Source: FanGraphs
Another series, another series win. The Yankees took the second game of their three-game series with the Red Sox on Saturday afternoon, beating Boston 4-2. My real quick research tells me the Yankees have won five straight series for the first time since September 2012. They’ve won 12 of their last 15 games overall. Baseball is fun! It’s a beautiful Saturday afternoon, so let’s recap with bullet points:
- Offensive Outfield: Outfielders drove in all four runs Saturday. Chris Young hit an insurance solo homer in the top of the ninth, and earlier in the game Brett Gardner capped off two rallies with run-scoring hits. Didi Gregorius led off the third with a single, moved to second on a wild pitch, then scored on Gardner’s double to left. The fifth inning rally started with two hits and a sac bunt to move the runners up. Jacoby Ellsbury grounded out sharply to first and the runner at third had to hold, but Gardner picked him up with a clutch two-out, two-strike single to left. Brett’s now hitting .319/.405/.420 (135 wRC+). Very nice.
- Easy Nate: Two runs in 6.2 innings at Fenway Park? That’ll do just fine. Nathan Eovaldi was hit hard in just one inning Saturday — three hits and one run in the fourth — and gave the Yankees exactly what they needed, specifically taking the ball relatively deep into the game. Two of the seven hits allowed were infield singles and it wasn’t until his pitch count was over 100 in the seventh that he walked a batter (last man he faced, actually). Eovaldi used his breaking ball well once the lineup turned over and got a lot of weak pop-ups. Nice outing for Nate.
- Bullpen Machinations: It was a little curious when Joe Girardi sent Eovaldi out for the seventh and straight up weird when Justin Wilson was allowed to face Hanley Ramirez and Pablo Sandoval with a one-run lead in the eighth, but Joe always has the big picture in mind and it’s clear he was trying to get Andrew Miller some rest. Chris Martin allowed an inherited runner to score in the seventh, Wilson sandwiched a walk to Hanley between retiring David Ortiz and Sandoval, then closer du jour Dellin Betances struck out all four batters he faced for the four-out save. Hooray bullpen depth. (Aside: Holy moly Girardi does not trust David Carpenter, huh?)
- Leftovers: Gardner was thrown out at third trying to stretch his third inning double into a triple, and I’m totally fine with it. Be aggressive and force Hanley to make a play … everyone in the lineup had at least one hit except for 4-5 hitters Mark Teixeira and Brian McCann … Young had two hits (homer, double) and now has six doubles, six homers, and eight singles on the year … Chase Headley lost a pop-up in the sun but otherwise the Yankees played really solid defense. No highlight plays or anything, but man, they caught everything. Very clean game, all the plays were made … and finally, here’s the pitch location for the Wilson-Sandoval at-bat in the eighth. I’m going to go out on a limb and say the plan was to get him to chase high heaters.
Here’s the box score, video highlights, and updated standings. Also check out our Bullpen Workload and Announcer Standings pages. The Yankees will look to complete the sweep of the Red Sox on Sunday night. Adam Warren and Joe Kelly will be the generically named pitching matchup.
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