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Yankeemetrics: One up, one down in Miami (Aug. 21-22)

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(AP)

The Higgy and Miggy Show
The Yankees survived a bizarre game on Tuesday, somehow pulling out a 2-1, 12-inning victory in a game that neither team seemed interested in winning. The Marlins and Yankees combined to go 1-for-20 with runners in scoring position, and fittingly, the winning run was scored on an out.

The Yankees improved to 19-12 in games decided by one run, surpassing their win total from last year (18-26). They also improved to 7-5 in extra-inning contests; the last time they had a winning record in extras while playing at least 10 games was 2009 (7-3).

Masahiro Tanaka tossed six solid innings and his only mistake was a splitter he left up in the zone that Austin Dean clobbered for his second career home run. That was only extra-base hit and run Tanaka allowed, who has been pitching like an ace over the last two-plus months. Since June 8, he has a 2.75 ERA in nine starts, the best in the rotation and a top-20 mark among MLB starters in that span.

The game-winning RBI was — unsurprisingly — delivered by Miguel Andujar, who clubbed an elevated four-seamer deep enough into the outfield for — yet another non-shocker — a bases-loaded sac fly. These tweets below need no introduction:

And because we can never give enough fun facts about Mr. Andujar, here’s one that earns our Obscure Yankeemetric of the Series: Since sacrifice flies were first recorded in 1954, Andujar is the only Yankee to hit a go-ahead bases-loaded sac fly in the 12th inning or later on the road. Congrats, more history!

Miggy was only able to be the hero because of two outstanding late-game Houdini performances with the winning run 90 feet away. Chad Green put runners on the corners with no outs in the ninth, and escaped without allowing a run; A.J. Cole loaded the bases with no outs in the 11th, and escaped without allowing a run. Yup, teams usually plate at least one run most of the time in those situations:

Situation At least 1 Run Scored Avg Runs Scored
1st and 3rd, 0 outs 84.6% 1.7
Bases Loaded, 0 outs 83.6% 2.3

Finally, we get to most unlikely part of the game, the ending: with Tommy Kahnle going for the save, Kyle Higashioka nailed Isaac Galloway trying to swipe second base for the final out. Consider that before Tuesday …

  • Higashioka had only one caught stealing (out of 16 total attempts) in his career
  • Kahnle had been on the mound for 14 stolen base attempts in his career, and only once had a guy been thrown out

Oh, and the last time the Yankees won a game on a caught stealing as the final out, this happened (September 13, 2011 vs Mariners):

The end of Lynn-sanity
The Yankees four-game win streak was snapped in ugly fashion against the Marlins on Wednesday night. They jumped out to a 2-0 lead but somehow ended up on the wrong side of a lopsided 9-3 score, falling to a last-place team on pace for 97 losses. The Yankees split their four games with the Marlins this season; they outscored them 14-2 in the two wins and were outscored 18-4 in the two losses.

(AP)

Lance Lynn held the Marlins scoreless through the first five frames but then imploded in the sixth, coughing up five runs on five hits in the frame before getting pulled. This was Lynn’s eighth start with five-plus runs allowed this season, tied for the third-most in the majors; only Dylan Bundy (9) and Danny Duffy (10) have more. His 104th pitch of the night was a game-changing three-run dinger that turned a 2-1 Yankees lead into a 4-2 deficit, the first home run he gave up as a Yankee.

Lynn was a pinstriped hero after his first three games with the team, but his last two starts have been … well, it’s not what you want:

Lance Lynn as a Yankee
IP Runs WHIP
Last 2 Games 9.1 10 2.04
First 3 Games 16.2 1 0.96

Neil Walker drove in two of the three runs and added to our favorite underrated stat of the season when he hit a bases-loaded sac fly in the sixth. It was the Yankees MLB-leading 48th sac fly of the season, putting them on pace for 61. That would be the sixth-most in a single season in franchise history (sac flies became an official stat in 1954) and the most since 1997 (70).

Yankeemetrics: Welcome back bats, sweep Jays (Aug. 17-19)

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(AP)

Rain FTW
The Yankees snapped their mini losing streak and offensive slump with a rain-shortened 7-5 win over the Blue Jays in Friday’s opener. It was their first game called early because of weather since July 23, 2014 against the Rangers, a game that was stopped in the fifth.

Lance Lynn made sure that this would be a hard-earned comeback win as he got hammered by the Blue Jays in the first inning, surrendering four runs on three hits and three walks before the Yankees even got a chance to swing the bat. Regression is an unforgiving and terrible monster:

Lance Lynn as a Yankee
IP Runs K/BB Opp AVG
Friday 4 5 5/3 .353
First 3 Games 16.2 1 22/4 .200

It’s the first time the Yankees won a game after giving up four or more runs in the first inning since … May 3 last year against Toronto. The opposing starter that the Yankees pounded that day in the Bronx? Yup, Marcus Stroman, the same guy that the Yankees blitzed on Friday.

Didi Gregorius (RBI triple) and Miguel Andujar (RBI double) sparked the rally in the bottom of the first, quickly cutting the deficit to two runs. Gregorius’ triple was his fourth of the season, the same number he had in his previous three seasons combined with the team. Andujar’s two-bagger was his 35th of the season, putting the young third baseman in elite company.

Neil Walker turned a 4-2 deficit into a 5-4 advantage with one swing of the bat in the fourth inning. His three-run shot off Stroman was his seventh homer of the season but his first as a Yankee that gave the team a lead.

Giancarlo Stanton capped off the scoring with a mammoth solo shot to right-center in the bottom of the seventh, just before the rainstorm halted the game. It went a projected 431 feet, the fifth time this season he hit a homer of at least 430 feet to center or the opposite field, tied with Bryce Harper for the most in the majors through Friday.

(USA Today)

Bombers back in style
The Yankees continued to bash Blue Jays pitching, scoring in double digits for the first time in more than six weeks en route to a homer-fueled 11-6 win on Saturday. They hit four home runs, giving them 201 through 123 games played. The only team in MLB history to reach the 200-homer mark quicker was the 2005 Rangers, who needed 122 games.

Luis Severino, who entered the game still struggling through a deep month-plus slump, bounced back from a terrible outing against the Mets earlier in the week to throw one of his best starts since the beginning of July. Though he struggled with his pitch efficiency (needed 100 pitches to get 15 outs), and gave up a bunch of hard contact (5 of 12 balls in play had an exit velocity of 98-plus mph), he was able to limit the damage to two runs while getting eight strikeouts.

The most encouraging number might be zero, as in the number of home runs he allowed. It was his first clean outing since July 1, and he had coughed up 11 dingers in his previous seven games before Saturday. His fastball command seemed to be improved, as he mostly avoided the meatball four-seamers that had plagued him recently. Even when he did leave a few of them over the heart of the plate, he was able to generate a whiff or a foul, giving up just two singles on his heater.

Miguel Andujar hit the team’s 200th homer in the fifth inning, his 20th of the season. He is the fifth Yankee with at least 20 home runs, making the Yankees the only team in MLB with five 20-homer guys this season. Combined with his 36 doubles, Andujar is clearly putting up special numbers for a player as young as he is:

Another Happ-y day
The Yankees completed the three-game sweep and finished off their 11-game homestand with another easy blowout win on Sunday, 10-2. They’re now a season-high 32 games above .500, the first time they’ve reached that mark since they ended the 2011 season with a 97-65 record.

They put up nearly identical box score numbers as the previous game, exploding for 10 runs and 12 hits (had 11 runs and 11 hits on Saturday). This was the 629th game in the history of the Jays-Yanks rivalry, but the first time the Yankees scored at least 10 runs in back-to-back games against them.

The Yankees wasted no time in lighting up the scoreboard as the first six batters each scored in the opening frame before Kyle Higashioka flew out to center for the first out. You have to go back more than two decades to find the last time the Yankees scored at least six runs to start a game prior to making an out — on May 17, 1997 against the Rangers in Texas. The last time they did at at Yankee Stadium was September 25, 1990 against the Orioles.

(USA Today)

The big blow came off the bat of Greg Bird, who clobbered his second career grand slam — both of which have come in the last six weeks. He is just the fourth Yankee first baseman to hit multiple grand slams in a single season:

J.A. Happ got off to a rough start, giving up a two-out solo homer in the first inning, but then quickly regrouped and didn’t allow another run until Kendrys Morales took him deep to lead off the sixth. It wasn’t a gem, but Happ still pitched well enough (2 ER in 5 1/3 IP) to win for the fourth time in four starts with the team. The Yankees have won all seven games started by Lance Lynn and Happ this season. Finally, a couple #FunFacts to celebrate Happ’s time so far in pinstripes:

  • First pitcher to win each of his first four starts as a Yankee since David Cone in 1995…
  • …And the first to do it with an ERA as low as Happ’s (2.22) since Phil Niekro in 1984 (0.98)
  • The only other left-handers to win each of their first four starts as a Yankee (since 1908) were Rob Gardner (1970-72) and Babe Ruth (1920-33)

Yankeemetrics: Bronx bummer, bats broken (Aug. 13-16)

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(Newsday)

Monday mess
The week got off to a terrible start as the Yankees were embarrassed by their Big Apple rivals in a 8-5 loss on Monday. The Mets punished the Yankees pitchers with five home runs, the most the Yankees have ever surrendered in a Subway Series matchup.

Luis Severino’s slump reached another level as he was blitzed by the weak-hitting Mets, coughing up four runs on seven hits — including two homers — in four innings. #NotFunFact No. 1: The last Yankee starter to allow that many hits and runs against the Mets in an outing as short as Severino’s was Jaret Wright on July 2, 2006.

A.J. Cole entered in the sixth and immediately poured gasoline on the fire as Todd Frazier took him deep to lead off the inning, the first of three solo dingers Cole would give up before getting pulled with one out in the seventh. Thanks to that awful performance, Cole earned our #NotFunFact No. 2: He is the third Yankee reliever to allow at least three homers in a game while getting no more than four outs. The others were Darren Holmes (May 20, 1998) and Tom Ferrick (May 7, 1951).

We’ll end this section on a positive note, with a milestone salute to the Gritty Gutty Brett Gardner, who hit his 200th career double. He is the 30th Yankee to reach that mark, but just the third to combine it with at least 200 career steals and 50 homers. The others: Derek Jeter and Roy White.

(Newsday)

It’s Happ-ening
The Yankees quickly rebounded from Monday’s misery, taking a 1-0 lead on an Aaron Hicks RBI single in the first inning against the Rays en route to a 4-1 win on Tuesday night. The victory made the Yankees an MLB-best 30-4 (.882) when scoring first in the opening frame this season.

J.A. Happ delivered a gem and pitched like an ace, giving up just one hit over seven scoreless innings. After walking four guys in the first four frames, he retired 11 of the final 12 batters he faced, improving to 3-0 with a 1.89 ERA in three starts as a Yankee. Happ and Lance Lynn have rightfully earned their pinstripes since coming over at the deadline:

This was a notable start for Happ in several ways:

  • It was the first time in his career that he completed at least seven innings and didn’t allow more than one hit.
  • It had been nearly four years since a Yankee pitched seven or more scoreless innings while giving up one hit or fewer in a game. That last guy to do it was Michael Pineda on Sept. 22, 2014 against the Orioles.
  • And you have to go back four more years to find the last time a lefty achieved the feat, when CC Sabathia held the A’s to one hit over eight scoreless innings on Sept. 2, 2010.

Happ was aggressive in pounding the zone with his fastball-heavy arsenal, but the Rays couldn’t square up his pitches as he located them on the edges and changed eye levels while carving thru the lineup multiple times. A ton of four-seamers up and two-seamers down kept the Rays off-balance and helped him get a whopping 30 foul balls, the most in a game by any Yankee pitcher this season.

Austin Romine added a couple insurance runs in the fifth with an opposite-field shot to give the Yankees a 3-0 lead. It was his eighth homer of the season (in 199 plate appearances), one more than he hit in his 611 career major-league plate appearances prior to 2018. The last time he had eight or more longballs in any pro season was when he hit 10 homers at Double-A Trenton in 2010.

RISP-Fail, Part I
The one game win streak came to a screeching halt on Wednesday as the Yankees dropped a very boring game to Rays, 4-1. The bats fell silent in the clutch, going 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position while leaving a small navy of 10 men on base.

Luis Cessa put the Yankees in an early hole as Tampa Bay raced out to a 5-1 lead before he got the hook in the fourth inning. He’s now given up 10 runs and 14 hits in his last two games in a Yankees uniform:

Only one other Yankee pitcher in the last 10 seasons allowed at least five runs and seven hits in back-to-back outings of fewer than four innings pitched — Masahiro Tanaka last year on May 14 and May 20.

Miguel Andujar was the lone offensive highlight, going 2-for-4 with a game-tying homer in the second inning and a double; the rest of the lineup was 3-for-28. Nine of his 19 homers (47 percent) this season have either tied the game or given the Yankees the lead. The double and homer were his 54th and 55th extra-base hits of the season, the most by a Yankee rookie age 23 or younger since a 23-year-old Joe Gordon had 56 in 1938.

(Getty)

RISP-Fail, Part II
It was deja vu all over again for the Yankees, who lost 3-1 to the Rays on Thursday as their offensive deep-freeze continued for a second straight day. They have lost 17 of their last 26 games against AL East teams, after starting the season 18-9 within the division.

The loss was even more depressing because the Rays had been a virtual punching bag for the Yankees in the Bronx recently. They had won 12 straight home series against the Rays dating back to September 2014, their longest streak of series wins at the current Yankee Stadium against a single opponent. The last time they lost a series in the Bronx to the Rays was June 30-July 2, 2014 — the starting pitchers for the Yankees in those three games were David Phelps, Hiroki Kuroda and Vidal Nuno.

But perhaps the most miserable stat is the fact that the Yankees couldn’t score more than one run on Wednesday or Thursday. This is the first time ever that the Rays have held the Yankees to one run or fewer in consecutive games within a series at Yankee Stadium (old or new).

The clutch-hitting woes reached a peak in the bottom of the ninth when they loaded the bases with no outs and down by two runs. The Rays called on Adam Kolarek to get the final three outs, rookie who entered with zero career saves and 6.17 ERA in 23 1/3 major-league innings.

The next three at-bats were a microcosm of the Yankees’ season-long performance with the bags full: Greg Bird popout, Brett Gardner strikeout, Austin Romine strikeout. To put that futility into context, this year teams with the bases loaded and no outs scored at least one run 83.5 percent of the time, and the expected number of runs scored in that situation is 2.3, per Baseball Prospectus’ expected runs matrix.

The Yankees are now hitting .213/.263/.361 with the bases loaded this season, ranking 27th in batting average, 26th in on-base percentage, 24th in slugging percentage and 25th in OPS (.624). If you believe in history repeating itself ….

The last time the Yankees finished with a bases-loaded OPS that low was 1991, a year that ended with the fifth-worst win percentage in franchise history; and the last time they finished with a bases-loaded batting average that low in a non-strike season was 1952, a year that ended with a World Series Game 7 victory over the Dodgers.

Yankeemetrics: Going going gone, Bombers roll over Rangers (Aug. 9-12)

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(AP)

Bombs away
Back in the Bronx for a season-high 11-game homestand — their longest since June 2005 — a home run derby erupted as the Yankees beat up on the Rangers in series opener, 7-3. Aaron Hicks kicked off the fireworks with a two-run blast in the first inning, his 20th of the season. He is the fourth Yankee to reach that milestone this season, tied with the Indians for the most 20-homer players in MLB.

Hicks also is the third Yankee outfielder to hit 20 longballs this season. This is the fourth time in franchise history they’ve had three guys hit 20 homers and play at least 60 games in the outfield (yes, Stanton has played 60) in the same season.

  • 2018: Aaron Judge, Aaron Hicks, Giancarlo Stanton
  • 2004: Hideki Matsui, Gary Sheffield, Bernie Williams
  • 1961: Yogi Berra, Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris
  • 1941: Joe DiMaggio, Charlie Keller, Tommy Henrich

Miguel Andujar and Neil Walker launched back-to-back homers in the fourth inning, Stanton added a massive laser shot in the fifth and Walker capped the dinger party with another solo shot in the sixth.

Stanton’s 449-foot missile left his bat at 121.7 mph, the fastest exit velocity of any home run measured by Statcast (since 2015), and the hardest-hit ball — out or hit — in the majors this season. Another #StatcastFunFact: through Thursday there have been 10 batted balls with an exit velocity of 119 mph or more this season … and all 10 were hit by Yankees (Sanchez and Judge each have one, Stanton has eight).

For Walker, it was his sixth career multi-homer game but the first time he’s homered from both sides of the plate in the same game. Walker is the only player in franchise history to achieve the feat as a second baseman in a game.

(AP)

Bombs away, the enemy version
The Rangers got revenge on Friday night with their own dinger party, crushing four homers to beat Yankees, 12-7. Masahiro Tanaka’s gopheritis returned as he coughed up three homers and was torched for six runs in five innings. He had been excellent in his first five starts off the DL, posting a 1.78 ERA with 36 strikeouts in 30 1/3 innings, but regressed badly on Friday night:

Rangers first baseman Ronald Guzman stole the highlights with his unprecedented three-homer night, becoming the first rookie ever to go deep three times against the Yankees. At the age of 23 years and 294 days old, he also was the second-youngest player to hit a trio of bombs against the Bronx Bombers, behind only Indians outfielder Pat Seerey (22 years, 118 days) on July 13, 1945.

Austin Romine earns our Obscure Yankeemetric of the Series for his huge effort, going 3-for-4 with a homer and a steal(!) while driving in three runs. He is the sixth Yankee catcher with a home run, a steal and at least three RBI in a game, and the first do it since Thurman Munson on June 15, 1976 vs Twins. The other guys were Jake Gibbs (1971), Yogi Berra (1958), Bill Dickey (1938, 1932) and Eddie Phillips (1932).

(New York Post)

Mighty Miggy saves the day
The Yankees pulled out an ugly 5-3 win on a rainy Saturday at the Stadium, surviving a bullpen meltdown thanks to another clutch hit by Miguel Andujar. Lance Lynn delivered a third straight solid outing in pinstripes, and the one run he allowed in the third inning is the only scoring blemish on his Yankee resume so far.

He also etched his name in the Yankeemetric record books with these two #FunFacts:

  • Lynn is first player in franchise history to begin his Yankee career with three consecutive games of no more than one earned run allowed and at least five strikeouts.
  • He is also the first guy to strike out at least eight batters and give up no more than one earned run each of his first two starts as a Yankee.

Miguel Andujar rehashed his role of clutch-hitting hero with a two-run, opposite field blast in the seventh inning that broke a 3-3 tie. It was his fourth go-ahead hit in the seventh inning or later this season, the most on the team thru Saturday. The only other Yankee rookies over the last 25 years to compile four go-ahead hits in the seventh or later are Nick Johnson (2002) and Derek Jeter (1996).

(AP)

Ace Sabathia
Backed by a vintage gem from CC Sabathia and more bombs from the bats, the Yankees clinched the series win over the Rangers with a 7-2 win on Sunday. They still have lost just one series at home this season, April 5-8 against the Orioles.

The seven-run, two-homer outburst extended a couple notable streaks.

  • 14th straight home game scoring at least five runs, tied for the second-longest such streak in franchise history (also had 14-game streak in 1937). The only longer one is a 21-gamer by the 1938 team.
  • Seventh straight game with multiple homers, tied for the second-longest such streak in Yankees history (also had 7-game streaks in 2014, 1986, 1955, 1937). The only longer streak is nine games during the 2009 season.
  • 23 homers in seven games against the Rangers this season, their most home runs hit against any opponent in a season series of 10 or fewer games.

CC Sabathia carved through the Rangers lineup with his signature arsenal of well-located cutters and sliders, allowing a season-low one hit — a dribbler in front of the plate. The only ball in play he allowed to the outfield (excluding Andujar’s error) was a warning-track flyout in the third inning. Otherwise, lots of groundouts and seven strikeouts:

Only two other Yankees as old as (or older than) the 38-year-old Sabathia have pitched a game with at least seven strikeouts and no more than one hit allowed — Randy Johnson (in 2005 and 2006) and Roger Clemens (in 2001 and 2003).

Sabathia did have to pitch around six baserunners, but did so masterfully, with six scoreless innings. He’s held batters to a .156 batting average with runners in scoring position this season, the third-lowest in the AL and seventh-lowest in MLB among qualified starters.

Giancarlo Stanton lit up the scoreboard early with a bullet line drive homer in the first inning, his 30th of the season. It was also his 16th longball in a two-strike count, tied for the most in MLB this season. Looking ahead … no Yankee since 1988 (when we have official pitch count data) has finished a season with at least 20 homers and more than half of them coming in two-strike counts.

Yankeemetrics: Windy City Sweep (August 6-8)

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(Getty)

Lynn FTW
The Yankees snapped out of their offensive funk and bounced back from their worst loss of the season with a drama-free 7-0 blanking of the White Sox in the series opener. It was their ninth shutout of the season, two more than they had all of last year. The last time the Yankees compiled at least nine shutouts, including two by individual pitchers, at this point in the season (111th game)? 1998, of course.

The offense was powered by some timely hitting in the early innings and a couple late homers from Gleyber Torres and Neil Walker. For Torres it was his 18th dinger of the season, tied for the third-most by an American League rookie second baseman all-time.

Most HR by AL Rookie 2nd Baseman
Year HR
Joe Gordon 1938 25
Alexei Ramirez 2008 21
Gleyber Torres 2018 18
Alfonso Soriano 2001 18
Tony Lazzeri 1926 18

Yes, four of the five on that list wore Yankee pinstripes in their rookie campaigns.

Lance Lynn helped to stop the bleeding as he produced a historic outing in his first career start for the Bombers, allowing zero runs over 7 1/3 innings. Lynn is the third Yankee in the last 25 seasons to throw at least seven scoreless innings in his starting debut for the team, joining Jose Contreras (2003) and Mike Mussina (2001).

But Lynn was even more dominant, giving up just two hits and one, and earns our #FunFact of the game: He is the only pitcher in franchise history to pitch at least seven innings, allow zero earned runs and no more than three baserunners in his first start as a Yankee.

Plus, combined with his clean 4 1/3 inning relief appearance last week, he is the second pitcher in the last 100 years to start his Yankee career with consecutive games of four-or-more scoreless innings pitched. The other was Allie Reynolds, who threw back-to-back shutouts in his first two games as a Yankee in April 1947.

(USA Today)

Miggy, Sonny to the rescue
The Yankees avoided what would have been their second demoralizing and disastrous loss in three nights by surviving a 13-inning, crazy 4-3 win on Tuesday. They improved to 18-12 in games decided by one run this season, matching their win total from all of last year (18-26).

The game started as an unlikely pitchers duel between CC Sabathia and Reynaldo Lopez, and ended with an even more unlikely pitching hero on the mound, relief ace Sonny Gray.

Sabathia was in vintage form, using his changeup/slider/cutter mix to get a whopping 22 whiffs, his most in any start since June 7, 2012. Thirteen of those 22 came via his signature cutter, easily the most swings-and-misses he’s ever gotten with that pitch in a game since he added it to his arsenal a couple years ago. He was pulled at a season-high-tying 103 pitches after striking out 12 batters in 5 2/3 innings pitched:

And let’s celebrate Sabathia’s tremendous outing with some #FunFacts:

  • Second-oldest Yankee (38 years, 17 days) to strike out at least 12 guys in a game, behind only Roger Clemens, who had two 13-K games at the age of 39 in 2002.
  • Last lefty as old Sabathia on any team to have 12 strikeouts in a game was a 44-year-old Randy Johnson for the Diamondbacks in 2008.
  • Last southpaw age 38 or older with a 12-plus-strikeout game in the American League was Thornton Lee, who had 13 strikeouts for the White Sox on June 12, 1945 against the Indians.

The offensive hero of the game was Miguel Andujar who made sure the fans got free baseball when he crushed a game-tying solo home run in the seventh inning. Andujar (15) and Gleyber Torres (18 homers) are the first set of Yankee rookie teammates ever to hit at least 15 homers in the same season.

(USA Today)

Giancarlo Stanton gave the Yankees a brief 3-1 lead with a two-run homer in the top of the 10th. But that advantage soon vanished in the bottom of the frame when Zach Britton picked the absolute worst time to give up his first career extra-inning home run, a game-tying two-out, two-run shot by Jose Abreu (who enjoyed rounding the bases after his first career extra-inning blast).

Britton’s meltdown earns him our Obscure Yankeemetric of the Series: he is the first Yankee to cough up a game-tying home run in extra innings since Bud Daley on June 10, 1964 against the Red Sox.

(AP)

Andujar rescued Britton from being the goat with his go-ahead RBI single in the top of the 13th, his first career RBI and fourth hit in extra innings. His four extra-inning hits are the most in a season by a Yankee age 23 or younger since Derek Jeter (5) in 1997. Following Tuesday’s game, Andujar was hitting .406/.429/.563 in high-leverage plate appearances per Fangraphs, compared to the league-average line of .242/.323/.385.

Finally, the unlikely pitching savior was Gray, who took over in the 11th and threw three scoreless innings with one walk and one hit for the win. And one more #FunFact to praise Mr. Gray: the last Yankee pitcher to earn a win on the road by getting at least nine outs in extras while allowing no more than two baserunners was Mariano Rivera on May 20, 2006 in Detroit.

Return of Sevy Strong
Thanks to a solid, bounceback effort from Luis Severino and a game-changing bases-loaded bomb from Giancarlo Stanton, the Yankees finished off the three-game sweep with an easy 7-3 victory. They are now 19-5 (.792) vs the AL Central this season, the best record by any AL team against an AL division and any NL team against an NL division.

Severino — who entered with the worst ERA in the majors over the last 30 days (9.00) among players with at least 20 innings pitched — had a rocky first inning, allowing two runs on three hits. That followed a concerning trend for Sevy over the past month:

But he locked in and flipped the script after the rough opening frame, retiring 11 in a row at one point. He finished with three runs allowed, eight strikeouts and no walks in seven innings, his his best outing since July 1. Severino’s slider was filthy, falling off the table and out of the zone, generating a bunch of silly swings:

He threw 45 sliders and matched a season-best with 11 whiffs via the pitch, one more than he had in his previous two starts combined.

Giancarlo delivered the big blow in the second inning, snapping a 2-2 tie with his first grand slam as a Yankee. Before Wednesday, his last homer with bases loaded was April 18, 2014, a walk-off slam against the Mariners. He’s the first Yankee with a tie-breaking grand slam against the White Sox since Tino Martinez on July 16, 1997. Hooray.

Yankeemetrics: Nightmare beatdown in Boston (August 2-5)

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(New York Post)

Nightmare at Fenway
The Yankees headed to Boston for a crucial and historic series, the first time the two teams met this late into the season with the two best records in the majors since the famed 1978 tiebreaker game. On Thursday, however, the Yankees were on the wrong side of history in a 15-7 rout.

The Red Sox pummeled them with 15 runs and 19 hits, and added four steals to round out the shellacking. This was the 2,204th game in the history of the rivalry (including the postseason) — and it was the first of those games that the Red Sox scored that many runs, had that many hits and that many stolen bases.

The longball was no help as the Yankees hit four homers and still lost. This was the 43rd time they went deep at least four times in a game against the Red Sox — and the second time they didn’t win. The other game was on Sept. 24, 2010 at Yankee Stadium.

Even more depressing is the fact that they did all that damage and lost by eight runs! To find the last time the Yankees hit four homers, scored at least seven runs and still got whipped by eight-plus runs you have to back more than 75 years to a 15-7 loss on May 21, 1930 to the Philadelphia A’s.

Jonathan Holder did his best to put himself in the Yankee record books — in every bad way possible. He entered in the fourth inning, faced seven batters, allowed all of them to reach base and coughed up seven runs. The only other Yankee pitcher to give up that many earned runs without recording an out in a game was Bob Kammeyer on Sept. 8, 1979 against the Indians. That was only game he pitched in 1979 and the last game Kammeyer ever pitched in the majors.

Let’s finish with a couple silver linings to calm the rage:

  • Didi Gregorius went deep twice and drove in four runs, becoming the first Yankee shortstop ever with at least two home runs and four RBI in a game against the Red Sox.
  • This was the second time the Yankees allowed 14 or more runs to the Red Sox this season (remember the 14-1 disaster on April 10 at Fenway?). The last time the Red Sox scored at least 14 runs twice in a season against the Yankees was 2009.
(USA Today)

Nightmare at Fenway, Part II
The freefall continued on Friday as the Yankees were dominated by Rick Porcello and embarrassed again in a 4-1 loss. They looked like a JV squad playing the state champion varsity team, getting just two guys on base (hit by pitch and home run) the entire game.

It was the first time Yankees had one hit or fewer against the Red Sox since Sept. 10, 1999, the epic Pedro Martinez 17-strikeout game at Yankee Stadium. And the only other time in the last 100 years that Yankees had no more than one hit at Fenway Park was June 7, 1990. That was the first game of the glorious Stump Merrill era.

Porcello was in total control the entire game, never faced a runner in scoring position, retired the final 21 Yankees that came to the plate and needed just 86 pitches to finish them off. The U-G-L-Y numbers, bullet-point style:

  • In the 21 years we have reliable pitch data (since 1988), Porcello is the only pitcher to throw a nine-inning complete game with at least nine strikeouts and fewer than 90 pitches against the Yankees
  • Porcello is the second Red Sox pitcher to throw a nine-inning complete game with one or zero hits allowed against the Yankees at Fenway Park. The other guy was Rube Foster who tossed a no-hitter against them on June 21, 1916.
  • And — our daily #SilverLiningStat — the last pitcher on any team to throw a complete game and give up no more than one hit against the Yankees was Roy Halladay on September 4, 2009 in Toronto.

Luis Severino — who had struggled mightily his previous four games — looked like he was going to suffer through another disaster outing after getting pounded for three runs in the first inning.

But he settled down, pitched with more confidence, and had better location before exiting in the sixth. As you can see below, he couldn’t find the plate in the first inning (left) but had much-improved command the rest of the game (right):

Even though Severino might be emerging from his slump, his subpar line (5 2/3 IP, 4 ER) gave him a 8.28 ERA over his last five games. That’s his highest ERA in a five-start span (with no relief appearances in between) in his career.

(New York Post)

Nightmare at Fenway, Part III
It was deja vu all over again for the Yankees on Saturday, as they dropped another 4-1 dud to the Red Sox. Following their identical 4-1 debacle on Friday, this is the first time since September 1991 that the Yankees scored one run or fewer in consecutive games in a series at Fenway Park.

The Yankees saw their slim division hopes almost extinguished as they fell to a season-worst 8.5 games back in the division, and extended their losing streak to a season-high four games. Prior to this series, the Yankees and Red Sox were the only MLB teams that hadn’t lost more than three games in a row.

For the second straight game the Yankees looked thoroughly overmatched against a dominant Red Sox starter. This time it was Nathan Eovaldi who silenced the Yankee bats, holding them to three singles over eight scoreless innings. Eovaldi and Porcello are the third set of Red Sox teammates since 1908 to pitch at least eight innings and allow no more than three hits on back-to-back days against the Yankees. The others? Mike Boddicker and Greg Harris on June 6-7, 1990, and Rube Foster and Babe Ruth on June 21-22, 1916.

(Getty Images)

Nightmare at Fenway, Part IV
The Yankees capped off the most disappointing and dreadful series of the season with arguably the most painful and brutal loss of the season, losing 5-4 in the 10th inning after starting the ninth inning with a 4-1 advantage.

Chapman imploded in trying to close out the game, walking three batters and all three crossed home plate. He now has seven blown saves as a Yankee, and three of them have come against the Red Sox. The tying run scored on an error by Miguel Andujar; he entered the game with -14 Defensive Runs Saved this season, the worst among all MLB third basemen. This was bad, bad, bad, bad:

  • Entering Sunday they were an MLB-best 58-0 this season when leading at the start of the ninth inning.
  • It was just the second time in the last 10 seasons that they lost a game when taking a lead of at least three runs into the ninth. The other game was September 15, 2016 … against the Red Sox at Fenway Park.
  • It was just the fourth time in the last 50 seasons they were swept in a four-game series by the Red Sox; it also happened September 2016, June 1990 and September 1969. All four of those sweeps were at Fenway Park.
  • Yankees are now 8-18 at Fenway Park over the last three seasons, their worst record at any American League ballpark since 2016.

Yankeemetrics: Baltimore Split (July 31-August 1)

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(AP)

Ace Tanaka
Backed by another standout performance from Masahiro Tanaka, the Yankees took the first game of this two-game set with a mostly drama-free 6-3 win. Coupled with their final two wins in the Kansas City series over the weekend, it was the first time they’d won three or more games in a row since a four-game win streak from June 18-21. The Yankees finished July with a .281/.355/.468 batting line, the first time they reached each of those numbers in the month of July since 2009 (.288/.370/.483).

(USA Today)

Tanaka battled through a shaky 31-pitch first inning but then settled down and held the Orioles scoreless over six strong innings. It was his second straight stellar outing, following his three-hit, nine-strikeout shutout of the Rays last week. Those back-to-back gems made Tanaka the second Yankee ever to pitch consecutive games with at least eight strikeouts, no earned runs and three hits or fewer allowed. The other? David Cone on April 6 and 11, 1997.

After a rough first couple months, Tanaka is rounding into ace-like form and has been super-dominant in his last five starts dating back to (and including) the game he injured his hamstrings:

Tanaka went 2-0 with a 1.75 ERA in July, striking out 27 batters in 25 2/3 innings. He’s the first Yankee starter with at least 25 strikeouts and a 1.75 ERA or better in the month of July since CC Sabathia in 2011 (0.92 ERA, 50 strikeouts in 39 innings).

Another dark, cloudy, rainy day in the Bronx
The Yankees mini-streak of beating up on bad teams came to a screeching halt on Wednesday as they lost 7-5 to the lowly Orioles. It is the first time in at least the last 15 seasons that the Yankees lost a game after the All-Star break to a team that entered the day with a win percentage below .300. Welp.

They were playing from behind the entire game — and trailed 7-1 after three innings — thanks to another disaster outing by Sonny Gray. This was the first time the Orioles scored seven or more runs in the first three innings of a game against the Yankees since June 29, 2013. The starting pitcher for the Orioles in that game was Zach Britton.

(Newsday/Jim McIsaac)

He got the hook with two outs in the third after coughing up seven runs on eight hits. It was the first time in his career that he allowed at least seven runs in an outing of fewer than three innings pitched. The Yankees are now 10-11 in games started by Gray and 58-27 in games started by everyone else.

It was the fourth time in 2018 he gave up at least five earned runs and got fewer than 12 outs in a game at Yankee Stadium. No other Yankee has ever pitched four such games like that in the Bronx in a season. It was also his sixth game this season with those numbers at any venue. And — you guessed it! — no other Yankee has ever compiled six games of five-plus earned runs allowed and fewer than four innings pitched in a single season. And August just started.

(AP)

Gleyber Torres — who finished with a career-high four RBI — did his best to keep the Yankees within striking distance, crushing a solo homer in the second inning and a three-run blast in the ninth. Some #FunFacts to celebrate Gleyber and spice up an otherwise miserable loss:

  • His second shot was his seventh home run with two men on base this season, the most of any player in the majors.
  • The only other Yankee second baseman with at least two homers and four RBI in a game against the Orioles/Browns franchise was Joe Gordon on August 25, 1939.
  • This was his second career multi-homer game, and at the age of 21 years and 231 days old, he became the youngest player in franchise history with two multi-homer games in a season.