Well that game was a major buzzkill. After winning five of seven and six of nine, the Yankees ran into arguably the best pitcher in the league Friday night, and they also watched their prized young pitcher exit the game after grabbing his elbow. Bummer. The final score was 7-1 White Sox in the series opener.
Adding Injury To Insult
On a night the Yankees did not have a long reliever available, Luis Severino needed 81 pitches to record eight outs. Included within those 81 pitches were a home run, three doubles, three singles, four walks, a hit batsman, and seven runs. A few loud outs too. (And two strikeouts.) It would have been even worse had Ronald Torreyes not saved Severino’s bacon with a nice diving stop to end the first inning.
The poor performance will only go down as only a footnote, however. Severino left the game with what was eventually diagnosed as a mild right triceps strain. He is going to be placed on the DL and will not pick up a baseball for 5-7 days. Here’s the video of the injury. Severino grabbed his elbow while talking to the trainer on the mound and that is scary as hell. I wouldn’t necessarily call a triceps strain good news, just less bad news.
Injuries are always bad, but perhaps this triceps issue explains Severino’s season long command issues. Then again, Joe Girardi said Severino had not previously complained of anything, so this only popped up during the start Friday night. Not a good night for Severino and the Yankees. Losses happen. Whatever. Losing your prized young pitcher to an arm injury too? Barf.
Runs Not For Sale (I’m so sorry)
There’s not a whole lot to say about the offense. Chase Headley drilled a solo home run in the second inning — his second in two days! — and that was the only real mistake made by Chris Sale. He was his typically brilliant self, carving the Yankees up with mid-90s heaters and filthy sliders. Gary Sanchez was called up from Triple-A to help out against lefties this weekend, and this was the end of his first at-bat:
El oh el. They don’t throw sliders like that in Scranton, Gary. The Yankees had six base-runners on the night: Headley’s homer and singles by Aaron Hicks, Starlin Castro, Mark Teixeira (two), and Brett Gardner. That’s all. Teixeira ripped two line drives — one was a single, the other was caught — and they were his two hardest hit balls in about a week. I guess that’s the silver lining. The Yankees could use the real Mark Teixeira sooner rather than later.
Sale struck out six and threw only 99 total pitches (71 strikes!). Only once did he throw more than 13 pitches in an inning and that was 15 in the first. Dominant and efficient. That’s why Sale is one of the best, folks. The Yankees have really struggled to score runs this year — even with their recent winning streak, they came into Friday 21st in runs per game (3.85) — but I am perfectly fine with them tipping their cap to Sale in this one. He was absurdly good.
Leftovers
Unsung hero: Nick Goody. He came out of the bullpen and soaked up 3.1 innings following Severino’s injury. Did it on only 37 pitches too. The longest outing of his career prior to that had been 2.2 innings back in Triple-A last year. Chasen Shreve (two innings) and Kirby Yates (one inning) cleaned up the rest of the game. The three relievers held the White Sox scoreless.
Even with the extended outing, Goody might not wind up in Triple-A for a fresh arm Saturday. Severino going on the DL means the Yankees can bring Tyler Olson back, so he can serve as the long man. Phil Coke should be good to go too. They could still send Goody down for another fresh arm, though it doesn’t seem absolutely necessary.
And finally, Sanchez went 0-for-4 with a strikeout in the game. It was his first career big league start, as I mentioned earlier. He did rip a line drive to left field in his third at-bat that was caught. Sanchez didn’t look overwhelmed. He just looked like a rookie facing Chris Sale.
Box Score, WPA Graph & Standings
Head on over to ESPN for the box score, MLB.com for the video highlights, and then back to ESPN for the updated standings. We have Bullpen Workload and Announcer Standings pages too. Now for the graph that tells you each team’s chances of winning at any point in the game based on historical data:
Source: FanGraphs
Up Next
The Yankees and White Sox will be back at it Saturday afternoon in the middle game of this three-game series. There is rain in the forecast, but not until later in the afternoon, so they should be able to get the game in. Ivan Nova and Jose Quintana will be the pitching matchup. Nova should be good for 90 pitches or so in his second start out of the bullpen. The Yankees only play three of their next 20 games at home following the end of this homestand, so if you want to catch Saturday’s or Sunday’s game at the ballpark, RAB Tickets can get you in the door.
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