The Yankees scored three runs! And they won too! Games like Wednesday night’s have become way too rare for this team. Those three runs stood up thanks to the pitching staff and the Yankees were able to salvage the series finale against the Rays with a 3-2 victory.
Three Runs!
In the span of two innings on Wednesday, the Yankees matched their runs total from the previous three games combined. A leadoff hit-by-pitch got the offense started in the fifth inning — it was unintentional and not a continuation of Tuesday’s silliness, Alex Cobb hit Chris Young with a breaking ball in the butt cheek — then Chase Headley and Brendan Ryan had the big blows with doubles to left-center and right field, respectively. Headley drove in Young and scored when Ryan’s double hopped over the fence for a ground-rule job.
The two runs gave the Yankees a 2-1 lead, and an inning later they managed to tack on an ultimately necessary insurance run. A single (Derek Jeter) and two walks (Brian McCann and Mark Teixeira) loaded the bases with no outs, though Young popped up in foul territory for the first out, putting the team a ground ball away from no runs. Thankfully, Brett Gardner unloaded on a 3-0 fastball and hit it to the very top of the wall in right field, only to watch Wil Myers make a tremendous leaping catch to rob him of an easy double and a possible triple. It was a truly great catch. Jeter was able to score from third on the sac fly.
Headley drew a walk to reload the bases but Ichiro Suzuki hit a tapper back to Cobb to end the threat. Considering how things have been going for this offense of late, getting one run out of a bases loaded, no outs situation kinda felt like a win. It would have been several runs if not for Myers. In all likelihood Gardner’s fly ball is a grand slam in the Bronx. It was close to leaving the yard anyway. The Yankees scored seven runs total in their last six games, so consider cobbling together three runs against Cobb a minor miracle.
Immaculate
De facto staff ace Brandon McCarthy made two bad pitches all night, basically. He left a pitch up in the zone to Evan Longoria in the fourth inning, resulting in a solo homer to dead center and the game’s first run. Then, in the sixth, McCarthy left another pitch up to David DeJesus, who hit it over Ichiro’s head in right field for a triple. I thought Ichiro had a chance to make a play, but his leap was either ill-timed or just short. DeJesus was rounding second by time the ball bounced off the turf and high off the top of the wall.
Longoria grounded out to short to score DeJesus and bring the Rays to within 3-2. McCarthy held the Rays to those two runs on four hits and a walk in seven innings of work — his final inning was an Immaculate Inning, three strikeouts on nine pitches — while striking out four and getting 15 of his other 17 outs on the infield. I was surprised Joe Girardi lifted him after only 91 pitches (63 strikes) because it looked like he had plenty of gas left in the tank for the eighth inning, especially with the bottom of the order due up. Either way, McCarthy was pretty great on Wednesday, which has been the norm during his time in pinstripes.
Record Breaker
Girardi went to Dellin Betances for the eighth inning and, long story short, he struck out DeJesus looking to strand pinch-runner Brandon Guyer at third base. Ryan Hanigan drew a leadoff walk before Guyer stole second and moved to third on Ben Zobrist’s grounder. Betances struck out Kevin Kiermaier earlier in the inning, so he now has 132 strikeouts on the season. That breaks Mariano Rivera’s single-season franchise record for a reliever. Mo had 130 strikeouts in 107.2 innings in 1996. Dellin has 132 strikeouts in 87.2 innings. Congrats to him.
David Robertson, who was pitching for the first time since blowing the save in his third straight day of work on Sunday, pitched around a two-out single for his 37th save of the season. He struck out Longoria, got James Loney to ground out, then struck out Nick Franklin after Myers singled through the shift. Hopefully Robertson gets to 40 saves this year. No reason in particular, it’s just a cool round number. Rivera, Rafael Soriano, John Wetteland, and Dave Righetti are the only pitchers in team history with a 40+ save season. Mo had nine, the other three guys had one each.
Leftovers
Jeter’s leadoff single in the sixth inning snapped his ugly 0-for-28 skid. It was a legit line drive back up the middle. He went 1-for-4 with a run scored on the night overall. Jacoby Ellsbury (single), Headley (double), and Ryan (double) had the team’s other three hits. McCann, Teixeira, and Headley had the three walks. Headley’s walk to reload the bases in the sixth was New York’s final base-runner.
According to Lee Sinins, McCarthy had the fifth Immaculate Inning in Yankees’ history. Al Downing, Ron Guidry, A.J. Burnett, and Ivan Nova have also done it. I remember Burnett doing it but not Nova. SABR says there have been fewer than 100 recorded Immaculate Innings in baseball history.
Box Score, WPA Graph & Standings
You can find the box score and video highlights at MLB.com. FanGraphs has some additional stats and the updated standings are at ESPN. The Yankees will be either five games (Royals lose) or six games (Royals win) back of the second wildcard spot will eleven games remaining. FanGraphs has their current postseason odds at 0.2% and their elimination number is seven. It’ll be six of Kansas City wins. The Yankees did move into a tie with the Blue Jays for second place in the AL East though. Second is better than third.
Source: FanGraphs
Up Next
The Yankees are heading back to the Bronx for their final homestand of the season. The Blue Jays are coming to town for four games and will send knuckleballer R.A. Dickey to the mound in Thursday night’s opener. Shane Greene will be on the bump for the Bombers. Check out RAB Tickets if you want to catch any of the final eight home games of the season/Jeter’s career.
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