. Gardner being the team’s best overall hitter and second best power hitter is both awesome and terrible at the same time.

The Yankees nursed that 1-0 lead until the third inning, when they ran into the same problem they had in the fifth inning of Monday’s game: they couldn’t get the third out. Brandon McCarthy got Shin-Soo Choo to fly out and Elvis Andrus to ground out for two quick outs, but Alex Rios and Adrian Beltre followed with singles to put men on the corners. Jim Adduci singled to score Rios and J.P. Arencibia doubled into the left field corner to score Beltre and Adduci. In the span of 17 pitches, the Rangers went from being down 1-0 with the bases empty and two outs to leading 3-1 with a runner on second and two outs. That third out, man. The Bombers are having some trouble getting it this week.

McCarthy managed to hang around a few more innings and surrendered four runs — Arencibia hit a wall-scraper solo homer in the fifth to give Texas a 4-1 lead — on nine hits and a walk in six innings of work. Fifteen of the 28 batters he faced hit the ball in the air, which is a more than usual. Only eight of his 15 non-strikeout outs were recorded on the ground. Not the best night for McCarthy, who was in bend but don’t break mode.

(Tom Pennington/Getty)

Crooked Number
Man, it has been a long, long time since we last got to see the Yankees put up an inning like the sixth inning of this game. One of those “everything goes right, everything falls in, all the runs score” innings. It’s been too long. I had forgotten what they were like.

The seven-run assault started with a Gardner double into the corner because of course. He’s in the middle of it whenever they score these days. Derek Jeter reached on an infield single off starter Nick Martinez’s glove, and eventually Mark Teixeira walked to load the bases with one out. They had to score, right? Right. Carlos Beltran ripped a single to right to plate two and bring the Yankees to within 4-3.

Brian McCann‘s sac fly to center tied the game and I thought that would be the end of the rally, but no, they kept plugging along. Chase Headley walked, Zoilo Almonte poked a run-scoring ground ball single back up the middle, and Brendan Ryan ripped a two-run double into the left-center field gap to put his team ahead 7-4. This wasn’t a well-placed bloop double inside the line or something, it was a rocket.

The Yankees scored their seventh and final run of the inning when Rios and Leonys Martin miscommunicated on Gardner’s fly ball and basically ran into each other. The ball hit off Rios’ glove, hit off Martin’s head, and dunked in for a run-scoring three-base error. Here’s a GIF. Jeter struck out to strand Gardner at third, but by then seven runs had scored on five hits, two walks, an error, and a sac fly. Man did I miss big innings.

(Presswire)

NEVER EASY
The Yankees extended their lead to 10-4 thanks to two walks (Jacoby Ellsbury and Teixeira), two singles (Beltran and Headley), and a run-scoring fielder’s choice (Almonte) in the seventh inning, giving them their first huge lead in far too long. Six-run lead with nine outs to go against the worst team in baseball? Smooth sailing from there, right? I wish.

The usually dynamite bullpen had their first total disaster inning in a while in the bottom half of the seventh, as Adam Warren and Dellin Betances combined to allow four runs before the second out was recorded. Warren loaded the bases on two walks (Andrus and Adduci), a single (Rios), and a fielder’s choice (Beltre, out made at home). Betances came in to clean up the mess and instead served up a grand slam to J.P. friggin Arencibia. J.P. Arencibia. The dude who came into the game with a .196 OBP and a 36 OPS+. He went 4-for-5 with two doubles, a solo homer, the grand slam, and seven runs driven in on the night. Argh.

Anyway, Betances put two more runners on base after the grand slam but escaped the inning with no more damage. Teixeira tacked on some much-appreciated — and ultimately needed — insurance runs with a two-run homer in the top of the eighth to give the Yankees a 12-8 lead, Chase Whitley coughed up a run to make a 12-9 lead in the ninth (Andrus single, stolen base, two ground outs), and the bottom of the order went quietly in the top of the ninth. Of course the bottom half of the ninth couldn’t be a nice and easy 1-2-3 inning. Of course not.

David Robertson, who was warming for the four or five-out save in the eighth, started the ninth innocently enough, with a strikeout of Arencibia. Take that, JPA. Martin followed with a one-out ground ball single back up the middle. Then Robertson walked Robinson Chirinos. Rougned Odor grounded out to first for the second out, but Choo drew a walk to load the bases and bring the winning run to the plate. Andrus singled to score two runs and make it a 12-11 game.. The Robertson walked Rios to re-load the bases. Then he went to a full count to Beltre. Then Beltre ripped a line drive to left that … the total awesome and dreamy and handsome Gardner ran down for the 27th out. Never in doubt. /barfs

(Presswire)

Leftovers
Four Yankees relievers — their top three relievers among them — allowed seven runs on six hits and six walks in three innings of work. Whitley was their most effective bullpen arm on the night. I guess they picked a good game to melt down like this? The offense gave them a lot of breathing room and they used every last little bit of it.

Gardner seems to be starting one of his sicko hot streaks, going 4-for-5 with a single, the homer, two doubles, and the makeshift three-base error triple one night after taking Yu Darvish deep twice. He is 7-for-10 with two doubles and three homers in the last two games, raising his season batting line to .283/.357/.455 (125 wRC+). Brett is prettay, prettay good.

Jeter went 2-for-5 and Beltran went 2-for-4, making them the only other players with multiple hits. Teixeira hit the homer and drew three walks while Headley singled and had two walks, his first two in pinstripes. The Yankees went 6-for-15 (.400) with runners in scoring position and had more walks (six) than strikeouts (five) for the tenth time this year, tied for the third most in baseball with the Blue Jays and Athletics. Only the Pirates (14) and Rays (11) have more.

The Yankees scored double-digit runs for only the third time this season and the first time in 83 (!) games. They last did it on April 24th at Fenway Park, in a 14-5 win over the Red Sox. The seven runs in the sixth inning were their most in an inning this season. They had scored five runs in an inning three times, most recently on June 24th.

Box Score, WPA Graph & Standings
MLB.com is the place to go for the box score and video highlights. FanGraphs has some more stats and ESPN has the updated standings. The Orioles, Blue Jays, and Mariners all won, so the Yankees are 4.5 games back of the top spot in the AL East and two games back of the second wildcard spot, tied with Seattle. FanGraphs puts their postseason odds at 15.3%.

Source: FanGraphs

Up Next
These two teams wrap up this three-game series on Wednesday night, when Hiroki Kuroda gets the ball against Colby Lewis. Gonna need you to go nine, Hiroki.

The losing streak has suddenly hit three games. That happened quick, no? It would be easier to swallow if the first two losses didn’t come against a direct wildcard competitor and the third against the worst team in baseball. The Yankees came from ahead to lose Monday’s series opener to the Rangers by the score of 4-2.

(Presswire)

All With Two Outs
This game started out pretty well for the Yankees. Brett Gardner hit two solo homers off Yu Darvish (more on that in a bit) and David Phelps was cruising for the first four innings, pitching around a two-out single/error combination in the first before retiring ten of the next 12 batters he faced. He was in total control of the game against an abysmal last place team … and then the fifth inning happened. It all came crashing down in the blink of an eye.

Chris Gimenez started that fifth inning off with a single, and he moved to second on Rougned Odor’s ground ball. Phelps got Shin-Soo Choo to fly out for the second out and everything looked to be fine because hey, Elvis Andrus stinks. At least at the plate. Instead, he laced a first pitch single to left to score Gimenez. Fine, whatever. Get the next guy. Nope. Alex Rios singled to center to put men on the corners. Then bam, Adrian Beltre doubles into the corner to score the game-tying run. Phelps walked someone named Jim Adduci (I think that’s him in the photo above) on four pitches to load the bases, then he threw possibly the worst 0-2 pitch in baseball history to J.P. Arencibia, who singled back up the middle to score two runs.

In the span of 14 pitches, Phelps went from having a two-run lead with a man on second with two outs to being down two runs with men at first and second and two outs. Five straight batters reached base with two outs in the inning, and the final two runs scored thanks to that awful 0-2 pitch to Arencibia. It was basically a flat cutter down the middle. A batting practice fastball. Arencibia has zero plate discipline whatsoever and Phelps had three chances to get him to chase something out of the zone. Instead, he grooved a fastball.

All told, Phelps allowed the four runs on eight hits and a walk in six innings of work. He struck out three and threw 66 of his 96 pitches were strikes (68%). That fifth inning ruined everything. Phelps was cruising right along like he had in his last eight starts or so.

(Ronald Martinez/Getty)

Brett Owns Yu
Gardner hit two homers off Darvish! Go back to the game last week and he took him deep three times in the span of four at-bats. What in the world is that about? The first came on a 1-0 fastball in the third inning and the second came on a hanging 2-2 slider in the fifth. That one was a bomb out to center, just to right field side of the grassy knoll. The two blasts gave the Yankees a two-zip lead before Phelps coughed it all up.

Gardner joined Mike Trout and Brandon Moss as the only MLB players to take Darvish deep four times in his career. Both Trout (40) and Moss (26) did it more than twice as many plate appearances (11) as Gardner. I dunno, sometimes a guy throws just your speed and you pick the ball up real well out of hand. Gardner seems to have Darvish down pat. He was a one-man wrecking crew.

Oh-Fer
Gardner may have done all the damage against the Darvish, but the righty didn’t exactly shut the Yankees down. I mean, he did on the scoreboard, but they had base-runners. They had a runner on second with two outs in both the first (Carlos Beltran struck out) and third (Brian McCann struck out), runners at first and second with two outs in the fourth (Brian Roberts struck out and Ichiro Suzuki grounded out), and runners at second and third in the seventh (McCann struck out). McCann had no chance against Darvish. He was completely lost all night.

That seventh inning rally was their best chance to get back into the game, though the Yankees did put two men on base against lefty Neal Cotts in the eighth inning. Pinch-hitter Mark Teixeira came off the bench to single with two outs, his first game action in eight days. I guess batting practice went fine before the game. Pinch-hitter Zelous Wheeler popped up to end the threat, however. The Yankees took a big fat 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position. I love the guy, but relying on Gardner to hit dingers to generate offense ain’t gonna work.

(Ronald Martinez/Getty)

Leftovers
Jacoby Ellsbury pinch-hit for Zoilo Almonte leading off the ninth inning and for the life of me I can not understand why he didn’t bat instead of Wheeler in the previous inning, with the tying run on base. I know Joe Girardi wanted to get him the day off, but was the half-inning off his feet that important? Ellsbury has hit lefties (128 wRC+) better than righties (98 wRC+) this year, so I hope it wasn’t a platoon thing. I dunno. That was weird.

Gardner and Jeter had six of the team’s eleven hits (three each). They were on base seven times and the only runs scored when Gardner drove himself in. Beltran had two hits and the trio of Texeira, Chase Headley, and Frankie Cervelli had one apiece. Jeter drew the only walk — the Yankees now have a 6.2% walk rate in their last 28 games as a team (over 1,000 plate appearances), which is awful — and stole the only base.

Shawn Kelley and Matt Thornton were the only relievers used after Phelps. Kelley got squeezed and walked a guy with two outs in his second inning of work for their only-base-runner. The bullpen gave the offense a chance to get back into the game, which proved to be a fruitless endeavor.

And finally, Jeter first tied and then passed Carl Yastrzemski on the all-time hit list with his first and second hits of the night. The Cap’n is now in sole possession of seventh place on the all-time list with 3,421 career hits. Next up is Honus Wagner at 3,430 hits and that’s probably Jeter’s ceiling. Passing Tris Speaker for fifth place all-time ain’t gonna happen. He’s at 3,514 hits.

Box Score, WPA Graph & Standings
Head over to MLB.com for the box score and video highlights. You can find some more game stats at FanGraphs and see the updated standings at ESPN. The Orioles were off and the Blue Jays demolished the Red Sox, so the Yankees are now 4.5 games back of the top spot in the AL East and two games back of the second wildcard spot.

Source: FanGraphs

Up Next
It’ll be these same two teams again on Tuesday night. Brandon McCarthy and Nick Martinez will be the pitching matchup. Hopefully the Yankees will hit Martinez now that they’ve seen him once before. Color me skeptical.