Yankees 5, Brewers 3: Frazier’s walk-off homer saves the day

Source: FanGraphs

Things weren’t looking too good the first seven or eight innings Saturday afternoon. The offense was pretty lifeless against Brewers finesse lefty Brent Suter. Then the Fighting Spirit kicked in, and the bats woke up against the Milwaukee bullpen. Clint Frazier turned a 3-2 deficit into a 5-3 win with one swing of the bat. The Yankees really needed a win like that. We all did. It’s a Saturday, so let’s recap this game with bullet points:

• Sevy Settles Down: It took the Brewers five batters to build a 3-0 lead. Domingo Santana poked an opposite field three-run home run into the short porch one batter after Travis Shaw was allegedly grazed by a pitch. Replays were inconclusive at best. After that tough first inning, Luis Severino settled down beautifully and fired six scoreless innings. He struck out ten. Severino’s final line: 7 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 10 K. Tough first inning. Everything after that was great.
• Quiet Bats: It wasn’t until the fifth inning that the Yankees registered a hit and it wasn’t until the seventh that they got on the board. Suter lulled them to sleep with 88 mph fastballs all afternoon. Frustrating. A ground rule double (Chase Headley), a single (Jacoby Ellsbury), and an error (Suter) plated the first run. Suter threw away a pickoff throw. The Brewers are so bad defensively. So, so bad. Frazier followed with a triple to bring the Yankees to within 3-2. Signs of life!
• Battle of the Bullpens: The Yankees won a battle of the bullpens! That hasn’t happened much lately. Dellin Betances and Aroldis Chapman finally looked like Dellin Betances and Aroldis Chapman. Six up, six down, five strikeouts. Thanks for that, guys. The ninth inning rally was pretty straightforward. All-Star closer Corey Knebel walked Didi Gregorius and Ellsbury, then left a 97 mph fastball middle-middle to Frazier. Frazier legendary-bat-speed-ed the hell out of it into the left field seats for a walk-off homer. Awesome. Just awesome. Here’s the video.
• Leftovers: Frazier went 3-for-4 and was a double short of the cycle. He drove in four of his team’s five runs. The rest of the Yankees went 3-for-27 (.111) … Frazier is the first Yankee with triples in back-to-back games since Robinson Cano in 2011 … Aaron Judge and Ellsbury both had a single and a walk … Brett Gardner and Gary Sanchez both went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts.

Here are the box score, video highlights, and updated standings. We also have a Bullpen Workload page. This series and the first half of the season comes to an end Sunday afternoon. Masahiro Tanaka and Jimmy Nelson are the scheduled starting pitchers. Maybe the Yankees will give us one last win before the All-Star break. That’d be cool.

Minor League Update: I have neither the time nor the energy for a full DotF tonight. Sorry. Here are the box scores. Peruse at your leisure. Matt Holliday is scheduled to start a rehab assignment with Triple-A Scranton tonight.