River Avenue Blues

Twins 10, Yankees 5: Blown out at Target Field

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A few weeks ago, I’d say this was just one of those games. Every team gets blown out a few times a season. I can’t say that in mid-September though. The Yankees are fighting for a postseason spot and they just got their clocks cleaned by a team 12 games under .500. The Twins won Tuesday night’s game 10-5. This loss combined with the Athletics beating the Orioles means the Yankees now only have a two-game lead for the top wildcard spot. It is effectively a three-game lead because the Yankees hold the tiebreaker, however. Still, three games up with 17 to play is a little too close for comfort.

(Hannah Foslien/Getty)

A Gray Day
Typical Sonny Gray start, which means bad. Gray retired the first five batters he faced before loading the bases with two outs in the second. Single up the middle, bloop single just inside the right field line, walk. When Sonny falls apart, it happens quickly. Gray was able to get No. 9 hitter Willians Astudillo to ground out to end that second inning, so no damage was done after the bases were loaded.

Much different story in the third inning. Joe Mauer worked a five-pitch leadoff walk and then Jorge Polanco poked a single back up the middle. That’s when I thought Gray should’ve been out of the game. Five of the last six batters had reached base and he hasn’t earn the “let’s give him a chance to right the ship” leash. Plus there are like eleven guys in the bullpen. Instead, Gray remained in the game, and another walk loaded the bases. Bases loaded with no outs! Fun.

To Gray’s credit, he struck out Robbie Grossman on three pitches and got ahead in the count 0-2 on Jake Cave. Rather than put Cave away, Sonny bounced two pitches to even the count 2-2, and his third pitch was an elevated fastball that clanked in and out of Austin Romine’s glove. He called for the high fastball and got the high fastball, but couldn’t catch it. The ball got away and Mauer trotted home to tie the game 1-1.

The passed ball moved both batters up, and the next pitch was a badly hung curveball that Cave drove back up the middle to score two runs. After Gray struck out Grossman and got ahead 0-2 on Cave, I foolishly thought he might get out of it unscathed. Strike out Cave then get the third out however. That’s what I get for being optimistic. Seven of nine batters reached base against Gray at one point, and somehow he remained in the game to face another two batters after that.

Gray’s final line: 3 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 2 K on 63 pitches. With a Game Score of 40, this was only Sonny’s tenth worst start of the season. He’s been terrible and he shouldn’t start any more games, at least not until after the Yankees get some things clinched. Gray shouldn’t pitch in anything but emergencies until then. I feel like the Yankees should’ve known this by now. Can’t believe he was left in to complete the third inning after loading the bases with no outs.

(Hannah Foslien/Getty)

Death by Bullpen
In fairness to Gray, the bullpen was no better. Jonathan Loaisiga was the first man out of the bullpen and wow was he left in to wear it in the fifth. Walk, single, walk to start the inning. Bases loaded with no outs again. And again, the struggling pitcher was left in. Loaisiga walked Max Kepler to force in a run — it was his third walk of the inning — then struck out Ehire Adrianza, and then allowed a bloop single to Astudillo to give the Twins 6-1 lead.

Let me go over this again just so it’s clear: Gray loaded the bases with no outs in the third inning and stayed into face four more batters. Loaisiga loaded the bases with no outs in the fifth inning and stayed in to face three more batters. I just do not understand. And because leaving struggling pitchers in long enough to blow a game in a postseason race isn’t bad enough, Loaisiga was left in to throw 47 pitches to get four outs one month after returning from a shoulder injury. He threw 27 pitches to get one out in the fifth inning. Negligent.

Well, anyway, Loaisiga exited after the Astudillo single gave the Twins a 6-1 lead. The bases were still loaded with one out, and Tommy Kahnle was nice enough to serve up a grand slam to Mauer to put the game completely out of reach. No sense in waiting around for a potential comeback after that. Kahnle may have caught a little too much of the plate with the 3-2 fastball on the grand slam:

I suppose the good news is none of the pitchers who pitched Tuesday will be on the postseason roster. Gray (three runs in three innings), Loaisiga (six runs in 1.1 innings), Kahnle (one run in 1.2 innings), and Stephen Tarpley (two scoreless innings) all pitched. Poor Johnny Lasagna. He went into this game with a 2.70 ERA and left with a 5.06 ERA. Now everyone who looks at his Baseball Reference page in the future will think he stunk this year. He wasn’t good Tuesday, but the long leash and Kahnle didn’t help.

Too Little, Too Late
The Yankees scored first in this game! Didi Gregorius lined a single to center field in the second inning that Cave played into a triple. He took kind of a weird route and the ball rolled by him. Gary Sanchez got Gregorius home with a sacrifice fly for a 1-0 lead. After the Twins took a 3-1 lead, the Yankees loaded the bases with one out in the fourth, but Sanchez banged into an inning-ending double play. Three double plays in the first five innings for the Yankees. So annoying.

By time the Yankees got around to scoring again, it was too little, too late. Andrew McCutchen’s leadoff walk, Miguel Andujar’s one-out single, and Giancarlo Stanton’s one out walk loaded the bases in the sixth inning. That’s when Sir Didi cranked a grand slam into the right field overhang. Suddenly the 10-1 deficit became a 10-5 deficit. Second grand slam of the season for Gregorius. He hit both of them against the Twins.

This was the sixth time in history the Yankees and their opponent hit a grand slam in the same game. It happened as recently as last year, in that 9-1 comeback against the Orioles. Mark Trumbo and Jacoby Ellsbury socked four-run homers in that one. Prior to that, you have to go back to Alex Rodriguez and Jorge Velandia in 2007 for the last time it happened. Hitting a grand slam and losing always stings. Feels like a waste.

Also, Didi’s grand slam is a nice little reminder that sticking with a struggling pitcher after he loads the bases with no outs is a terrible idea, especially with expanded rosters. Aaron Boone did it twice! Jonathan Holder warmed up in the third inning and never pitched. The Yankees are never out of a game when they’re down three or four or five runs because they can hit the ball out of the park. They can put runs on the board in a hurry. Example: The sixth inning. I know you can’t use your ace relievers every night. You also can’t treat these games like a run of the mill midseason contest. That time has come and gone.

Leftovers
Only five base hits for the Yankees. A single for McCutchen, two singles for Andujar, and a single and a triple for Gregorius. The Yankees did draw five walks. McCutchen had two, Stanton had two, and Gregorius had one. The 6-7-8-9 hitters went a combined 0-for-12 with four strikeouts and a hit-by-pitch. Not much else to say here.

Box Score, WPA Graph & Standings
ESPN has the box score and updated standings, MLB has the video highlights, and FanGraphs has the postseason odds. Here’s our Bullpen Workload page and here’s the loss probability graph:


Source: FanGraphs

Up Next
The rubber game. That’s another 8:05pm ET because the Yankees don’t get getaway days. Luis Severino and Jake Odorizzi are the scheduled starters for Wednesday night’s finale. That’s as good a time as any for Severino to have his first dominant start in two months.

Game 145: Trying for a tenth straight win over the Twins

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(Hannah Foslien/Getty)

Whenever the Yankees need a lift, you can always count on the Twins. They won last night’s series opener at Target Field to improve to 95-33 against Minnesota since the start of the Ron Gardenhire era in 2002. That is a 120-win pace across 162 games. The Yankees have won nine straight games against Twins dating back to last year. Feels like they haven’t lost to them since Johan Santana was in his prime.

Anyway, the Yankees will send spot starter Sonny Gray to the mound tonight as they try for their tenth straight win over the Twins. Gray has pitched pretty well his last few times out. Four runs allowed in his last six games and 19.2 innings. I hope that continues tonight. If it doesn’t, there’s are a lot of arms out in that bullpen to pick him up. I suspect Jonathan Loaisiga is the long man de jour. The lineups:

New York Yankees
1. RF Andrew McCutchen
2. CF Aaron Hicks
3. 3B Miguel Andujar
4. LF Giancarlo Stanton
5. SS Didi Gregorius
6. DH Gary Sanchez
7. 1B Luke Voit
8. C Austin Romine
9. 2B Gleyber Torres

RHP Sonny Gray

Minnesota Twins
1. 1B Joe Mauer
2. SS Jorge Polanco
3. 2B Logan Forsythe
4. LF Robbie Grossman
5. CF Jake Cave
6. DH Tyler Austin
7. RF Max Kepler
8. 3B Ehire Adrianza
9. C Willians Astudillo

RHP Tyler Duffey

There are some clouds moving in overnight but things are clear right now in Minneapolis. Pleasant night for a ballgame. Tonight’s game will begin at 8:10pm ET and YES will have the broadcast. Enjoy.

Injury Update: Aaron Judge (wrist) took batting practice on the field again today. Back-to-back days. That’s a good sign. That means Judge didn’t feel anything in the wrist after yesterday’s session that made him shut it down today. Aaron Boone said the Yankees have a timetable in mind for Judge’s return. They’re just not going to reveal it. I don’t blame them.

Please Don’t Rush Aaron Judge Back

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(Stephen Brashear/Getty)

Aaron Judge is the best player on the Yankees, and it isn’t particularly close. He leads the team in WAR by half a win, despite having last played on July 26, and his 155 wRC+ leads the team by 27 points. Hell, he’s still ninth in the American League in WAR despite giving up a minimum of 93 plate appearances to every other player in the top-ten. Judge is one of the best players in baseball, and that cannot be overstated.

And the Yankees have seriously felt the impact of his absence. They’re 64-35 (.646 winning percentage) with Judge in the lineup, and 26-19 (.578) without him. While that big swing cannot be solely attributed to Judge, it’s clear that the offensive identity of this team is wholly different without him.

So what’s with the title of this post, then? Simple: Judge is under team control for a minimum of four more years, and the Yankees are built for 2019 and beyond. So why risk further injury?

As is the case with Mike Axisa, I am not a doctor. I do not know the risks associated with playing through a not-fully-healed chip fracture, so this may all be a moot point. At the same time, however, Judge is still feeling pain, and it is difficult to see that as anything more than a red flag with my uninformed eyes.

The Yankees have had some bad luck with players coming back too soon recently, most notably in the matters of Mark Teixeira and Greg Bird. Those were different injuries to different players, to be sure, so there isn’t a one-to-one comparison – but Judge is also significantly better than either of those players, and (as we know all too well) much more difficult to replace. If their is even the slightest chance that aggravating this injury could have similar repercussions as we’ve seen before, then I can’t imagine bringing back Judge, even as the team is poised for a deep playoff run.

It is true that flags fly forever, and playing for next year doesn’t always work out all that well – just take a look at the Nationals, who have not looked quite the same since preemptively shutting Stephen Strasburg down just a few years ago. But the Yankees have been playing the long game for several years now, and all of the key players to their successes in 2018 are under team control next year; and more help is on the way. I feel comfortable trusting the process here.

If Judge is healthy (or as healthy as a player can be at this stage of the season), then he should play. If his wrist is still giving him issues, he shouldn’t. And, as much as I hope it’s the former, I do think the latter is something that needs to be given a great deal of consideration.

J.A. Happ has given the Yankees exactly what they’ve needed since the trade deadline

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(Hannah Foslien/Getty)

Coming into the season, the question was not “will the Yankees get a starter at the deadline?” The question was “which starter will they get?” It was a damn near certainly the Yankees would get another starting pitcher, especially after Jordan Montgomery went down with Tommy John surgery and Sonny Gray stayed healthy but went full Javy Vazquez. The need for another starter was clear.

A no-doubt ace never hit the market. Jacob deGrom was never really available and calling Chris Archer an ace at this point is a bit of a stretch. That was a bummer for the Yankees, who had the prospect capital to get pretty much any player they wanted. They could’ve made the best offer for deGrom. I’m not sure the Mets would’ve traded him to the Yankees, but the Yankees had the pieces to get it done.

So, with no clear cut ace on the market, the Yankees went for the next best thing: Reliability. That led them to left-hander J.A. Happ, who, funnily enough, really struggled before the trade. Remember when he allowed 26 runs in his final five starts and 31.1 innings with the Blue Jays? People freaked out and said he wouldn’t be a good pickup. Then the Yankees traded for him, and there was more freakout.

Last night Happ made his eighth start as a Yankee, and, for the fifth time in those eight starts, he threw at least six innings and allowed no more than two runs. It was the sixth time he allowed no more than two runs period. Happ tossed six scoreless innings against the Twins last night and it could’ve been seven innings, but, once the Yankees broke the game open, there was no sense in wasting bullets.

“He’s a very good pitcher, an easy guy to catch,” said Gary Sanchez to Bryan Hoch following last night’s game. “A guy that’s aggressive, a guy that goes after strike one. He has a really good plan from the beginning, executes the plan. When you have a guy like that, it allows you to get on the same page with him and be able to work effectively.”

Happ has had one disaster start with the Yankees — the Tigers tagged him for five runs and three homers in 4.1 innings in August 30th — but has otherwise been exactly what the team needed. He’s been effective, he chews up innings, and he doesn’t seem to be rattled by anything. Happ seems very low maintenance. The Yankees plugged him right into the rotation and away he went.

In his eight starts with New York, Happ owns a 2.70 ERA (4.45 FIP) — the homers in that start against Detroit did a number on his FIP — with 22.9% strikeouts and 4.8% walks. He’s not getting ground balls (36.2%), though ground balls were never his thing anyway. He’s more of a weak contact guy, and, this year, Happ has the 12th highest soft contact rate (20.6%) and 18th lowest hard contact rate (31.9%) in baseball. That’ll play.

Beyond the quality innings, Happ also gives the Yankees a different look. They are still the most extreme anti-fastball team in baseball. Only 46.2% of their total pitches this year have been fastballs. No other team is below 49.2% and only three other teams are below 50.0%. Happ, meanwhile, is one of the most extreme fastball pitchers in baseball. The fastball leaderboard:

  1. Bartolo Colon: 78.3%
  2. Lance Lynn: 77.4% (88.6% with Yankees)
  3. J.A. Happ: 73.0% (71.3% with Yankees)
  4. Brad Keller: 70.2%
  5. Trevor Williams: 69.7%

The Yankees acquired two of the top three starters in fastball usage at the deadline despite being the most extreme anti-fastball team in baseball. Coincidence? Yeah, I think so, actually. I think acquiring Lynn and Happ had more to do with who was available at the trade deadline than it was a certain pitching philosophy. Either way, the Yankees added Happ, he’s stuck with throwing a ton of fastballs, and he’s been very good for them overall.

At some point soon the Yankees will have to pick a starter for the Wild Card Game and, to me, it seems like it’s down to Happ or Masahiro Tanaka. Luis Severino hasn’t pitched well for two months now, and while I think the Yankees would be cool with running CC Sabathia out there in a winner-take-all game (they did it twice last postseason), Happ and Tanaka feel like the best options. I’m not sure there’s a wrong answer here. Either works.

For now, the Yankees desperately needed someone to step in and provide rotation stability, and Happ has done that. Gray stunk, Montgomery got hurt, and Domingo German showed flashes of brilliance but was largely ineffective. They went out and got Happ, even after his rough final five starts with the Blue Jays, and he’s given the team a real shot in the arm in the second half. He’s been everything they could’ve possibly hoped.

“It’s been exciting since I got here, and it’s obviously still that way,” said Happ to Hoch. “We’re still trying to chase this thing down and we know that we’ve got to play good baseball to keep that spot. It’s exciting. Every game means something and that little bit extra definitely helps.”

Aaron Judge is working his way back, but it sounds like he will have to play through pain the rest of the year

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(Presswire)

Yesterday afternoon, prior to last night’s win over Twins, Aaron Judge hit on the field for the first time since landing on the disabled list. He took five rounds of batting practice. He’s gone through the usual progression of tee and soft toss to hitting in the cage to taking batting practice over the last week, and everything is going well. Judge feels good and is inching closer to a return.

“A typical Aaron Judge BP. Putting on a show,” Aaron Boone said to Brendan Kuty yesterday. “It went really well. Another big step for him to get out on the field and now we’ll start hopefully — as he bounces back — we’ll ramp that up and start to really talk about building up the endurance.”

The Yankees have 18 games remaining and the regular season ends in two weeks and five days, so they no longer have the luxury of time. Judge has been out close to seven weeks now. It’s going to take him some time to get his timing back and get back up to speed at the plate. Hitting in the cage and in batting practice only does so much. There’s no substitute for live big league pitching.

Triple-A Scranton begins the best-of-five International League Championship Series tonight and I guess that, if everything continues to go well, Judge could join them for a rehab game later this week. Maybe Thursday after this series with the Twins? Send Judge down and hope Scranton’s postseason series goes the full five games so he can play three rehab games? That seems like the best case scenario.

“It’ll be no problem,” said Judge to Kuty over the weekend when asked about the possibility of returning with no rehab games. “I’m confident with how my bat’s feeling right now. I was confident when it first happened that I’d be back into some meaningful games down the stretch here. I’m just excited to get closer. I know I’m getting one step closer every day to getting back on the field.”

My guess is Judge won’t join Triple-A Scranton for rehab games — that would be a very quick return to game action given how much time he’s missed and the fact he took batting practice for the first time just yesterday — and will instead go to Tampa for live batting practice against minor leaguers who are hanging around waiting for Instructional League begin. That could happen … maybe this weekend? I dunno. The Yankees and Judge really don’t have another choice here. He’ll have to rehab in big league games like Didi Gregorius.

The rehab game situation is less than ideal. The important thing is that Judge is continuing to progress with his rehab work and is not having any problems. No problems except for the fact there is still pain in his wrist. “The pain is not gone. It’s still broken. It’s around (a four on a scale of 1-10). I can’t really give you a number. But it’s feeling better,” Judge said to Bryan Hoch over the weekend. Oy vey.

Pain is bad. Pain is your body’s way of telling you something is wrong and Judge’s body is telling him his wrist is still broken. And yet, he moves forward with his rehab work, presumably because there are only so many regular season games remaining. It’s now or never. Either Judge starts his rehab work now and plays through pain (admirable but possibly stupid) or he doesn’t come back at all. Argh. This creates two questions.

(Presswire)

1. Can Judge make the injury worse by playing hurt? Beats me. I’m not a doctor. I assume the Yankees are not throwing caution to the wind and putting their franchise player at risk of a more serious injury. The Yankees have definitely rushed players back from injury before (coughGarySanchezcough). I don’t think they’d do it with Judge and with a wrist injury. These you don’t mess around with.

It seems to me this is a matter of pain tolerance more than anything. If Judge can handle the pain, he’ll be fine. Remember, Andrew Miller suffered a similar chip fracture in his wrist a few years ago, when he was hit by a line drive in Spring Training. He got the okay to play as long as he could tolerate the pain. A pitcher hurting his non-throwing wrist is much different than a hitter hurting his wrist, and that’s why Judge has already missed seven weeks. At this point, enough healing may’ve taken place to allow him to play. I mean, that’s kinda what had to happen for Judge to begin swinging a bat.

2. Can Judge perform at his usual level if he’s still hurt? Probably not. And, frankly, at this point it will be tough to tell whether Judge is underperforming — if he does underperform, that is — because of the wrist injury or because he’s missed seven weeks and is being thrown right back into big league games. A seven-week layoff without a proper rehab assignment is a good way to make a player look silly at the plate.

The Yankees don’t necessarily need Judge to play like the .285/.398/.548 hitter he was prior to the wrist injury. It would be nice, sure, but Judge only has to clear the “better than Andrew McCutchen or Brett Gardner” bar to be an upgrade for the Yankees, both down the stretch and in the postseason. Gardner is hitting .239/.327/.370 but he still has a lot of defensive value. McCutchen is hitting .148/.385/.370 in his limited time as a Yankee.

One thing to keep in mind: Judge is really good even when he’s at his worst. Remember that miserable second half slump last season? Judge still had a .353 OBP in August. He changes the game just by standing in the batter’s box because he scares the crap out of pitchers. He’ll take his walks and still get on base even when he’s not launching dingers. I’d bet against Judge playing like Aaron freakin’ Judge when he returns. I’d also bet against him being useless.

* * *

The McCutchen trade told us the Yankees have some concerns about Judge being able to return this season. Return at all and return at full strength. They hedged. Now Judge has starting taking swings and progressing with his rehab work even though he still has pain in his wrist. Boone said that would not be the case a few weeks ago. Judge was supposed to remain shut down until he was pain-free.

What changed? The schedule. There’s not much time to get Judge back before the end of the regular season. It’s either start him up now and let him play hurt, or don’t get him back at all, and that would stink. As long as there’s no risk of a more serious injury — I assume he’d still be shut down in that case — then the Yankees and Judge might as well keep going. It’s unfortunate he will (probably) have to play hurt. This late in the season though, there doesn’t seem to be any other choice.

“No idea (when I’ll be back). I don’t want to put myself in a box either by saying a date and not making it. When I’m out there, I’m out there,” said Judge to Kuty and Erik Boland last night. “We’re ahead of schedule I feel. We’re on the track and just have to keep moving forward until the day I get out there.”

Yankees 7, Twins 2: Big seventh inning gives Yankees ninth straight win over Twins

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Can the Yankees play the Twins every day? Pretty please? The Yankees opened this three-game series in Minnesota with a 7-2 win Monday night. Including the 2017 AL Wild Card Game, the Yankees have won their last nine games against the Twins, outscoring them 66-23. Love those Twins.

(Hannah Foslien/Getty)

Kraken Attackin’
The first five innings were a real slog, offensively. The Yankees had men on base every inning against Kyle Gibson, yet they couldn’t get the proverbial Big Hit. Andrew McCutchen (walk) and Aaron Hicks (single) reached base to start the first inning, then a Miguel Andujar double play and a Giancarlo Stanton strikeout followed. Didi Gregorius reached on an error to start the second and was stranded. McCutchen’s single in the third went to waste. Didi’s walk in the fourth went to waste. Bret Gardner’s single and McCutchen’s walk in the fifth went to waste.

Through five innings the Yankees put seven runners on base and went 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position. Andujar went 0-for-3 with runners in scoring position with three hard-hit balls in those first five innings. Rough. Between his April 26th start at Yankee Stadium and the first five innings Monday night, Gibson held the Yankees to four base hits in ten innings. He struck out 14. Annoying. The Yankees have crushed him over the years.

Twins manager Paul Molitor sent Gibson back out for the sixth inning even though he’d already thrown 95 pitches, and he almost got away with it. Stanton lined out and Gregorius struck out rather quickly. The Yankees final broke through on pitch No. 111 for Gibson. Gary Sanchez hit an insane solo home run to give the Yankees a 1-0 lead. In a 2-2 count, Gibson threw Sanchez a 95 mph two-seamer that dove down and out of the zone …

… and Gary launch-angled it into the third deck. Statcast says it was a 460-foot upper tank shot. Left Sanchez’s bat at 111 mph. I don’t really care about the distance or exit velocity. I mean, yeah, I do, but look where that pitch was! How do you elevate that pitch? How do you elevate that pitch into the third deck at Target Field? That is bonkers. Sanchez has really struggled this year. There’s no doubt about that. Not many hitters can do that to that pitch though.

J.A. Stands For Just Awesome
Kind of a weird start for J.A. Happ. A good start, to be sure, but he never seemed truly dominant. The Twins put a runner on base in every inning but the third, and among his 91 pitches, Happ generated only two swings and misses. Two! This was Happ’s 281st big league game and only the 13th in which he had no more than two swings and misses. It was only the fifth time he’d done it as a starter. Eek.

And yet, despite the lack of whiffs and general lack of dominance, Happ tossed six scoreless innings against the Twins. He allowed six hits, five of which were singles, and got an awful lot help from his defense. There were several great catches in the outfield and also some rockets right at infielders. The Twins put 15 balls in play against Happ and only five were ground balls. Six of those 15 balls in plays were 100+ mph and three were caught.

Happ’s final line: 6 IP, 6 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 3 K on 91 pitches. I thought he had enough left in the tank to throw the seventh inning as well, but once the Yankees broke the game open, might as well turn it over to the expanded September bullpen. The results are excellent. I’d take it every time no questions asked. There were some dicey moments though, and Happ seemed a little off his game. Fortunately, even when he’s not at his best, he’s still pretty good.

Broken Open
Once Gibson was out of the game, the Yankees went to town on Minnesota’s bullpen. The first eight batters they sent to the plate in the seventh inning reached base. Walk, walk, double, double, double, single, walk, single. After finally making an out, the Yankees added a sacrifice fly and a bases loaded walk to score two more runs. A lot happened that inning, so I’m going to annotate the play-by-play to make sure I don’t miss anything.

(1) McCutchen and Hicks each batted twice in the seventh inning and they reached base three times with a sac fly mixed in. Those two reached base seven times (two singles, five walks) and had a sacrifice fly in 12 combined plate appearances Monday night. That is how you set the damn table. With Aaron Judge still sidelined and Stanton mostly slumping, I am totally cool with sticking with McCutchen and Hicks in the 1-2 spots. Leave ’em there and let them raise hell.

(2) Andujar hit the ball hard all game and wasn’t rewarded for it until the seventh inning. A hard-hit grounder resulted in a double play in the first. Line drives to center and left were caught for outs in the third and fifth, respectively. In the seventh, righty Alan Busenitz totally gave in and threw Miggy a 98 mph fastball right down the middle in a 2-0 count. Great velocity! But Andujar can handle velocity, and he crushed the ball off the high wall in right-center to score McCutchen and Hicks. That was double No. 40 for Andujar. Andujar (40 doubles, 23 homers) and Joe DiMaggio (44 doubles, 29 homers) are the only rookies in franchise history with 40+ doubles and 20+ homers in a season. Pretty great. Also, Andujar is four shy of DiMaggio’s franchise rookie doubles record. It’s a race!

(3) Glad to see Stanton get a mistake and hammer it. Busenitz rolled a loopy 84 mph curveball out over the plate and Giancarlo drove it clear over Jake Cave’s head in center field to score Andujar. The ball left his bat at 117 mph. Stanton is a streaky hitter and he’s in a cold streak right now — he went into this game 7-for-62 (.113) with 27 strikeouts in his last 16 games, which dates back to the Baltimore series — but he was missing hangers like that one a few days ago. Perhaps he’s starting to come out of it.

(4) Sir Didi’s first base hit since returning from the disabled list was a hard-hit grounder inside the first base bag and into foul territory for a double. It hit the sidewall and bounced back into the field of play. Gregorius had been 0-for-5 since coming back from the heel injury. This was the team’s third straight double and it gave the Yankees a 5-0 lead. After going 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position in the first six innings, the Yankees went 5-for-7 with two walks and a sacrifice fly with the bases loaded in the seventh inning. Feels good, man.

(5) Since returning from the disabled list, Sanchez has been awfully pull happy. I mean, he’s always been a pull hitter. He had a 54.1% pull rate in 2016 and a 51.5% pull rate last year. This year it’s 50.0% overall, but 68.4% since returning from the disabled list. Here is his spray chart for his first seven games back from the disabled list:

Yeah, Gary’s been pulling everything, and he sure pulled the hell out of his homer in the sixth inning. In the seventh though, he flicked a little two-strike fastball to right field for a single. Good to see him go the other way. Also, Sanchez hammered a double off the right field wall in the eighth inning. So that’s two balls to right field in this game after what, one total in his previous seven games? Sanchez went 3-for-5 with a single, a double, and a homer in the game. Please let this be the start of something big.

(6) The Twins declined to call up Byron Buxton this month for service time reasons. The GM basically came out and admitted it too. One of the other excuses was a lack of playing time, and yet Robbie Grossman and Johnny Field were starting in the corner outfield spots. What? Grossman is a terrible defender and it came into play on Gleyber Torres’ bases loaded single. He dunked a bloop into shallow right and Grossman missed the dive terribly. The ball scooted by him too, though another run did not score. Still looked catchable off the bat. With Buxton in center, Cave probably makes that catch in right. Oh well. Not my problem. Gleyber’s single stretched the lead to 6-0.

Leftovers
Luis Cessa threw two innings and allowed both Twins runs in the eighth inning. I really wish they would’ve used Jonathan Loaisiga. Seemed like a good time to get him some work. Then again, Sonny Gray is pitching Tuesday, and the Yankees might be saving Loaisiga for long relief duty. Whatever. Cessa allowed two runs in two innings and Jonathan Holder, who’d pitched once in the last eight days, handled the ninth.

Every starter had a hit except … Greg Bird. He went 0-for-3 with two walks and a strikeout. Every starter reached base at least twice except Andujar, who doubled. McCutchen (single, three walks) was on base four times and is hitting .148/.385/.370 in nine games with the Yankees. Love that OBP. Sanchez had three hits and Gardner had two. The Yankees drew a season-high tying ten walks.

And finally, with the win, the magic number to clinch a postseason spot is down to nine, which is why Roger Maris is in the sidebar. The Athletics were idle Monday, so the Yankees are three games up for homefield advantage in the Wild Card Game. But, because the Yankees hold the tiebreaker, it’s effectively a four-game lead. The A’s have to claim the top wildcard spot outright to host the Wild Card Game. Tie goes to the Yankees.

Box Score, WPA Graph & Standings
Head to ESPN for the box score and updated standings, MLB for the video highlights, and FanGraphs for the postseason odds. Here’s our Bullpen Workload page and here’s the win probability graph:


Source: FanGraphs

Up Next
The Yankees and Twins continue this three-game series Tuesday night. That’s another 8:05pm ET start. Gray and Tyler Duffey will be the starters for that one. Duffey will be the opener and is only expected to throw an inning or two.

Game 144: Please let this one go like pretty much every other Yankees vs. Twins series

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Never been but I want to go. (Presswire)

You know what the Yankees could use tonight? A blowout win. Been a while since they had one of those. I’m talking about a real laugher, not a “they won by five runs” blowout. Score three runs in the first, two in the second, four in the third … that sorta thing. Then turn it over to the September call-ups and let them take care of the rest. That would be ideal tonight. And every night, really.

In the (likely) event that doesn’t happen, the Yankees will still have J.A. Happ on the mound tonight, and he’s been pretty great since the trade. Seven starts and a 3.10 ERA in 40.2 innings? Couldn’t have asked for anything more. Happ’s been great and I hope he’s great again tonight. Hopefully the offense gives him a lot of run support too. Here are the starting lineups:

New York Yankees
1. RF Andrew McCutchen
2. CF Aaron Hicks
3. 3B Miguel Andujar
4. DH Giancarlo Stanton
5. SS Didi Gregorius
6. C Gary Sanchez
7. 1B Greg Bird
8. 2B Gleyber Torres
9. LF Brett Gardner

LHP J.A. Happ

Minnesota Twins
1. 1B Joe Mauer
2. SS Jorge Polanco
3. 2B Logan Forsythe
4. RF Robbie Grossman
5. C Mitch Garver
6. DH Willians Astudillo
7. CF Jake Cave
8. LF Johnny Field
9. 3B Gregorio Petit

RHP Kyle Gibson

Clear skies and kinda humid in Minneapolis this evening. There’s no rain in the forecast though and that’s all that matters to me. Tonight’s series opener will begin at 8:10pm ET and you can watch on YES locally and MLB Network out-of-market. Enjoy the game.

Injury Update: Aaron Judge (wrist) took full on-field batting practice this afternoon. First time he’s done that. Everything went well. “Kind of a typical Aaron Judge BP. Putting on a show. It went really well. Another big step for him to get out on the field,” said Aaron Boone … Luke Voit has a stiff back and is day-to-day. He is available tonight if necessary, but it sounds like the Yankees hope to give him tonight and possibly tomorrow night off.

Minor League Update: There won’t be a DotF post again tonight, folks. There are no games on the schedule. Triple-A Scranton opens the best-of-five International League Championship Series against Durham (Rays) tomorrow night. The season is over for all the other affiliates. Domingo German is getting the Game One start for the RailRiders tomorrow.