For the first time this season, the Yankees played extra innings Tuesday. And for the fifth time in the last six games, the Yankees lost Tuesday. The offense remained dormant in the series opening loss to the Athletics. The final score was 3-2 bad guys.
Two Token Runs
Yeesh, this offense stinks right now. The Yankees were held to two runs (or less) for the fifth time in the last six games, and they’ve lost all five of those games. Things look pretty good in the first inning! The Yankees plated a run and hit some rockets off generic lefty Eric Surkamp in that opening frame, though it could have been better. Brian McCann struck out swinging at ball four with two men on base to end the inning.
The Yankees scored their other run in the fifth inning on a walk (Brett Gardner), a double (Starlin Castro), and a sacrifice fly (Carlos Beltran). Didi Gregorius opened the inning with a single, but was picked off first. Blah. Castro was stranded at third that inning as well. Mark Teixeira, who drew a walk after the sac fly, was left at first base. They only got the one run that inning and two token “we tried” runs in the game.
Of course, the Yankees had several opportunities to score between the first and fifth innings. Gardner lead off the third with a double, then the next three batters went down on ten total pitches. Alex Rodriguez started the fourth with a leadoff single, and then the next three batters went down on 12 pitches. The Yankees have had 57 leadoff base-runners this season and zero have scored. I just made that up, but it sounds like it could be true.
Adequate Mike
It would seem the rotation is starting to turn the corner. After the first two turns through the rotation featured high pitch counts and long innings, Masahiro Tanaka turned in a strong outing Sunday and Michael Pineda followed with six good innings Tuesday. Big Mike held the Athletics to two runs on seven hits and a walk in six those innings. He struck out seven and got 19 swings and misses out of 97 pitches.
The second inning got a little messy, and it looked like it was about to snowball out of control on Pineda. Two singles against the shift gave the A’s runners at first and second with two outs, then Marcus Semien jumped on a get-me-over 3-0 fastball …
… for a run-scoring single to left field. I am a big fan of swinging 3-0. Not all the time, of course, but that was a good time for Semien to hunt a 3-0 fastball, and it paid off. Pineda was able to get Billy Burns to ground out to first to end the inning, limiting the damage for one run. For a while it seemed the A’s were about to bust things open.
Oakland scored their second run in the sixth inning — they scored in the next half-inning both times the Yankees scored — thanks to a Beltran aided Danny Valencia leadoff triple. The ball was scalded over Beltran’s head, but he didn’t retrieve it quickly, allowing Valencia to get to third. Jed Lowrie punched a single through the drawn in infield to knot the game up.
Last time out Pineda walked three batters for the first time as a Yankee, and in this start he issued his first four-pitch walk as a Yankee. Josh Reddick drew the four-pitch free pass in the first inning. Pineda went to three 3-0 counts on the night overall — Reddick’s walk, Semien’s single, then again to Reddick later in the game (he flew out) — and his location doesn’t seem as sharp as usual. It happens. This was his best start of the season to date and hopefully he builds off it going forward.
Battle of the Bullpens
Walk-off wins are cool, and it appeared the Yankees were set up to win the game after Chase Headley singled through the shift to start the ninth inning. Jacoby Ellsbury came off the bench to pinch-run — after the first pitch of the at-bat for some reason, not sure what the delay was about — but he didn’t run right away. I hate when Gardner does that. Wait, what?
Gregorius tried to bunt Ellsbury up to second but failed miserably. I know Didi pushed a nice bunt the other day, but man, he did not look comfortable bunting there at all. Why try to force it when the guy is so uncomfortable? Gregorius didn’t do the job, then Ellsbury was thrown out by a mile trying to steal second. It was not close. Ellsbury is doing nothing well right now. He’s not hitting, his defense has been rough, and that’s the second time he’s been thrown out trying to steal in a big spot.
The final eight — and 15 of the final 16! — Yankees to bat in the game made outs. The Oakland bullpen allowed just the one hit — Headley’s leadoff single in the ninth — in 5.1 total innings. Yuck. The Yankees are blowing way way waaay too many opportunities right now. Some of it is bad luck — Yonder Alonso robbed Gardner of a two-run line drive single in the sixth with a jumping catch — but that excuse doesn’t last forever. Six games of this now is pretty terrible.
Johnny Barbato took the loss in his second inning of work when Mark Canha yanked an 0-2 fastball by Gregorius at shortstop with two outs in the 11th. Barbato was one strike away from escaping the jam. Lowrie set the rally up with a leadoff double into the right field corner. The pitching staff did its job Tuesday. Three runs on eleven hits, a walk, and 12 strikeouts in eleven innings should be good enough to win. At some point the offense has to do something.
Leftovers
Teixeira drew two walks for the fourth straight game. The last Yankee to do that? Nick Swisher back in 2012. Gardner (double, walk), A-Rod (two singles), and Headley (two singles) all reached multiple time as well. McCann and Aaron Hicks both went 0-for-5. Womp wimp.
Gregorius had a fantastic night at shortstop, making two highlight plays in the seventh and another very good play in the ninth. He went 1-for-4 in the game but couldn’t get that bunt down in the ninth. For this team, failing to get that bunt down shouldn’t be a back-breaker offensively.
Both Dellin Betances and Andrew Miller threw scoreless innings, and since they threw for the third time in four days, they might not be available Wednesday. Maybe Miller will be good to go because he only threw eight pitches. We’ll see. Joe Girardi usually doesn’t like to push his top relievers this early in the season.
Did I mention the offense sucks right now? Because the offense sucks right now. Geez. Snap out of it ya jerks.
Box Score, WPA Graph & Standings
Here are the box score and video highlights for the game, and the updated standings for the season. When I glanced at the standings before the game, 18 of the 30 clubs had between five and seven losses, so yeah. Everyone is still bunched close together. Anyway, check out our Bullpen Workload and Announcer Standings pages. Now here is the sad win probability graph:
Source: FanGraphs
Up Next
The Yankees and Athletics continues this three-game series with the middle game Wednesday night. Nathan Eovaldi vs. Kendall Graveman is the pitching matchup. “Kendall Graveman” is such an A’s name, isn’t it? RAB Tickets can get you in the door for that game, or any of the other four remaining games on this homestand. You know, after this homestand the Yankees play only 13 of their next 35 games at home. Better see ’em while they’re in town.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.