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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.

Game 114: Start of the Homestand

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(Presswire)

The seven-game road trip is over and the Yankees are back home in the Bronx for a long eleven-game homestand. I can’t remember the last eleven-game homestand. Usually they cap these things at ten games, but the Yankees lost Monday’s off-day to a makeup game with the Mets, so eleven games it is. Well, whatever. This homestand is a great chance to do some damage in the standings.

On the mound tonight will be J.A. Happ, who has returned from the disabled list and will be making his second start as a Yankee. The first went very well. Too bad the hand, foot, and mouth disease — I still can’t believe not one, but two New York baseball players have landed on the disabled list with that this season — sent him to disabled list. Oh well. At least Happ is back tonight. Here are the lineups:

New York Yankees
1. LF Brett Gardner
2. DH Giancarlo Stanton
3. SS Didi Gregorius
4. CF Aaron Hicks
5. 1B Greg Bird
6. 3B Miguel Andujar
7. 2B Neil Walker
8. C Austin Romine
9. RF Shane Robinson

LHP J.A. Happ

Texas Rangers
1. DH Shin-Soo Choo
2. 2B Rougned Odor
3. SS Elvis Andrus
4. 3B Adrian Beltre
5. 1B Jurickson Profar
6. RF Joey Gallo
7. C Robinson Chirinos
8. LF Willie Calhoun
9. CF Carlos Tocci

RHP Ariel Jurado

It is hot and humid in New York and will be until the day the sun swallows the Earth. Tonight’s game will begin at 7:05pm ET and YES will have the broadcast. Enjoy the ballgame.

Roster Move: As expected, Chance Adams was sent back to Triple-A Scranton to clear a roster spot for Happ, the Yankees announced. Adams was sent down following last night’s game.

Injury Update: Aaron Judge (wrist) still has pain and is not yet swinging a bat. He’s doing pretty much everything else though. He’s scheduled to see the doctor tonight for a checkup … Gary Sanchez (groin) has been cleared to resume running. He’s also ramping up his hitting and defensive rehab work as well … Aroldis Chapman is available. He was available last night too. The Yankees held Chapman out a few days because he was sore following Sunday’s extended outing. He’s good to go now.

Game 111: The Other Sox

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The White Sox have a weird mascot. (Jonathan Daniel/Getty)

The nightmare four-game series in Boston is over — so is the AL East race, effectively — and now the Yankees are in Chicago to take on another Sox team, the White Sox. Based on the current standings, the Yankees will play their next 27 games against teams without a winning record. The ChiSox are 41-70. Slightly better than the Royals and Orioles.

The series against the Red Sox is over. Nothing the Yankees can do about that now. The only thing they can do now is pound the crap out of some bad teams these next four weeks, and snap out of his .500 ball funk they’ve been in the last six weeks. The White Sox are very bad and on pace for 102 losses. Please treat them accordingly. Here are tonight’s lineups:

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

RHP Lance Lynn

Chicago White Sox
1. 2B Yoan Moncada
2. 3B Yolmer Sanchez
3. 1B Jose Abreu
4. DH Daniel Palka
5. RF Avisail Garcia
6. LF Nicky Delmonico
7. SS Tim Anderson
8. C Kevan Smith
9. CF Adam Engel

RHP Dylan Covey

There were scattered showers in the forecast earlier today, though those have cleared out, and there’s shouldn’t be much trouble getting this game in. First pitch is scheduled for 8:10pm ET and you can watch on YES locally and ESPN nationally. Enjoy the ballgame.

Injury Updates: Stanton is nursing a tight hamstring. That explains why he’s been the DH so much recently … Gary Sanchez (groin) has resumed light baseball activities down in Tampa. He’s hitting and doing some very light running. He hasn’t been cleared to run the bases or anything like that. The hope is Sanchez will be able to ramp up his workouts and take full-fledged batting practice later this week … J.A. Happ (hand, foot, and mouth disease) is “out of the woods” and will start Thursday, the first day he is eligible to come off the disabled list.

Game 110: Try Not To Get Swept

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(Omar Rawlings/Getty)

What a mess of a series this has been. The Yankees dropped the first three games by the combined score of 23-9 and they’ve fallen to 8.5 games back in the AL East (seven in the loss column). FanGraphs puts their division odds a 12.4%. Their postseason odds are still sky high (99.9%), but at some point the Yankees have to start playing better. They’re 18-19 in their last 37 games. That won’t cut it.

While the damage has already been done, the Yankees can salvage this four-game series with a win in the finale tonight. Masahiro Tanaka is on the mound and he’s been the team’s best starter the last three or four turns through the rotation, plus David Price will be on the mound for the Red Sox, and I can’t remember the last time he pitched well against the Yankees. I’d feel a lot better if Aaron Judge and Gary Sanchez were in the lineup though. Here are the lineups:

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

RHP Masahiro Tanaka

Boston Red Sox
1. CF Mookie Betts
2. LF Andrew Benintendi
3. DH Steve Pearce
4. RF J.D. Martinez
5. SS Xander Bogaerts
6. 1B Mitch Moreland
7. 3B Eduardo Nunez
8. 2B Brock Holt
9. C Sandy Leon

LHP David Price

Clear skies and humid in Boston tonight. The series finale will begin a little after 8pm ET and ESPN will have the broadcast. Try to enjoy the game.

Injury Update: Aaron Judge (wrist) still has discomfort and has not yet started swinging a bat. He has started throwing though (the injury is to his throwing wrist). Judge said that, once he returns, he’s going to have a protective guard on the wrist and probably more armor at the plate overall … J.A Happ (hand, foot, and mouth disease) threw today in New York and will be evaluated tomorrow. If he checks out okay, he’ll start Thursday, the first day he’s eligible to be activated.

Game 107: Round One

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Man of the people. (Presswire)

The biggest series of the season? The biggest series of the season. Certainly the biggest series of the season to date, at least. There’s still 50-something games to play after this weekend. Anyway, the Yankees and Red Sox open a four-game series at Fenway Park tonight, and here are the AL East standings at the moment:

  1. Red Sox: 75-34
  2. Yankees: 68-38 (5.5 GB)
  3. Rays: 56-53 (19 GB)
  4. Blue Jays: 48-59 (26 GB)
  5. Orioles: 33-75 (41.5 GB)

A two-team race. The Yankees and Red Sox have the two best records in baseball, and this is the first time they’ve met this late in a season with the game’s two best records since the Game 163 tiebreaker in 1978, if you can believe that. The Yankees are trying to gain ground to make the division race an actual race. The BoSox are looking to bury the Yankees and run away with this thing.

Obvious statement is obvious: A split is the absolute bare minimum this weekend. Winning three of four would be swell. A sweep would be incredible. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves here. The Yankees seemed to do that yesterday against the Orioles. Felt like they got caught looking ahead to this series. Worry about tonight’s game and tonight’s game only. Gotta win one before you can think about winning two or three or four. Here are the lineups:

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

LHP CC Sabathia

Boston Red Sox
1. RF Mookie Betts
2. LF Andrew Benintendi
3. 1B Steve Pearce
4. DH J.D. Martinez
5. 2B Ian Kinsler
6. 3B Eduardo Nunez
7. C Blake Swihart
8. SS Brock Holt
9. CF Jackie Bradley Jr.

LHP Brian Johnson

It is cloudy, warm, and windy in Boston this evening. Not ideal baseball weather but it’ll do. Tonight’s game will begin at 7:10pm ET and you can watch on YES locally and MLB Network out of market. Enjoy the ballgame.

Rotation Update: Sonny Gray has been moved to the bullpen, mercifully. He’ll be available starting Saturday. “I’ve struggled and they’ve given me ample opportunity to figure it out … I don’t think my days as a starting pitcher in this league are over, but right now it’s all about winning and doing my part, and my role right now is in the bullpen,” he said. Lance Lynn will take Gray’s rotation spot.

Injury Update: J.A. Happ has been placed on the 10-day DL with his hand, foot, and mouth disease. Crazy. The move is retroactive to Monday, so he can return as soon as next Thursday. He’ll miss just one start. Sucks he had to miss a start this series though. What can you do? … Aaron Judge (wrist) has been running and going through agility drills and all that. He is inching closer to swinging a bat.

Roster Moves: Both Luis Cessa and Luke Voit have been called up, the Yankees announced. Voit is wearing No. 45. Something tells me he won’t fit into Chasen Shreve’s jersey. Voit’s up as an extra right-handed bat for the weekend. As for Cessa, he replaces Happ — they had to use Happ’s disabled list stint to bring Cessa back because it hasn’t been ten days since he was sent down — and right now Saturday’s starter is TBA, but it’ll be Cessa unless he’s needed out of the bullpen tonight or tomorrow. Tyler Wade was sent down to make room for Voit. Shane Robinson remains on the roster and Neil Walker is now de facto the backup infielder. My guess is Voit will go back to Triple-A after this series and Ronald Torreyes will return.

Game 106: Calm Before The Storm

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(Presswire)

The Yankees wrap up this six-game homestand against the two worst teams in baseball this afternoon with the second of two against the Orioles. Tomorrow the Yankees head up to Boston to start a super important four-game series. Could very well be the biggest series of the season. Gotta take care of business against the O’s today first. The Yankees have lost enough games to Baltimore already. Focus on the task at hand.

Sonny Gray is on the mound this afternoon and he has pitched quite well the last few times out, not coincidentally against bad teams. The Yankees lined up the rotation out of the All-Star break in such a way that Gray would only face crummy teams like the Mets and Royals and Orioles. Can’t say I blame them. Beat the Orioles today then get ready for that massive series at Fenway Park. The lineups:

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

RHP Sonny Gray

Baltimore Orioles
1. SS Tim Beckham
2. RF Jace Peterson
3. CF Adam Jones
4. DH Danny Valencia
5. 1B Chris Davis
6. LF Trey Mancini
7. C Caleb Joseph
8. 3B Renato Nunez
9. 2B Breyvic Valera

RHP Alex Cobb

Pretty cloudy in New York with rain in the forecast later today. Fortunately things cleared up enough that there shouldn’t be much of a problem getting today’s game in. First pitch is scheduled for 1:05pm ET and you can watch on YES locally and MLB Network out-of-market. Enjoy the game.

Roster Move: Lance Lynn has arrived and is on the active roster. He is wearing No. 36. Ryan Bollinger was sent down to clear a roster spot. I get the sense he’s going to be outrighted off the 40-man roster pretty soon. Lynn last started last Friday and is available to pitch today.

Injury Update: Aaron Judge (wrist) is getting better but he has not started baseball activities aside from shagging fly balls during batting practice. The hope is he can start taking dry swings within a week … J.A. Happ (hand, foot, and mouth disease) is doing better and tentatively remains on track to make his scheduled start Saturday. The Yankees will have a better idea about his availability tomorrow. If Happ can’t start Saturday, Lynn and Luis Cessa are the alternatives.