Source: FanGraphs
For the fourth time in four attempts this season, the Yankees failed to improve their record to eight games over .500. They just can’t get over that hump. Drew Hutchison (seven innings) and Aaron Sanchez (two innings) one-hit the Yankees and took Saturday afternoon’s game 2-0. Let’s recap the loss:
- One Hit: The Yankees put five men on base all afternoon but just one came via a hit. That was Mark Teixeira’s two-out double in the fourth inning. They actually loaded the bases with two outs that inning thanks to the double and two hit batsmen (Carlos Beltran and Brian McCann), but Martin Prado flew out harmlessly to end the threat. Beltran walked in the sixth and Stephen Drew walked in the seventh. That’s it. That was the offense. If fairly certain Teixeira’s double was the only hard-hit ball of the afternoon too. Hutchison and Sanchez shut them right down.
- Big Mike: Michael Pineda only made one really terrible pitch on Saturday, and that was the 0-2 hanging slider Jose Bautista hit off the facing of the second deck for a two-run homer in the first inning. They handled Bautista with sliders all day, but that one was left up and he didn’t miss it. Otherwise Pineda did not allow any other runs the rest of the afternoon and held the Blue Jays to just those two runs on seven hits and no walks in six innings. He struck out three and did leave two runners on base in the seventh — Shawn Kelley bailed him out beautifully — but that’s it. Pineda was very good yet again.
- Leftovers: Kelley escaped that second and third, no outs jam in the seventh with a strikeout, a ground ball, and a fly ball. Great job by him … David Huff threw a scoreless ninth with an unintentional intentional walk to Bautista mixed in … the Yankees were held to one hit for the first time since, coincidentally, the Blue Jays did it to them in Rogers Centre in September 2009. That game was all Roy Halladay though.
MLB.com has the box score and video highlights, FanGraphs some additional stats, and ESPN the updated standings. The Tigers are playing a doubleheader today, so depending on the outcome of that (plus the Mariners game), the Yankees can finish the day anywhere from 2.5 to 4.5 games back of the second wildcard spot. FanGraphs has their postseason odds at 12.4% at this very moment in time. Brandon McCarthy and J.A. Happ will be the pitching matchup in Sunday afternoon’s finale.
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