Source: FanGraphs
For at least one afternoon, the Bronx Bombers returned. The Yankees hit five homeruns on Saturday afternoon, two fewer than they’d hit in the first eleven games of the season. The dingers helped them to a 7-4 win over the Red Sox. Let’s recap with bullet points:
- Officer McCann At Your Service: The first dozen games of the year were a little rough on Brian McCann, who came into the game with a -10 wRC+ after beating the ball into the shift for two weeks. He broke out on Saturday afternoon, hitting a solo homer in the fourth and two-run homer in the sixth, both off John Lackey. Yankee Stadium sure can be kind to lefties, though these two homers were bombs, not cheapies.
- More From The Middle: McCann wasn’t the only Yankee to have a big day at the plate. Jacoby Ellsbury, Carlos Beltran, and Alfonso Soriano all had two hits, including homers from Beltran and Soriano. Those three plus McCann (the 3-4-5-6 hitters) went a combined 8-for-15 (.533) with one double, four homers, one stolen base, one walk, and six runs driven in. That’ll do just fine, thank you very much.
- Better Than It Looks: Mike Carp’s shift-beating ground ball single in the seventh uglified Hiroki Kuroda’s line, driving in two runs and turning two innings in 6.1 innings into four runs in 6.1 innings. Inherited runners, man. Kuroda held the Red Sox to only A.J. Pierzynski’s two-run homer for the first six frames, striking out five and walking three. It wasn’t the best outing but it wasn’t a disaster either. Would look much better had the bullpen taken care of business in the seventh. Here is Kuroda’s pitch breakdown from Brooks Baseball.
- Shaky Seventh: Adam Warren and Shawn Kelley retired all six men they faced in the eighth and ninth innings, but the seventh was a bit of a mess. Matt Thornton struck out David Ortiz with two on and one out (good!) but was also left in to face Mike Napoli (bad!). Thornton plunked Napoli to load the bases before Carp’s ground ball single. Dellin Betances took over with runners on the corners before the inning ended when Carp was thrown out trying to steal second. He had to have missed a sign. Makes no sense to run otherwise. Things got a little tense in that seventh inning.
- Leftovers: Somehow the umpires ruled that Dean Anna was safe at second on his eighth inning double even though replays clearly showed him being tagged with his foot off the bag after the slide. The Sawx challenged it and they still ruled him safe. Weird … Kelly Johnson tacked on an insurance run with a solo shot in the eighth, so all seven of the team’s runs came on dingers … Yangervis Solarte went 2-for-4 to snap out of his mini-slump, so don’t send him back to Triple-A just yet … Brett Gardner singled and the only Yankee who failed to reach base was (surprise surprise) Brian Roberts.
MLB.com has the box score and video highlights, FanGraphs some other stats, and ESPN the updated standings. The Yankees and Red Sox will wrap up this series on Sunday night (not afternoon) when Ivan Nova gets the ball against the lefty Felix Doubront. If you want to catch the series finale live at the Stadium, check out RAB Tickets.
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