River Avenue Blues

Justus Sheffield, Chance Adams will come to Spring Training as starting pitchers next year

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Adams. (Getty)

According to Conor Foley and DJ Eberle, senior director of player development Kevin Reese confirmed pitching prospects Justus Sheffield and Chance Adams will report to Spring Training as starting pitchers next year. Adams made a spot start for the Yankees last month, but both moved to the bullpen in recent weeks as preparation for their September call-up roles.

“I think looking forward, (the bullpen) is something we should try a little bit sooner with guys to give them the ability to kind of learn a routine,” said Reese, while noting lots of big league starters broke in as relievers. Chris Sale, David Price, Max Scherzer … they all initially broke into the show as relievers. Luis Severino did the bullpen thing for a bit too, remember.

In Sheffield’s case, he is one of the top pitching prospects in baseball, with the three-pitch mix necessary to start long-term. He has to develop consistent control and command (10.5% walk rate this year), which is nothing unusual for a 22-year-old. Sheffield would’ve been in the big leagues a while ago if he could throw consistent strikes. Let him continue to start and keep working at it, even if it means more time in Triple-A.

As for Adams, he had a rough year in Triple-A (4.78 ERA and 4.87 FIP) and there have been doubts about his long-term viability as a starting pitcher dating back to when he made the reliever-to-starter transition three years ago. Of course the Yankees should bring him to camp as a starter. I think the Yankees are much more willing to keep Adams in the bullpen long-term than Sheffield though.

There’s no harm in bringing Sheffield and Adams to Spring Training as starters. Same with A.J. Cole, Domingo German, Luis Cessa, Jonathan Loaisiga, and anyone else like that. Bring them to camp ready to start and adjust as necessary. It’s much easier to go starter-to-reliever at the end of camp than the other way around. Sheffield will get plenty of chances to show he can hack it as a starter. Adams might not have the same luxury.

Today’s Yankees vs. Red Sox game postponed to 7pm ET

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(Elsa/Getty)

Well this is a new one. This afternoon’s series opener between the Yankees and Red Sox has been pushed back from 1pm ET to 7pm ET, it has been announced. Can’t say I ever remember a game being postponed until later in the day.

Today’s game was an early 1pm ET start for Yom Kippur, which begins at sundown. Because today’s game is officially postponed rather than delayed, fans can exchange their tickets. Here’s the ticket policy. That’s why this is not technically a delay. To allow fans to exchange tickets.

There is rain in the forecast throughout the afternoon, though things are supposed to clear up around 5pm ET or so. When I checked yesterday, the forecast said it would rain right through the night, so things have improved. A night game it is.

Thoughts following the last off-day of the 2018 regular season

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(Mike Stobe/Getty)

Thirteen games and 13 days remain in the 2018 regular season for the Yankees. Yesterday was the final off-day of the regular season, and tonight, the Yankees will open a three-game series with the Red Sox. A few weeks ago I was hoping this series would be much more meaningful than it actually is. For shame. Anyway, I have some thoughts, so let’s get to them.

1. The Red Sox have a magic number of two to clinch the AL East title, so one win this series will do the trick, and man if that doesn’t motivate the Yankees and bring out their best these next three days, I don’t know what will. A sweep to stay alive in the division race is so very unlikely. The Yankees can’t even win a series against the Twins and Blue Jays right now, and the Red Sox are actually good, so at some point this week they’re probably going to celebrate the AL East title in Yankee Stadium. Again, if that doesn’t irritate this Yankees group and give them a kick in the pants, I don’t know what will. The Yankees should treat this series like a postseason series, both the players and Aaron Boone, and not only because the Red Sox might celebrate a division title at Yankee Stadium. Because the Yankees haven’t clinched anything yet and because they’ve been playing mediocre baseball for two months now. They need a wake-up call. They won’t get a better one the rest of the season than this series.

2. What if the 2018 Yankees are the 2016 Astros? It’s not a perfect comparison because the 2016 Astros missed the postseason and the 2018 Yankees are a very good bet to make the postseason, but the idea is that the Astros broke out in 2015 and made the postseason, and rather than build on it in 2016, they took a step back and fell short of expectations. The Yankees broke out in 2017 and were expected to build on it in 2018, and so far they have! They’re going to have a better record — the Yankees have already matched last season’s win total with 13 games to play — and who knows, they might have a deeper postseason run ahead of them. The 2018 Yankees aren’t the team so many of us expected them to be though. Their stars haven’t been playing like stars and it seems like everyone is kinda waiting around for someone else to go do something to win a game, you know? Maybe this is their 2016 Astros season. Instead of building on last year’s success, they fall short of expectations, then really break out and become a dominant team next year. It would be lame, but it’s a reminder it’s not unprecedented for an up-and-coming team to have a hiccup year before it all comes together.

3. Aaron Judge could return as a hitter this series — that is not set in stone, though Boone said there’s a chance it’ll happen — and, if it does, I imagine it’ll happen tomorrow or the next day, not this afternoon. Sending him back out there against hard-throwing Nathan Eovaldi seems like a recipe for failure. Then again, there are only 13 games remaining this season. Judge has no more than 13 games to shake off two months of rust, so maybe they will let him play today, even if Eovaldi is a bad matchup (on paper). (For what it’s worth, George King says Judge won’t be in today’s lineup.) Whenever he does return, where does he hit? Do the Yankees stick Judge right back in his customary No. 2 lineup spot? Or do they start him a little lower in the lineup while he works to get back up to speed? I can see the argument either way. Even if he’s not hitting, Judge is still going to draw a ton of walks and get on base — when he was at his worst last August, he still had a .353 OBP — and that’ll work atop the lineup. On the other hand, you’d rather give your most productive hitters the most at-bats, especially since nothing has been clinched yet. My guess is Judge goes back into the No. 2 slot for two reasons. One, he’s still a good bet to get on base a lot. And two, he needs as many at-bats as possible, and if batting him second instead of sixth or seventh gets him a few extra at-bats the rest of the way, it’s worth it. Heck, maybe Judge should leadoff when he returns! I bet he hits second. That’s my guess.

(Jim McIsaac/Getty)

4. We’ve seen and heard (plenty) about pitchers having personal catchers. CC Sabathia has a personal third baseman. It’s Neil Walker. Walker has started at third base in Sabathia’s last two starts and in three of his last four starts, and, the one time he didn’t start at third, Miguel Andujar made an error and one other defensive miscue that wasn’t ruled an error, but was a play a big league infielder should make. Sabathia is a lefty who pitches in on right-handed batters a ton, and that means lots of batted balls pulled to the left side of the infield. Andujar is a pretty terrible defensive third baseman — I love the kid, but he is bad a third — so it makes sense to put a good defensive gloveman at the hot corner when Sabathia starts. I’m not sure Walker is the best way to go about it. He’s not really good at anything. His bat cooled down a while ago and he’s okay at best in the field, especially when it comes to range. I think the best thing to do is either go all-in on offense and start Andujar behind Sabathia, or go all-in on defense and start Adeiny Hechavarria. Walker is more of a half-measure. He’s not guaranteed to help you at the plate or in the field when he starts. At least you know Andujar can have an impact offensively and Hechavarria will make all the plays. I say pick one of those guys and put him at third base when Sabathia starts. In the words of Ron Swanson, never half-ass two things, whole-ass one thing. Either go with offense (Andujar) or defense (Hechavarria), not a little of both (Walker).

5. So at what point does Greg Bird get more at-bats? My guess is this weekend against the Orioles and their junky pitching staff at the earliest, because the Yankees will see lefties David Price and Eduardo Rodriguez in the final two games of this Red Sox series, and of course Luke Voit will be in the lineup for that. Voit has (somewhat predictably) cooled off though — he is 4-for-22 (.182) in his last seven games, though five walks and a hit-by-pitch give him a solid .357 OBP during that time — and the Yankees can’t just flat out ignore Bird. I mean, they can, but I wouldn’t advise it. He needs some at-bats before the end of the regular season. If Voit has a difficult series against the Red Sox, especially with lefties lined up to start two of the three games, I say give Bird another crack at the first base job and see where he’s at. And, if he’s still bad and swinging through 90 mph fastballs, the Yankees can always go back to Voit. (Still wish they’d traded for Josh Donaldson to play first, you guys.)

6. Players have a way of disappearing once rosters expand in September. Some guys just get lost in the shuffle and rarely play. Bird has started twice in the last 16 games, for example, though that has more to do his (and Voit’s) performance rather than a numbers crunch. A.J. Cole hasn’t pitched in eleven games and he’s pitched once in the last 16 games. Not necessarily a bad thing! Cole was pretty bad in late July and August. Clearly though, Luis Cessa and Tommy Kahnle are ahead of him in the bullpen pecking order now. Ronald Torreyes has played one inning in the last 14 games because Hechavarria has become the go-to reserve infielder thanks to his defense. I don’t know where I’m going with this. It’s just kinda funny how guys can go from regulars from April through August to being glued to the bench in September. Cole pitched in a lot of close games the last few weeks and now he’s nowhere to be found. Torreyes started a bunch of games at second base while Didi Gregorius was on the disabled list, and now he’s not even the main backup infielder. Baseball rosters can be weird sometimes.

9/18 to 9/20 Series Preview: Boston Red Sox

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(Adam Glanzman/Getty)

The Yankees opened their final homestand of the 2018 season by dropping two out of three to the Blue Jays, which isn’t great. Luckily, the A’s also lost two out of three this weekend – thank you, Tampa Bay (which is a sentence I feel strange writing) – so the Yankees remain two up in the loss column in the Wild Card race. And that’s something.

Next up: the Boston Red Sox.

The Last Time They Met

Do we have to talk about this?

The Yankees visited Boston for a four-game set in the beginning of August, the result of which was a sweep in favor of the bad guys. The Red Sox outscored the Yankees 28-13, and secured their position atop the American League East. Let’s try to find some positives from the series:

  • Giancarlo Stanton had three multi-hit games, and went 6-for-16 with two doubles and a home run overall.
  • Chance Adams had a decent big-league debut, going 5 inning and allowing three hits, three runs, and one walk, while striking out a couple.

That’s about it. Check out Katie’s Yankeemetrics post for more information.

Injury Report

Dustin Pedroia and Carson Smith are both done for the season. Matt Barnes is working his way back from hip inflammation, and has thrown a couple of bullpen sessions already – he could be back soon. Mookie Betts (oblique) and Eduardo Nunez (knee) are both banged-up, but neither is expected to hit the disabled list; and both should play this series.

Their Story So Far

The Red Sox are 103-47 with a +221 run differential, and have already clinched a postseason spot. Their magic number to clinch the AL East is two, so one win this series will do the trick. It’s only a matter of time before they clinch home field throughout the playoffs, as well. They lead the majors in runs scored, they’re third in runs allowed, and they’re seventh in FanGraphs’ defensive rating. This is a well-rounded team, to say the least.

The Lineup We Might See

While manager Alex Cora doesn’t have a reason to rush Betts back into the lineup, I’ll operate under the assumption that he’ll be there for at least two of the three games. Based on that:

  1. Mookie Betts, RF – .337/.431/.619, 29 HR, 28 SB, 180 OPS+
  2. Andrew Benintendi, LF – .287/.363/.467, 16 HR, 20 SB, 123 OPS+
  3. J.D. Martinez, DH – .328/.398/.628, 41 HR, 5 SB, 172 OPS+
  4. Xander Bogaerts, SS – .288/.359/.519, 21 HR, 8 SB, 134 OPS+
  5. Mitch Moreland, 1B – .246/.320/.440, 15 HR, 2 SB, 103 OPS+
  6. Ian Kinsler, 2B – .249/.308/.394, 14 HR, 15 SB, 91 OPS+
  7. Jackie Bradley, CF – .232/.310/.400, 12 HR, 16 SB, 91 OPS+
  8. Rafael Devers, 3B – .238/.295/.415, 17 HR, 5 SB, 90 OPS+
  9. Sandy Leon, C – .182/.240/.287, 5 HR, 1 SB, 42 OPS+

Steve Pearce (149 OPS+) will probably start at first against J.A. Happ, and Brock Holt (98 OPS+) could grab a start or two at any number of positions.

Price. (Maddie Meyer/Getty)

The Starting Pitchers We Will See

Tuesday (1:05 PM EST): LHP J.A. Happ vs. RHP Nathan Eovaldi

Eovaldi has been a solid pick-up for the Red Sox, pitching to a 4.17 ERA (105 ERA+) in 41.0 IP. His underlying numbers have slipped quite a bit, though, with his strikeout rate dipping by 7.8 percentage points and his walk rate jumping by 1.9 percentage points. It hasn’t hurt him (or the Red Sox) thus far, though. And he did throw 8 shutout innings against the Yankees on August 4.

Last outing (vs. TOR on 9/11) – 3.2 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 4 K

Wednesday (7:05 PM EST): RHP Luis Severino vs. LHP David Price

Price has been incredible since the All-Star break, pitching to the following line: 57.2 IP, 39 H, 9 BB, 60 K, 1.56 ERA, 2.25 FIP. That stretch includes his outing against the Yankees on August 5, where he allowed two runs in 6 IP. Price’s pitch selection hasn’t changed all that much on a game-by-game basis, so this is simply a matter of a talented pitcher getting hot at the right time, it seems.

Last outing (vs. TOR on 9/12) – 7.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 7 K

Thursday (7:05 PM EST): RHP Masahiro Tanaka vs. LHP Eduardo Rodriguez

This year constitutes something of a breakout for the 25-year-old Rodriguez, who has career-bests in ERA (3.53), strikeouts (26.3%), and walks (7.1%). The Yankees have seen him twice this year already; he shut them out for five innings back on May 10, and then allowed five runs in 6 innings on June 29. I’m hoping for more of the latter this time around.

Last outing (vs. TOR on 9/13) – 6.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 7 K

The Bullpen

Craig Kimbrel had a bout of mortality coming out of the All-Star break, allowing runs in five of six games at one point and seeing his ERA climb by 0.86 in the process. He has settled down since then, though, pitching to a 0.82 ERA in his last 11 appearances.

31-year-old rookie Ryan Brasier has come out of nowhere to be a lights out late inning option for the Red Sox, pitching to a 1.53 ERA (286 ERA+) in 29.1 IP since being called-up in June, and he’s been the team’s best non-Kimbrel reliever in Barnes’ absence. Drew Pomeranz was moved to the bullpen in August, and has struggled mightily in that role with a 5.79 ERA in 18.2 IP. Outside of those two, it’s the usual suspects – Heath Hembree, Joe Kelly, etc. The bullpen is probably the closest thing to a weakness the Red Sox have, as it has been largely middle of the pack since the break.

Who (Or What) To Watch

The Red Sox have close to nothing to play for at this point, whereas the Yankees are fighting for home field advantage in a one-game playoff. That’s a recipe for excitement, isn’t it?

Injury Updates: Aaron Judge, Aroldis Chapman

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(Hannah Foslien/Getty)

The Yankees have an off-day today — it is their final scheduled off-day of the 2018 regular season — but that doesn’t mean it was a quiet day at Yankee Stadium. The team announced a pair of injury rehab updates this afternoon. Here’s the latest:

  • Aaron Judge (wrist) took eleven at-bats against A.J. Cole, Chance Adams, and minor league lefty Phil Diehl*. He came through fine. Judge has been taking batting practice for about a week now. This was the first time he faced live pitching since landing on the disabled list two months ago.
  • Aroldis Chapman (knee) threw 22 pitches in a simulated game. He faced Kyle Higashioka and Tyler Wade. Chapman had no issues. He threw two bullpen sessions in recent days and this was the first time he faced hitters since going on the disabled list last month.

Judge was activated off the disabled list over the weekend, but only to play defense and run he bases. The Yankees have indicated he could return as a hitter sometime this week. I suppose his return date depends how he felt today and how he feels tomorrow. Chapman is expected back sometime this week as well.

* The Yankees must really like Diehl to bring him to New York for a dinky sim game. September call-up Stephen Tarpley could’ve thrown to Judge to have him face a lefty. Diehl, the team’s 27th round pick in 2016, had a 2.51 ERA (2.24 FIP) with 36.2% strikeouts and 7.7% walks in 75.1 innings at High-A and Double-A this year. He was on the Triple-A postseason roster as well.

The Yanks are fighting for the top wildcard spot because their best players haven’t been at their best for weeks

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(Mike Stobe/Getty)

Eleven losses in the last 19 games and recent series losses to the White Sox, Twins, and Blue Jays. The White Sox and Blue Jays series were at home too. The Yankees are 29-25 since the All-Star break and during that time they’ve a) bombed out of the AL East race, and b) seen their lead on the top wildcard spot trimmed from eight games to 1.5 games. It’s three games in the loss column when you include the tiebreaker, if that makes you feel better.

This weekend’s series loss the Blue Jays was not a bummer out-of-nowhere series loss like that Texas series back in May. It was more of the same from a generally underperforming Yankees squad that has become more and more lifeless as the season has progressed, to point where they are now thoroughly unexciting even while threatening the single-season home run record. How do you manage that? The 2018 Yankees have, somehow.

“You don’t want to go through it, especially when it’s late like this, but we’ve still got plenty of baseball left to get hot. It’s all about what team is hot,” said Aaron Judge, forever the optimist, to Bryan Hoch following yesterday’s game. “If we can get hot here in the last two weeks and take that into the playoffs, we’re going to be in a good position.”

The Yankees have used up pretty much the entire cushion they built in the first half, and now they’re in a mad dash to the finish to clinch homefield advantage in the Wild Card Game. They have 13 games remaining, ten of which will be played against the Rays (four games) and Red Sox (six games). The Athletics, meanwhile, have 12 games remaining. They’ll play nine of them against the Twins (three games) and Angels (six games). Yikes.

The Yankees are where they are right now because, quite simply, their best players have not had the seasons expected of them. Judge gets a pass here because he was so good before the fluke wrist injury that has sidelined him two months now. Everyone else though? This isn’t what anyone expected:

  • Gary Sanchez: Hitting .188/.284/.408 (87 wRC+) in 334 plate appearances overall and is 9-for-47 (.191) since returning from the disabled list (the second time).
  • Luis Severino: A 3.46 ERA (2.99 FIP) in 179.1 innings isn’t bad by any means, but he has been one of the worst pitchers in baseball (6.35 ERA) since the All-Star break.
  • Giancarlo Stanton: Not counting his partial rookie year, he’s on pace for his third worst AVG (.265), second worst OBP (.341), third worst SLG (.501), and second worst wRC+ (125 wRC+).

Dellin Betances, the team’s best reliever, has been generally awesome this season but has had some hiccups lately, including yesterday. Didi Gregorius has been great overall despite that ugly May and the recent heel injury. Masahiro Tanaka has been very good overall and ace-like for more than two months now. The first half wasn’t pretty though. Sonny Gray? Oy vey. Don’t even get me started on him.

On one hand, the fact the Yankees are 91-58 despite Sanchez being terrible, Severino’s second half, Stanton falling far short of expectations, and all that other stuff tells you how strong the rest of the roster has been. Where would the Yankees be without Miguel Andujar and Gleyber Torres? Good gravy. I don’t even want to think about it. Aaron Hicks, David Robertson, Jonathan Holder, J.A. Happ … they’ve all helped pick up the slack.

On the other hand, the American League is so top heavy and competitive — the four best records in baseball belong to AL teams, and the Indians are not one of those four despite already clinching the AL Central title — that the Yankees have no shot at doing anything meaningful in the postseason without getting more from their stars. They might not host the Wild Card Game without getting more from those guys.

Whose fault is it the Yankees’ top players are underperforming? The blame should always start with the players. In Severino’s case, it’s possible he’s feeling the effects of last year’s career-high workload. Wouldn’t surprise me one bit. Stanton is presumably dealing with a ton of pressure in his first season with the team, which would be a lame excuse, but an excuse nonetheless. Gary? He doesn’t have an excuse. Unless he’s been hiding an injury and playing hurt all year, there’s no good reason for him to have a season like this.

Of course, there were times Sanchez and Severino and Stanton produced at a truly elite rate earlier this year. Severino was brilliant in the first half. Stanton hit .288/.360/.549 (142 wRC+) from May 1st through August 31st and did much of that with one good hamstring. Sanchez hit .292/.396/.681 (185 wRC+) during a 31-game span from mid-April through mid-May. That success was a long time ago though. Same for Severino.

Look around at the other top AL contenders and they have key players having the best seasons of their career. Mookie Betts and J.D. Martinez for the Red Sox. Francisco Lindor and Jose Ramirez with the Indians. Alex Bregman with the Astros. Matt Chapman with the Athletics. Not necessarily career years, those guys might get even better going forward — that is especially true for Lindor, Bregman, and Chapman — but this is their best season to date.

The Yankees don’t have a single player like that. Maybe Gregorius and Hicks? I mean, yeah, definitely Gregorius and Hicks, but they’ve been more comfortably above-average than star-caliber. Imagine how good the Yankees would be if Sanchez and Stanton were performing up to their career norms, and Didi and Hicks were doing what they’re doing? Imagine how much easier it would be to deal with Severino’s struggles if Gray wasn’t a mess?

What’s done is done. Can’t go back and change it. The only thing the Yankees can do it be better going forward, and the first step in being a better team is getting the best players to actually be the best players. We all love Andujar and Gleyber. Things were much better when they were like the fourth and fifth best players on the team though, not the best and second best. Those two have done a lot of heavy lifting lately. The Yankees’ best players haven’t played up to snuff for weeks now, in some cases months, and the result is a small margin for error in the standings.

“We’ve got to play better, clearly. We’re not playing our best right now, but the history of this game is littered with stories of teams that went into the playoffs in different scenarios — limping, playing great — the bottom line is you’ve got to be playing right when it counts,” said Aaron Boone to Coley Harvey following yesterday’s game. “Don’t mistake that for, ‘This is okay.’ Still believe at my core that we have everyone in that room to do something special. We’re getting pushed around a little bit right now because it’s difficult and we’re not quite at our best. This thing ain’t even close to done.”

Yankeemetrics: Getting late early in the Bronx (Sept. 14-16)

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(Newsday)

#TanakaTime is Terrific
Back in the Bronx for the first time in nearly two weeks, the Yankees kicked off their final homestand of the season with a stress-free rout of the Blue Jays. The 11-0 score was their largest shutout win since a 15-0 whitewashing of the Mets on June 14, 2009. This was the 630th game in the Yankees-Blue Jays rivalry, and the only other time they posted a larger shutout win was September 25, 1977 at Exhibition Stadium in Toronto.

The Yankees enjoyed an early offensive eruption, scoring five runs in the first and had an 8-0 lead after three innings. This was their fourth game putting up a five-spot (or more) in the first inning; only the Diamondbacks (7) have done that more times this season.

Andrew McCutchen had a huge game, going 3-for-3 with two walks and a solo homer in the fifth inning, his first career home run at Yankee Stadium. It was his fourth game in 2018 reaching base at least five times, including a home run — that’s the most such games in MLB this season.

Masahiro Tanaka tossed another gem, bolstering his candidacy to be the Wild Card Game starter in October. He threw six scoreless innings with eight strikeouts and extended his current scoreless streak to 20 innings, the second-longest of his career behind a 21 1/3 inning stretch earlier this season in July and August.

According to STATS, Tanaka is the first Yankee pitcher with multiple scoreless streaks of 20-plus innings within a season since Ron Guidry in 1983.

Tanaka is now 3-0 with a 0.43 ERA and 24-to-3 strikeout-to-walk ratio in three September starts, but his consistent brilliance actually extends back further to mid-July. In 10 games since the All-Star break, Tanaka has a 2.09 ERA with 69 strikeouts in 64 2/3 innings. That’s the third lowest ERA among AL pitchers with at least 40 innings, trailing Blake Snell (1.40) and David Price (1.56).

(Getty)

Seven not enough
It was too little, too late on Saturday as the Yankees late-inning comeback bid fell just short in a 8-7 loss. Down 8-1 entering the bottom of the seventh, they scored six runs in the frame but ultimately the hole they dug themselves into was too too deep. This was the third time in the last two seasons that the Yankees put up a six-spot (or more) in a single inning and lost the game. Coincidentally or not, the Yankee starter in each of the three games was CC Sabathia.

They also somehow managed to lose the game despite hitting a quartet of homers, giving them an 11-3 record this season when going deep four times in a game. The good? The 14 games with at least four longballs is easily the most in MLB this year (no other team is in double digits). The bad? The .786 win percentage in those games is the second-worst in MLB this season (min. 5 games), behind the Phillies (6-2, .750), and the three losses are more than any other team.

When you add in the fact that they had 17 baserunners and still lost … the only other time in the last 10 seasons they managed to lose a game like that (at least 4 homers and 17 baserunners) was a 10-8 loss to the Angels on July 15, 2012.

Two of the four dingers were hit by Didi Gregorius, his 25th and 26th of the season, breaking his own single-season home run franchise record for shortstops that he set last year. Didi and Francisco Lindor are the only MLB shortstops with 25 or more homers in both 2017 and 2018.

It was also Gregorius’ fifth multi-homer game of the season, the most on the Yankees. The list of Yankee left-handed batters with five or more multi-homer games in a season is a fun one:

  • Didi Gregorius (2018)
  • Jason Giambi (2005)
  • Tino Martinez (1997)
  • Matt Nokes (1991)
  • Roger Maris (1960, ‘61)
  • Yogi Berra (1952)
  • Lou Gehrig (4 times)
  • Babe Ruth (8 times)

Miguel Andujar did his best to deliver an improbable win with a seventh-inning grand slam that made it a one-run game, his second grand slam this season (his other one also came against the Jays on June 5). Andujar is the fifth rookie in franchise history to hit multiple grand slams in a season, joining Russ Derry (1945), Yogi Berra (1947), Shane Spencer (1998) and Hideki Matsui (2003).

And, at 23 years old, #MiggyMantle is the youngest Yankee with a pair of grand slams in a season since … a 20-year-old Mickey Mantle hit two in 1952.

(AP)

Bad Betances
It was reverse-deja-vu for the Yankees on Sunday: this time they raced out to an early lead, but an eighth-inning Dellin Betances meltdown gave them the same end-game result as Saturday — a dismal and disappointing loss to a mediocre Blue Jays team.

Following his two-run, four-hit disaster outing, Betances has now allowed six runs in his last seven appearances. In his previous 39 appearances dating back to mid-May, Betances gave up three runs over 38 2/3 innings.

Dellin Betances Since May 12
IP Runs ERA Hits Opp BA
Last 7 Games 7 6 7.71 9 .310
Previous 39 Games 38.2 3 0.70 13 .103

Entering the day, the Yankees were 70-3 when leading at the start of the eighth inning; only the A’s (65-0) had a better record or fewer losses. The only other time this season the Yankees lost at home when taking a lead into the eighth was August 30 against the Tigers.

The Yankees are now 6-8 (.429) in September. That would be their worst regular-season September/October win percentage since … 2000, when they went 13-18 (.419). Fortunately, they had a slightly better record in October in the postseason that year.