Home sweet home. The Yankees returned home to Yankee Stadium on Tuesday for the first time since before the All-Star break, and they celebrated with a 4-2 win over the Reds. They’ve now won four of their last five games. I’m glad things are finally starting to turn around. Love this team, you guys.
Three Outs, One Run
One inning into the game, it looked like the Yankees were in for a long night. Reds rookie Luis Castillo was throwing fire — his fastball averaged 96.8 mph and topped out at 99.6 mph in this game — and locating just well enough to keep the Yankees off balance. He does not look like a fun at-bat. Then, eight pitches into the second inning, the Yankees had the bases loaded with no outs. Things turned around pretty quickly.
Three singles built that second inning rally. Matt Holliday went to right-center field, Didi Gregorius went to right field, and Chase Headley went the other way to left field. Single single single. It came together quick. That brought Todd Frazier, who had half of Toms River in the stands, to the plate. Frazier has struggled as a Yankee so far. He looks like he’s pressing. It happens. He’ll be fine. Eventually. I think.
Anyway, when you’re struggling, bases loaded with no outs is an opportunity to do some damage and start feeling pretty good about yourself. Frazier got ahead in the count 3-1, put a good swing on the ball, and drove a run in. With a 6-3-5-6 triple play. For reals. Look at this thing:
Montgomery’s Gem
The month of July had not been too kind to Jordan Montgomery prior to Tuesday night. In his first four starts this month the rookie left-hander allowed 14 runs on 30 baserunners in 19.2 innings. Yikes. On Tuesday, Montgomery took a no-hitter into the sixth inning and faced the minimum through five. It wasn’t until Scott Schebler led off that sixth inning with a double into the gap that Cincinnati broke into the hit column.
Montgomery finished the night having allowed one run — Schebler scored after advancing to third on a long fly ball and came home on a ground ball — on two hits and one walk in 6.2 innings. He struck out six. I’m a little surprised to see the one walk. Montgomery was behind in the count a bunch and went to a three-ball count on seven of the 22 batters faced, so roughly one out of every three. A better team would have done a little more damage. Overall though, real nice outing for Montgomery. Sign me up for this every fifth day the rest of the season.
Four Relievers For Seven Outs
Between Frazier’s run-scoring triple play (lol) and Schelber’s trip around the bases in the sixth, the Yankees added two insurance runs. Aaron Judge singled to right to open the fourth, advanced to second on a ground, advanced to third on a balk, and scored on a Gregorius sac fly. Then, in the fifth, Tyler Wade reached on a fielder’s choice and scored all the way from first on Austin Romine’s double into the right field corner. Boy can Wade fly.
All that gave the Yankees a 3-1 lead going into the seventh inning, and had the Yankees not traded for Tommy Kahnle and David Robertson last week, I’m guessing Joe Girardi would have stuck with Montgomery a little longer. Instead, he yanked Montgomery following an Adam Duvall two-out single with his pitch count sitting at 85. That’s the luxury of having a deep bullpen. You don’t need to push your rookie starter through the lineup a third time in a close game.
Kahnle closed out that seventh inning with a fly ball, and rather than stick with him in the eighth, Girardi went to eighth inning guy Dellin Betances. I don’t really love burning Kahnle to get one out on four pitches, but whatever. Betances made things interesting with two walks and a booming double to right by Billy Hamilton (?!?), and had to be bailed out by Adam Warren, who struck out Eugenio Suarez to end the inning with the tying run at third and go-ahead run at second. Good thing Zack Cozart is dealing with a quad injury, otherwise he would have scored from first on Hamilton’s double.
So, rather than use Kahnle in the eighth, the Yankees wound up using three relievers to get four outs spanning the seventh and eighth inning. Inefficient! Aroldis Chapman came in for the ninth with a 4-2 lead — Gregorius gave the Yankees a much appreciated insurance run with a solo homer in the eighth — and needed only eight pitches to retire the side. Fly ball, ground out, fly ball. Outs are outs, but Chapman has now struck out only four of the last 29 batters he’s faced, or 13.8%. Eh.
Leftovers
How locked in is Gregorius right now? Sir Didi went 2-for-3 with a homer and a sac fly in this game, and is now 14-for-25 (.560) with four homers during his seven-game hitting streak. With Holliday and Gary Sanchez both struggling at the moment, it might not be a bad idea to bump Didi up to the cleanup spot for a few games. Either way, go Didi. He’s been awesome. He missed a month and is still third among all shortstops with 15 homers. Only Carlos Correa (20) and Corey Seager (16) have more.
Every starter had a hit except Clint Frazier and Wade. Frazier ripped a line drive right at the left fielder and Wade did reach on a fielder’s choice and score the team’s second run. His speed came in handy. Brett Gardner, Judge, and the lesser Frazier each had a single and a walk. Too bad Gregorius hit that home run in the eighth after Betances did his best to try to improve the team’s record in one-run games, eh?
And finally, the Yankees hit into a triple play for the first time since September 2011, when Russell Martin banged into a 5-4-3 triple play against the Rays. I was at that game. True story. This was also the first triple play to score a run since the Mariners managed to do it in 2006, and only the seventh since 1930. Here’s the list. Oh, and it was the first triple play turned by the Reds since 1995.
Box Score, WPA Graph & Standings
Head on over to ESPN for the box score and updated standings, and MLB.com for the video highlights. We have a Bullpen Workload page too. Here’s the win probability graph:
Source: FanGraphs
Up Next
The Yankees and Reds wrap up this quick little two-game series Wednesday afternoon. That’s a 1pm ET getaway day. Luis Severino and Homer Bailey are the scheduled starting pitchers. RAB Tickets can get you in the door for that game, or any of the other seven games remaining on the homestand.
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