The Yankees might not be going to the postseason this year, but they’ve yet to be officially eliminated and they’re not going down without a fight. They won for the fifth time in six games on Monday night, shutting out the Orioles 5-0.
Big Mike Does Big Things
I thought this was the best Michael Pineda has looked all season. Easily. He was dominant, throwing only ten of his 106 pitches from the stretch. The only base-runners he allowed were J.J. Hardy’s one-out ground ball single by a diving Chase Headley in the fifth and a one-out walk by Christian Walker in the eighth. Only five of the 24 batters Pineda faced hit the ball out of the infield and none of them were particularly hard-hit. The hardest hit ball was Hardy’s line drive at Stephen Drew leading off the eighth inning. Drew took a step or two to his right to catch the liner.
Overall, Pineda held the Orioles scoreless for 7.1 innings and allowed just the one hit and one walk. He struck out a season-high eight and generated a season-high 18 swings and misses. Pineda had his F U fastball working and his slider was vicious, consistently diving down and out of the zone after hitters started their swings. He even threw some changeups, a few of which had some serious action down and away to lefties. I know the Orioles have already clinched the AL East and half their regulars were on the bench, but Pineda was in total control on Monday night. Completely dominant. This is the type of game that reminds you just how special he really is when healthy.
Young & Old
The Yankees scored two runs in the third inning and two runs in the fifth inning, and both times the young guy and the old guy were involved. The third inning rally started with an error by Orioles third baseman Ryan Flaherty, who made a poor throw and pulled Walker off the first base bag to start the inning. Walker didn’t even catch the ball. Ichiro Suzuki would have been safe even if he had kept his foot on the bag.
Anyway, that brought Jose Pirela to the plate for his first career at-bat, and he lifted Wei-Yin Chen’s 1-1 pitch into Death Valley in left-center field. Ichiro scored from first with ease and Pirela slid into third base safely with a triple. Again, it was his first career at-bat, so he was running around the bases faster than he’s ever run around the bases before. Derek Jeter brought Pirela home with a ground ball later in the inning. Pirela took off on contact and got a great jump.
The fifth inning rally started with two outs, at least after Ichiro grounded into a double play following Drew’s leadoff single. Pirela started that rally with a soft little line drive single over the second baseman’s head into shallow right field. Brett Gardner drew a walk, then Jeter doubled into the left field corner to score both runs. That was a great at-bat. Chen got ahead him 0-2, Jeter worked it back to 3-2, fouled off a pitch, then doubled. Vintage Cap’n. Two runs in the third, two runs in the fifth thanks to Pirela and Jeter.
Leftovers
After Pineda was removed from the game, Shawn Kelley cleaned up the eighth inning with a strikeout and a routine ground out. He struck out the first batter in the ninth before Rich Hill walked and struck out the next two batters, respectively. David Robertson Phelps got Adam Jones to fly out on the first pitch for the 27th out. Three pitchers in the ninth inning of a five-run game was a tad bit excessive.
Headley tacked on an insurance run with an eighth inning solo homer into Monument Park. Jeter drove in three of the team’s other four runs and went 1-for-3 with a walk on the night. He is 9-for-20 (.450) on the homestand. Going out in style. The top four hitters in the lineup went a combined 1-for-13 (.080) with three walks while the bottom five hitters went 7-for-18 (.389). Brian McCann was the only starter who failed to reach base.
Pirela became the 57th different player to play for the Yankees this season. That breaks the franchise record set just last year. He went 2-for-3 in his MLB debut with that run-scoring triple and rally-starting single. Nice night for the kid.
The Orioles did not have a runner reach second base all night, nevermind third base. This was the Yankees’ first one-hitter since July 2011 against the Mariners. Here’s the box score of that game.
Box Score, WPA Graph & Standings
For the box score and video highlights, head on over to MLB.com. There are some other stats at FanGraphs and the updated standings are at ESPN. The Royals beat the Indians, so the Yankees remain four games back of the second wildcard spot with only six games to play. Their elimination number is three and FanGraphs has their postseason odds at 0.2%.
Source: FanGraphs
Up Next
The Yankees and Orioles will play the second game of this four-game series on Tuesday night. Brandon McCarthy will be on the mound against … someone. The O’s still have not announced their starters for the rest of the series because they’re busy setting up their postseason rotation. There are only three home games left in the season and Jeter’s career, so head over to RAB Tickets if you want to catch any of them live.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.