River Avenue Blues

Three series at Yankee Stadium, three series losses. The opponents? The Orioles, Tigers, and White Sox. That is truly pathetic and should not be waved off because of the injuries or as baseball being baseball. Some organizational introspection is required. The Yankees continued their rotten start to the season with a 5-2 loss to the ChiSox on Sunday. They have lost nine of their first 15 games for only the second time since 2005 and the first time since 2016. The Yankees sold at the deadline that year.

Tanaka Unravels
Masahiro Tanaka’s afternoon unraveled very quickly in the fourth inning. He retired eight of the first ten batters he faced — one of the two baserunners was thrown out trying to steal second — with six strikeouts, and looked to be in total control of the ballgame. When Aaron Judge threw Yoan Moncada out at second trying to stretch a single into a double to start the fourth, it seemed the bad rebuilding White Sox would go away quietly on getaway day.

The Moncada single-turned-out — twice in his first two at-bats he ripped the ball into the right field corner — was both a gift out and a bad sign. Jose Abreu followed with a double to left field, then Tanaka nibbled himself into serious trouble. He got ahead in the count 1-2 on Yonder Alonso and walked him, and got ahead in the count 2-2 on Eloy Jimenez and walked him. Those were only the third and fourth walks of the season for Tanaka.

Tanaka went from being in control of Sunday’s game to having the bases loaded with one out in the blink of an eye. The first four batters of the fourth inning reached base when you include Moncada’s single-turned-out. The fifth batter of the inning, Tim Anderson, cleared the bases and then some with an opposite field grand slam off the top of the wall. The 0-1 splitter was, uh, poorly located:

Yikes. Instead of splitting down, the splitter split from left to right, and right into Anderson’s bat. Tanaka gave up four runs in the fourth inning after allowing four runs (three earned) in his first 21.2 innings of the season. All you need to know about Tanaka’s start is right here:

• First time through the lineup: 2-for-9 (.222) with five strikeouts
• Thereafter: 5-for-8 (.625) with three walks and one strikeout

I thought letting Tanaka face Moncada with runners on the corners and no outs in the fifth inning (later runners at second and third with no outs following a stolen base) was insane given Moncada’s first two at-bats. He crushed two rockets (110.5 mph and 107.6 mph exit velocities) to right field, the small part of the park. There was no rocket this time. Just a walk to load the bases, ending Tanaka’s afternoon.

Tanaka’s final line: 4 IP, 7 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 3 BB, 6 K, 1 HR on 81 pitches. Luis Cessa inherited the bases loaded with no outs in the fifth inning and allowed just one run on a sacrifice fly, which, all things considered, is a good outcome. It was a long sacrifice fly that required Judge to make a leaping catch on the warning track, so Cessa got some help. In one afternoon, Tanaka went from a 1.47 ERA (2.55 FIP) to a 3.22 ERA (3.10 FIP) on the season. A return to normalcy.

Two Runs Early … And That’s It
Sunday’s game started well for the Yankees. Tanaka cruised through the first three innings and the Yankees scored one run in the first and one run in the third. Judge drew a walk in the first inning and Luke Voit brought him home with a double into the right-center field gap. Mike Tauchman walked, moved to second on a wild pitch, and scored on Judge’s single in the third inning to give the Yankees a 2-0 lead. Things seemed to be going well.

Gleyber Torres followed the Judge single with a single of his own, giving the Yankees a chance to put a dent in the scoreboard in that third inning, but Voit flew out and Clint Frazier grounded out, and that was that. Following the Torres single, Carlos Rodon settled down and retired the final eleven batters he faced. Only four of the eleven managed to hit the ball out of the infield. The righty heavy lineup couldn’t muster much of anything against the lefty.

The Yankees had just two baserunners following the Torres single in the third inning. Gio Urshela drove a single to center field in the seventh inning, then was erased on Kyle Higashioka’s inning-ending double play. Judge reached on Anderson’s throwing error in the eighth, then Torres struck out to end the inning. Nineteen of the final 21 Yankees to bat made outs. Those 21 batters had a 90.2 average exit velocity. Death by soft contact.

I get that Rodon is talented (third overall pick in 2014) and has a pretty wicked slider, but he went into start with a thoroughly mediocre 4.08 ERA (4.56 FIP) in 136.2 innings since returning from shoulder surgery last year. Even with a lineup that has been decimated by injuries, this is getting pretty tedious. The healthy players on the roster are good enough to beat the Orioles and Tigers and White Sox. Instead, they are 3-6 against them at home. Gross.

Leftovers
Cessa faced five batters, Tommy Kahnle faced two batters, Adam Ottavino faced five batters, Joe Harvey faced four batters, and Chad Green faced three batters. Good line for the bullpen: 5 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 8 K. Bringing Cessa in down two runs with the bases loaded and no outs, then bringing Ottavino in down three runs to start an inning, is laugh out loud bad. Which situation demands the team’s best reliever? Well, whatever. This loss isn’t on the bullpen.

The White Sox went 5-for-7 stealings bases. One caught stealing came on a pitchout and the other came on a weird little half-slide when Yolmer Sanchez got caught in-between. At least three of the five stolen bases were uncontested. No throw because the infielder held his ground to play a potential batted ball. Somehow none of the stolen bases led to a run, but still. Can’t be giving away bases like that in a close game. First time the Yankees allowed five steals in a game since 2012.

Voit’s first inning double extended his on-base streak to 26 games, which obviously dates back to last season. That is the second longest active streak in baseball. Who knew? Voit is a distant second behind Tommy Pham’s ongoing 47-game on-base streak. Bryce Harper and J.D. Martinez are tied with the third longest streak at 17 games. Imagine Harper and Voit in the same lineup? What could’ve been.

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

Source: FanGraphs

Up Next
Another off-day. The Yankees will rest Monday before opening a quick two-game home series against the Red Sox on Tuesday night. James Paxton and Chris Sale are the scheduled starters for the opener. Remember, whatever happens that series will tell you all you need to know about the rest of the year.

Now that is much more like it. The Yankees snapped their four-game losing streak with a 4-0 win over the White Sox on Saturday afternoon. CC Sabathia’s return restored order to the universe.

The Big Man Returns
In the first start of his final season, it took CC Sabathia two innings to match J.A. Happ’s season 1-2-3 inning total and four innings to double it. Happ as two 1-2-3 innings this year, both in his first start two weeks ago. Sabathia had four 1-2-3 innings in his five-inning start Saturday. His only baserunner allowed was a soft little Jose Rondon single to center field in the third inning. Soft as in 72.5 mph exit velocity. Sixteen up, 15 down.

Sabathia threw only 62 pitches in his five innings Saturday, exactly as many as he threw in his minor league rehab start last Sunday. Minor league rehab pitches and competitive Major League pitches are very different in terms of intensity though, and Sabathia is coming back from offseason knee and heart surgery, so of course the Yankees played it safe. Was there enough in the tank for another inning? Yeah, probably. But the Yankees and Sabathia have to think big picture here.

Had you not known any better, it would’ve been impossible to tell Sabathia was coming back from offseason surgery and what amounts to a modified Spring Training. The White Sox stacked their lineup with righties (Yonder Alonso was the only lefty) and, as usual, Sabathia busted those righties with 90-ish mph cutters on the inner half and got them to reach for changeups and breaking balls away. Here are his pitch locations against those righties:

Sabathia’s final line: 5 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 3 K on 62 pitches. Tyler Wade and Brett Gardner both made stellar defensive plays behind Sabathia to take away hits, so he had help, but the process and the results were strong. The White Sox didn’t square him up much and there were no indications of diminished stuff. Sabathia looked like regular ol’ Sabathia and that is the best possible outcome. Hooray CC. Welcome back, big man.

Three Runs In The Seventh
This game was scoreless into the seventh inning. Sabathia threw his five scoreless innings and long man du jour Domingo German was very good in his two scoreless innings, all while former Yankee Ivan Nova mowed the Yankees down on the other side. They had runners on first and second with one out in the first inning when Gleyber Torres had the bat taken out of his hands by home plate umpire Ted Barrett (look at this called strike three location) and Greg Bird grounded out, stranding both runners.

The Yankees finally broke through and got on the board in the seventh inning. Let’s recap that inning with an annotated play-by-play.

(1) Since his home run binge in Baltimore, Torres has gotten a little big with his swing, which I suppose isn’t too uncommon for a young player. Sometimes they get a little anxious and start trying to yank everything into the seats. In this at-bat, Gleyber took a first pitch curveball for a strike, swung through a second pitch cutter with a great big hero swing, then settled down and punched the 0-2 cutter to right field for a leadoff single. That got the rally going and it also ended Nova’s afternoon, which kinda surprised me, even at 93 pitches.

(2) Boy did Yolmer Sanchez bail out Aaron Boone. Lefty reliever Jace Fry replaced Nova and pinch-hitting the righty hitting Luke Voit for the lefty hitting Bird seemed like an obvious move. Instead, Bird stayed in, and he hit a tailor-made 4-6-3 double play ball to second base. The rally should’ve died right there. Sanchez booted the ball though — it looked like he rushed to make sure he could get the out at second — and instead of two outs and the bases empty, the Yankees had runners on first and second with no outs. A gift to take Boone off the hook.

(3) Like Torres two batters earlier, Clint Frazier took a huge hack early in the at-bat and swung through a pitch. Gleyber swung through an 0-1 cutter in the zone. Frazier swung through a first pitch slider in the dirt. And, like Torres two batters earlier, Frazier shortened up and shot a single to right field. That loaded the bases. Torres could not score from second because it looked like Sanchez had a chance to snag the line drive, so the runners held. No run, but bases loaded and no outs, and I’ll take it.

(4) Not pinch-hitting for Bird worked out well for Boone. Sanchez botched the double play ball, and it also allowed Boone to use Voit as a pinch-hitter for Mike Tauchman. Voit jumped on a first pitch fastball and muscled it through the infield and back up the middle to score the game’s first run. It was hit so slowly that I thought Bird would be able to score from second because the ball took forever to get to center fielder Adam Engel, but nope. No need to risk it and send a slow runner home with the bases loaded and no outs. Voit gave the Yankees a 1-0 lead.

(5) Kyle Higashioka did a great Gary Sanchez impression Saturday. He had a hard single (109.5 mph exit velocity) and two hard outs (103.8 mph and 100.5 mph). The 100.5 mph out was this seventh inning sacrifice fly. Leury Garcia is the White Sox’s version of Wade. He’s a natural infielder learning the outfield to increase his versatility. Garcia got turned around a bit on Higashioka’s fly ball and it looked like it may fall in, but he was able to reach up and make the catch while going back on the ball. Got the job done and brought a run home, and that’s the most important thing.

(6) A squeeze bunt! It looked to me that the bunt was Plan B. Wade did not square around on the first pitch fastball out of the zone, and he took a hack at the second pitch fastball for a swing-and-miss. It seemed like he was going to take one rip early in the count and try to ambush a fastball. When he missed that opportunity, Wade squared around and dropped down a textbook squeeze bunt, scoring the speedy Frazier from this base. The video:

That is the Yankees’ first successful squeeze bunt since this Didi Gregorius squeeze back in 2015. I’m not sure whether they’ve attempted any squeeze bunts since then — they’ve probably tried it a few times without getting it down — but they definitely have not succeeded since Sir Didi’s sneak attack against the Twins. Nifty little play to stretch the lead to 3-0. Aaron Judge socked a solo home run into the short porch in the eighth inning to give me my fix and add an insurance run. The Judge vs. Happ homer race is now tied at four apiece. Riveting stuff.

The Bullpen Comes Through
Been a rough few days for the supposed Super Bullpen. The bullpen had allowed at least three runs in each of the last three games — they hadn’t done that since September 2016 — and, aside from Adam Ottavino, no one has looked especially great in the early going. On Saturday, three relievers combined for four nearly perfect innings. The only baserunner came on a Wade throwing error that Bird really should’ve scooped at first.

German piggybacked with Sabathia and was dynamite in his two innings, striking our four and allowing just the one baserunner on the Wade error. If he weren’t needed in the rotation, I’d be interested in seeing German as a once-through-the-lineup multi-inning reliever. Zack Britton went 1-2-3 with a strikeout and two ground balls in the eighth, and now has as many swings and misses as baserunners this year (12 each). He needed a strong outing like that. Good to see.

Even with a four-run lead, Boone went to Aroldis Chapman in the ninth because, well, he hadn’t pitched in a week. Can’t go much longer without using him. Chapman struck out one in a perfect ninth and, for the first time this season, he hit 100 mph on the radar gun. The first four times, actually: 100.4, 100.1, 100.0, 100.0. Good to see. The weather’s warming up a bit and so is Chapman, apparently.

Leftovers
The Yankees had seven hits scattered throughout the lineup. No one had more than one hit, and the only starters without one were Bird, Tauchman (two at-bats before being removed for a pinch-hitter), and Wade (squeeze bunt). DJ LeMahieu drew the team’s only walk and is hitting .432/.490/.535 (183 wRC+). As of this writing he is second in baseball in AVG (Tim Anderson at .444), sixth in OBP, and 11th in hits. Pretty cool.

And finally, the Yankees threw a one-hitter! That soft Rondon single against Sabathia was Chicago’s only base hit. This is the Yankees’ first one-hitter since Luis Severino, David Robertson, and Chapman got the Rangers on September 9th, 2017. Their last one-hitter before that came in September 2014. Michael Pineda, Shawn Kelley, Rich Hill, and David Phelps teamed up to do it.

Box Score, WPA Graph & Standings
For the box score and video highlights, go to MLB.com. For the updated standings, go to ESPN. Here’s our Bullpen Workload page and here’s the win probability graph:

Source: FanGraphs

Up Next
The Yankees will look to clinch their second series win of the season Sunday afternoon. Righty Masahiro Tanaka and lefty Carlos Rodon on scheduled starters. That is a 1:05pm ET game.