A mismatch of a game actually ended up much differently than expected. The Indians, the hottest team in AL with one of their best starters on the mound, lost to the Yankees, a meh team with an Ivan Nova starting. Hey, you can’t predict baseball. Yes, the Yankees won but it was a bit of a struggle at times – not that you should expect an easy win against a team like Cleveland anyways.
Not a promising start
After allowing homers in each of his first nine starts, Nova didn’t give up any versus the Padres his last start out. How about that?
Tonight, however, he went back to the familiar routine of giving up dingers. In the third, Nova allowed a leadoff dinger to Tyler Naquin, one of the best AL rookies this year. Two batters later, Jason Kipnis followed with a solo dinger of his own. 2-0 Indians. Both pitches were just about the same and very hittable – a spillover two-seamer that just happened to be located right on the middle of the plate. Now that is a formula for failure.
After allowing two big ones tonight, Nova has a HR/9 rate of 1.69. No, that is not nice. The 2011 A.J. Burnett had a 1.47 HR/9 and that is still pretty darn bad. Meanwhile, Trevor Bauer was putting up zeros (well, he did allow a hit during the span) for the first four innings of the game. It didn’t last too much longer.
Runs??? What is this sorcery?
Didi Gregorius hit a solo HR in the fifth inning. It wasn’t one of those Yankee Stadium cheapies critics have been bickering about. It was absolutely crushed into the right field seats. There wasn’t any doubt about it off his bat. That homer bumped Gregorius’ isolated power go up to .160, which is pretty darn great for a shortstop. His slash line? .296/.323/.456. I mean, yes please.
After that homer, Chase Headley and Rob Refsnyder hit back-to-back singles to keep the pressure on. After a Jacoby Ellsbury pop out, Brett Gardner drove in Headley with a grounder single up the middle, 2-2 tie. Carlos Beltran walked to load the bases but Brian McCann flew out to the end frame.
The Yankees had another scoring chance in the sixth. With one out, Starlin Castro and Didi hit a back-to-back single to create another RISP situation. Headley followed it up with a single to right field that had a chance to bring in Castro. However, he was called out by the HP umpire Dan Bellino. The Yankee bench begged to differ. They called for an instant replay and the call overturned – New York went ahead 3-2.
But wait! There’s more! With runners on second and third, Refsnyder hit a sac fly to drive in another and Ellsbury followed it up with an RBI single to make it 5-2. Who would’ve guessed we’d see this kind of offensive outburst (well, “outburst” used relatively here) tonight against Bauer, who had a 3.02 ERA coming into the game?
No-more-Va
Oh yes, this is the 2016 Yankees and not a lot of things come easy for the team. With a 5-2 lead going into the bottom of sixth, Nova got into quick trouble with back-to-back doubles from Carlos Santana and Kipnis putting two runners on scoring position. (It is indeed curious how Santana didn’t score though) With Francisco Lindor batting, Nova threw a curveball that just missed way off McCann’s target, inducing a wild pitch and letting Santana score easily. 5-3 Yankees. The young shortstop hit a grounder to first and Mark Teixeira grabbed it, kept Kipnis in check on third, and stepped on first for the first out. Girardi brought in Dellin Betances to face Napoli and beyond.
Nova’s line – 5.1 IP, 5 H, 4 ER, 6 K’s and 2 HR’s – leave something to be desired but to be fair, he was doing decently (besides the two HR third) up to the sixth. There were times that it seemed like he was getting weak contact at will and there were those where his pitches just getting nailed. Such is the life of following Ivan Nova.
Anyways, Betances induced a grounder to third from Mike Napoli and the Yankee infield let the run score, but also took an out at first. 5-4 Yankees. Dellin went on to pitch a scoreless seventh with two strikeouts and Miller followed it up with a perfect frame with one strikeout. This is going to be another easy win finished by the bullpen, right? Well…
Wacky Ending
The Yankees went with Chapman to close out the game. What else is new? This ninth inning was a grinder though. Napoli led off with a walk on a 3-2 count. The next hitter, Jose Ramirez, struck out on 6 pitches. Juan Uribe followed it up with a battle though – an 8-pitch AB that he won with a base hit.
With one out, two runners on, there was a distinct chance that the game would be tied pretty soon. Up next was Rajai Davis, who hit a liner to the outfield that looked like a game-tying hit off the bat, but luckily for the Yanks, it was hit right at Gardner. Two outs. That deep breaths, but don’t get comfortable. Up next was Tyler Naquin, who had homered earlier in the game and has been one of the catalysts in the red-hot Indians lineup.
Naquin hit a hard grounder that Teixeira stopped but did not field cleanly. Castro picked it up, tossed it to Chapman, who seemed to be having an even race with Naquin to the bag. Initially the umps called him safe, loading the bases with two outs. However, Joe Girardi thought that there was a reason to double-check it via instant replay. Upon further review, Chapman just barely beat Naquin to the bag, confirming Girardi’s call. And such was the game: the one that closed out so anticlimactically but no Yankee fans left complaining – a 5-4 New York win.
Box Score, Highlights, WPA and Standings
Here’s tonight’s box score, video highlights, WPA and updated standings.
Source: FanGraphs
The Yankees continue their series in Cleveland tomorrow. Youngster Chad Green goes up against former AL Cy Young and 2016 All Star Corey Kluber. I don’t know about you but I’d definitely watch this one.
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