Blah, baseball is being stupid right now. The Yankees had a whole lotta base-runners but not a whole lotta runs Friday night, leading to a 7-1 loss to the Mariners in the series-opener. The Bronx Bombers have lost three straight.
One & Done
This was one of those annoying “blow all the scoring chances!” games. The Yankees put 13 runners on base overall, including nine in five innings against starter Nathan Karns, yet they only mustered one run. That was a first inning solo home run by Brett Gardner. It clanked off the facing of the second deck and was Gardner’s first extra-base hit of the season. That’s a good start! First inning taters are pretty great.
The offense could not get The Big Hit after that. The Yankees had plenty of scoring chances and scoring chances are good! Keep getting scoring chances and you’ll score eventually, but damn yo, stranding so many runners is frustrating as hell. The fourth through sixth innings were like pulling teeth. The Yankees put seven men on base in those three innings and scored zero runs. They went 0-for-8 with four strikeouts with runners in scoring position those innings.
The Yankees went 0-for-12 with runners in scoring position overall, and seven players batted in those situations. This was a total team effort. It’s not like one guy killed them in those spots. Karns did a really good job keeping the Yankees off balance with offspeed stuff — he threw 43 fastballs, 43 curveballs, and 14 changeups per PitchFX — and then spotted heaters when necessary. Chase Headley and Jacoby Ellsbury struck out with runners on second and third in the fourth inning, and they took the same damn pitch for strike three, a fastball on the outside corner:
Karns fed them nothing but curveballs and changeups early in the at-bat, then surprised them with the fastball. He did a very nice job pitching backwards. The Yankees had their chances, no doubt about it. They didn’t take advantage. If they keep generating chances, they’ll be just fine. Too bad that wont help them in this game.
Severino Struggles Again
You know what? Luis Severino has not been very good through two starts. He allowed three runs on ten hits in five innings against the Tigers last weekend, then, on Friday, he allowed four runs on eight hits and a walk in 5.2 innings against the Mariners. If not for some nifty — if unconventional — double plays, the damage would have been much worse.
Severino’s biggest mistake was the center cut fastball Chris Iannetta smacked for his go-ahead two-run home run in the fifth inning. I mean, look at this location:
Not good, Luis. Can’t throw it there to even the crappiest of big leaguer hitters, like Iannetta. What made that worse were the previous innings. The Mariners tied the game on Robinson Cano’s single in the top of the fourth, then the Yankees blew a golden opportunity in the bottom half (second and third with no outs!). Blah. That homer took the wind out of everyone’s sails.
Severino threw 87 pitches in his 5.2 innings and he got only five swings and misses. That’s … bad. He did get a healthy eleven swings and misses out 95 total pitches in his first start, so this is more of a blip than a trend, but it was pretty obvious Friday that Severino is far from a finished product. His secondary pitches and location are inconsistent. That’s okay. All pitchers come up to MLB in need of refinement. It’s just not fun to be reminded growing pains are coming.
Pull Away
The Yankees have a truly great end-game bullpen. You’re not going to find many (if any) teams with a better one-two punch than Dellin Betances and Andrew Miller. You can add Chasen Shreve to the mix too. He’s been great. The problem? Those guys only pitch in very specific situations: when the Yankees have a lead or the game is tied in the late innings.
The Yankees were down three runs when Severino exited in the sixth inning, which meant the “only when losing” relief crew sprung into action, and they let Seattle pull away. Kirby Yates did a nice job stranding the bases loaded in the sixth, but he was charged with a run in the seventh, then new call-up Tyler Olson allowed two more runs to score as well. Yates and (mostly) Olson allowed three runs on four hits and three walks in 3.1 innings. Comeback attempt averted.
Leftovers
Starlin Castro made a great behind-the-back catch at second base to turn a double play. It was one of those “the ball caught him” situations. Check this out:
Funny moment in the first inning. Teixeira checked his swing in a 3-1 count, then took off his shin guard and prepared to walk down to first, but third base ump Mike Winters said he went around. (Replay showed he cleared he clearly did not go around.) The next pitch was exactly the same: curveball down and a check swing. Teixeira held his bat, stared down Winters, then jogged to first for the walk.
Olson threw 47 pitches in 2.2 garbage time innings, meaning he’s likely to wind up right back in Triple-A tomorrow. Branden Pinder has not pitched since Wednesday, making him the obvious call-up candidate.
Box Score, WPA Graph & Standings
Here are the box score, video highlights, and updated standings. Also make sure you check out our Bullpen Workload and Announcer Standings pages. Here’s the loss probability graph:
Source: FanGraphs
Up Next
The Yankees and Mariners will continue this three-game series with the middle game Saturday afternoon. Felix Hernandez and CC Sabathia will be the pitching matchup. Man, that would have been awesome like five years ago. Alas. RAB Tickets can get you in the door for that game or any of the other seven games left on the homestand.
