Can’t stop won’t stop. The Yankees won their sixth straight game Saturday, this time erasing three separate Tampa Bay leads to earn a 5-4 walk-off win over the Rays. Two walk-offs in three days. I like it. That’s six straight wins and eight wins in the last nine games.
Three-Plus & Fly
In all likelihood this was Caleb Smith’s last start for a while, and that’s good, because the Yankees can’t keep running him out there hoping he makes it through five inning and being satisfied if he makes it through four. He’s yet to do that in either of his two starts. Smith lasted three innings plus one out Saturday, allowing two runs on three hits and three walks. I know the kid has been in a show for like ten minutes, but getting this little length every fifth day can’t last.
Smith put the Yankees in a quick 1-0 hole two pitches in the game thanks to a Peter Bourjos solo homer. Peter Bourjos! He’s hit five home runs this season and two have come against the Yankees. The Rays scored their second run in the third inning with a pretty weak rally. Jesus Sucre singled to center, Steven Souza Jr. reached on an infield single that hit a leaping Didi Gregorius in the glove, and Evan Longoria drew a walk. A long Lucas Duda sac fly scored the run. Smith escaped further damage thanks to a great barehand play by Todd Frazier at third.
Through two starts and one relief appearance Smith has allowed eight runs and 17 baserunners in ten innings, and that ain’t good. The second time through the order continues to be a problem. Smith has a lively arm, so it would be silly to write him off, but at this point the Yankees need someone better to take the ball every fifth day. Given where the team is in the standings and their resources (money and prospects), odds are the Yankees will get someone better before Monday’s trade deadline.
Three Rallies
Three times the Yankees came from behind Saturday. The Bourjos solo homer was answered by a Gregorius sac fly in the second inning. Gary Sanchez got a good luck ground ball double — it blooped juuust inside the right field line — and moved to third on Matt Holliday’s ground ball to set Didi up for the sac fly. The Duda sac fly was answered with a Sanchez solo homer in the fourth. From 1-0 to 1-1 to 2-1 to 2-2. All tied.
The Rays took their third lead of the game in the fifth inning, when Souza managed to keep a high fly ball just fair for a solo home run against Adam Warren. It was about four seats fair and two rows deep. Not a majestic blast at all. A solo homer is a solo homer though, and that solo homer gave Tampa a 3-2 lead. The teams alternated one run in each of the first five innings. It made for a neat little line score early on.
It wasn’t until the sixth inning that the Yankees took their first lead of the game. Blake Snell has pretty nasty stuff and he did a good job getting New York to chase fastballs upstairs, breaking balls in the dirt, and changeups away. He allowed a hard-hit single to Holliday to start the sixth — it would have been a double for even an average runner — and popped up Gregorius for the first out to end his afternoon.
Rays skipper Kevin Cash went to righty slider machine Sergio Romo against righty Garrett Cooper, who Joe Girardi immediately lifted for pinch-hitter Chase Headley. Righties against Romo this season: .235/.293/.512 (.334 wOBA). Lefties against Romo this season: .316/.458/.526 (.412 wOBA). Pinch-hitting was an oh so obvious move, and it couldn’t have worked out better. Headley smacked a go-ahead two-run home run. Opposite field!
As good as Headley has been the last few weeks, he has not been hitting for power at all, which is especially crummy because pretty much everyone can hit for power in 2017. Saturday’s home run was Headley’s first since June 13th, the middle game of the three-game series in Anaheim. He’d hit one (1) home run in his previous 317 plate appearances coming into the game. Good gravy. The timely home run gave New York a 4-3 lead.
Asking Too Much From The Bullpen
An effective but hardly dominant day for the bullpen. Warren was the first reliever used and he allowed just the Souza homer in his 1.2 innings. He handed the ball to Dellin Betances for the sixth. Yes, Dellin in the sixth. Has he been demoted? My guess is no. Girardi was using him against the 4-5-6 hitters with the Yankees down a run. I like it. Betances walked Duda, the first batter he faced, on four pitches because of course. He retired the next three hitters with ease though.
With Dellin throwing the sixth, Tommy Kahnle came in for the seventh, and he looked human for the first time as a Yankee. Mallex Smith singled back up the middle and pinch-hitter Logan Morrison singled to right, giving the Rays runners on the corners with one out. The Yankees were up 4-3 at the time. Kahnle escaped that jam with a strikeout (Souza) and a foul pop-up (Longoria). Things got a little hairy there for a second, but the lead was preserved.
David Robertson handled the eighth inning and he hung the hell out of curveball to Duda, who swatted it off the facing of the right field upper deck for his second home run in two games with the Rays. The solo homer tied the game 4-4. That’s a shame. Robertson got through the rest of the inning unscathed, which set up Aroldis Chapman for the ninth, and once again, the Rays threatened. They had baserunner in every inning against the bullpen.
Souza was on first base with two outs in the ninth inning when Chapman picked him off. Had him caught between first and second. Headley’s throw to second was a little off line, forcing Gregorius to reach out, then swipe behind his back for the tag. His arm hit the sliding Souza right in the chest and knocked the ball loose. No only was the out not recorded, but Souza was able to scamper to third. Fortunately Longoria fouled out to end the inning.
The bullpen: 5.2 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 6 K. Pretty good, but not dominant. Warren allowed the Rays to take the lead and Robertson allowed them to tie it. The Yankees can’t keep asking these guys for this much length every five days though. It worked in Smith’s previous start — they had the benefit of an off-day the next day that time — and it worked in this game. Hopefully this is the end of it.
Walked Off
The game-winning rally in the ninth could not have been any more gift-wrapped. All the Rays needed to do was put a bow on it. Brad Boxberger faced three batters and all three reached base while hitting the ball a combined 70 feet or so. Headley drew a leadoff walk and was immediately replaced by pinch-runner Jacoby Ellsbury, who stole second. Didn’t matter though. Frazier took a pitch to the ribs as the next batter.
Ronald Torreyes, very predictably, squared around to bunt with two on and no outs. We all knew it was coming and that was 100% the right play. I say that as an anti-bunt guy. You only need one run in that situation to win the game. Torreyes laid the bunt down and … Boxberger ran around it. Everyone was safe. It was very weird. Between that and the Tim Beckham-Adeiny Hechavarria screw up on Sanchez’s game-tying single the other night, I’d be pretty aggravated if I were a Rays fan. Just sloppy, sloppy play.
With the bases loaded and no outs, all Brett Gardner had to was get a ball to the medium deep outfield to score Ellsbury from third. He did one better and singled up the middle to win the game. Brett’s second walk-off hit in three days. Each of his last three walk-off hits have come against the Rays. That hit also extended his hitting streak to eleven games. He’s 16-for-48 (.333) with two doubles, one triple, and four homers in those eleven games. Yup.
Leftovers
No contact day for Aaron Judge, who went 0-for-3 with a walk and three strikeouts. He’s gone 9-for-53 (.170) with 21 strikeouts in 15 games since the All-Star break. I’m not worried though. He’ll figure it out, hopefully soon. Clint Frazier went 0-for-4 with a strikeout. Pretty wild that Frazier and Judge did nothing, and the Yankees still had a young stud slugger swat a double and a homer (Sanchez).
Two hits each for Sanchez, Holliday, and Torreyes. Holliday’s sixth inning single, the would-be double for a good runner, was easily his hardest hit ball in a while. It was the first ball he hit out of the infield since Tuesday. His first single was a ground ball with eyes. The Yankees really need Holliday to right the ship. With any luck, Saturday’s game will help build some confidence going forward.
Box Score, WPA Graph & Standings
Head over to ESPN for the box score and updated standings, and MLB.com for the video highlights. FanGraphs has the bullpen workload information until I get my Google sign-in issues solved. Here’s the win probability graph:
Source: FanGraphs
Up Next
The Yankees will go for the four-game sweep Sunday afternoon. That’s another 1pm ET start. Rookies Jordan Montgomery and Jacob Faria will be on the mound. Want to catch the series finale live? Check out RAB Tickets.
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