Bats back Greene in 5-3 win over Indians

It’s never easy with this team, but a win is a win. The Yankees won for the fourth time in five games on this road trip, beating the Indians by the score of 5-3 on Monday night.

Early Onslaught
Justin Masterson has not had a good year by any measure, but he looked far worse than I expected on Monday night. He had no idea where the ball was going — 24 strikes and 30 balls — and when he did locate in the zone, the Yankees clobbered it. They got to him for five runs on six hits and three walks in three innings, and all six hits were well struck. These weren’t bloops or grounders with eyes. Everything was hit with authority.

After stranding a runner at second in the first inning, the first seven men to bat in the second inning reached base against Masterson. The inning went double to right (Brian McCann), run-scoring double to left (Brian Roberts), single to left (Ichiro Suzuki, who was thrown out attempting to advance on the throw home), walk (Kelly Johnson), hit by pitch (Frankie Cervelli), run-scoring single to left (Gardner), bases loaded walk (Derek Jeter). Jacoby Ellsbury was robbed a bases-clearing double down the line by Carlos Santana, who made a sweet play at first to turn an inning-ending double play. The Yankees were all over Masterson.

The third inning was more of the same. Mark Teixeira (walk) and McCann (single) reached base to lead things off, ending Masterson’s day. Brian Roberts lined out as the next batter, but Ichiro plated a run with an infield single and the Indians helped bring home another run when Jason Kipnis threw away a potential double play ball. They got the out at second, but the throw was off line and Cervelli was safe, allowing the run to score and extending the inning. Twelve (!) of the first 17 men New York sent to the plate reached base.

Mean Greene
It’s very obvious Shane Greene has the stuff to pitch in the big leagues, isn’t it? The kid was running his mid-90s sinker all over the place and breaking off some nasty upper-80s sliders as well. I thought half of them were cutters he was throwing them so hard. In fact, let’s take a second to look at the PitchFX breakdown, courtesy of Brooks Baseball (data may change overnight):

• 34 sliders, averaged 86.6 mph and topped out at 91.3 (!)
• 30 sinkers, averaged 95.4 mph and topped out at 97.2
• 13 cutters, averaged 95.1 and topped out at 97.0
• eight four-seamers, averaged 95.1 mph and topped out at 96.9
• two curves and one changeup

The stuff has never been the problem, but Greene’s command tends to come and go, sometimes within a start. He had it working in his first career MLB start on Monday night, holding the high-powered Indians to two runs in six innings. He faced the minimum (one hit by a pitch with a caught stealing mixed in) and did not allow a hit until Nick Swisher swatted a solo homer with two outs in the fifth. The Indians scored their second run with a series of soft hits in the sixth. Nothing crazy.

Greene used that Derek Lowe-esque sinker to get nine of his 15 outs on the ground. They were weak grounders too. Easy plays that required minimal effort from the defenders. Five of his other six outs were recorded on the infield via pop-ups and strikeouts. Greene threw 56 of 88 pitches for strikes (64%) and he didn’t walk anyone. Five batters saw a three-ball count and four of them made outs. The exception was Swisher’s homer.

Considering how shaky the non-Masahiro Tanaka portion of the rotation has been the last few weeks, Greene gave the Yankees exactly what they needed on Monday. Two runs in six innings? Can’t ask for much more from a kid making his first career start. Greene handled a good lineup well and I think he did more than enough to earn another start. Keep Chase Whitley in the bullpen for the time being, re-evaluate everything after the All-Star break.

Hangin’ On
After the Yankees scored their five runs in the first three innings, the Cleveland bullpen held them scoreless on five singles in the final six innings. They did manage to get three runners into scoring position, but were unable to get them home. Par for the course, I guess. The Yankees have had a knack for scoring runs early and doing nothing after that.

Greene got the Yankees through six innings, but the bullpen was taxed and that pressed David Huff into setup work. He retired the side in order in the seventh, served up a solo homer to Yan Gomes to leadoff the eighth, then was replaced by Dellin Betances. Betances finished off the eighth inning — Kipnis reached on a Roberts error with one out, then got deked out by Jeter on a foul pop-up and was doubled off first — then pitched around a leadoff single in the ninth. Lonnie Chisenhall and Swisher flew out for the 26th and 27th outs, and I’m not going to lie, I thought both balls were trouble off the bat. Maybe not homers, but extra-base hits. Thankfully that wasn’t the case and this was the first (of many?) save of Dellin’s career.

Leftovers
Santana made three very good plays at first base, including two to cut runners down at home plate. He threw Cervelli out at home in the second as part of Ellsbury’s inning-ending double play, then he managed to get McCann in a rundown between third and home in the fifth. Not too bad for a converted catcher. Santana legitimately saved his team some runs with his glove in this game.

Gardner went 3-for-5 at the plate and was thrown out trying to steal second in the eighth inning. He has been thrown out in each of his last three steal attempts and has not successfully stolen a base since June 20th, 16 games ago. What’s up with that? McCann and Ichiro had three hits apiece as well. Two of Ichiro’s were infield singles. Roberts had two knocks as well. The Yankees did draw three walks (Jeter, Teixeira, Johnson), so this was only the second time they drew more than two walks in their last eleven games.

Between Greene (two), Huff (one), and Betances (three), the Yankees got six swings and misses out of 116 total pitches (2.6%). Not a big deal or anything, it obviously didn’t hurt them at all, but it surprised me when I looked at the box score. I understand Huff not missing bats, but Greene was throwing some vicious stuff and Betances is Betances. Baseball can be weird.

Box Score, WPA Graph & Standings
For the box score and video highlights, go to MLB.com. FanGraphs has some other stats and the updated standings are at ESPN. The Orioles beat the Nationals in extra innings, so the Yankees remain 2.5 games back in the AL East. Depending on what happens with the late game, they will be either 2.5 (Mariners lose) or 3.5 (Mariners win) games back of the second wildcard spot.

Source: FanGraphs

Up Next
These same two teams play again on Tuesday night, in the second game of this four-game series. Masahiro Tanaka and Trevor Bauer will be the pitching matchup.