River Avenue Blues

Yankeemetrics: Baltimore Split (July 31-August 1)

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(AP)

Ace Tanaka
Backed by another standout performance from Masahiro Tanaka, the Yankees took the first game of this two-game set with a mostly drama-free 6-3 win. Coupled with their final two wins in the Kansas City series over the weekend, it was the first time they’d won three or more games in a row since a four-game win streak from June 18-21. The Yankees finished July with a .281/.355/.468 batting line, the first time they reached each of those numbers in the month of July since 2009 (.288/.370/.483).

(USA Today)

Tanaka battled through a shaky 31-pitch first inning but then settled down and held the Orioles scoreless over six strong innings. It was his second straight stellar outing, following his three-hit, nine-strikeout shutout of the Rays last week. Those back-to-back gems made Tanaka the second Yankee ever to pitch consecutive games with at least eight strikeouts, no earned runs and three hits or fewer allowed. The other? David Cone on April 6 and 11, 1997.

After a rough first couple months, Tanaka is rounding into ace-like form and has been super-dominant in his last five starts dating back to (and including) the game he injured his hamstrings:

Tanaka went 2-0 with a 1.75 ERA in July, striking out 27 batters in 25 2/3 innings. He’s the first Yankee starter with at least 25 strikeouts and a 1.75 ERA or better in the month of July since CC Sabathia in 2011 (0.92 ERA, 50 strikeouts in 39 innings).

Another dark, cloudy, rainy day in the Bronx
The Yankees mini-streak of beating up on bad teams came to a screeching halt on Wednesday as they lost 7-5 to the lowly Orioles. It is the first time in at least the last 15 seasons that the Yankees lost a game after the All-Star break to a team that entered the day with a win percentage below .300. Welp.

They were playing from behind the entire game — and trailed 7-1 after three innings — thanks to another disaster outing by Sonny Gray. This was the first time the Orioles scored seven or more runs in the first three innings of a game against the Yankees since June 29, 2013. The starting pitcher for the Orioles in that game was Zach Britton.

(Newsday/Jim McIsaac)

He got the hook with two outs in the third after coughing up seven runs on eight hits. It was the first time in his career that he allowed at least seven runs in an outing of fewer than three innings pitched. The Yankees are now 10-11 in games started by Gray and 58-27 in games started by everyone else.

It was the fourth time in 2018 he gave up at least five earned runs and got fewer than 12 outs in a game at Yankee Stadium. No other Yankee has ever pitched four such games like that in the Bronx in a season. It was also his sixth game this season with those numbers at any venue. And — you guessed it! — no other Yankee has ever compiled six games of five-plus earned runs allowed and fewer than four innings pitched in a single season. And August just started.

(AP)

Gleyber Torres — who finished with a career-high four RBI — did his best to keep the Yankees within striking distance, crushing a solo homer in the second inning and a three-run blast in the ninth. Some #FunFacts to celebrate Gleyber and spice up an otherwise miserable loss:

  • His second shot was his seventh home run with two men on base this season, the most of any player in the majors.
  • The only other Yankee second baseman with at least two homers and four RBI in a game against the Orioles/Browns franchise was Joe Gordon on August 25, 1939.
  • This was his second career multi-homer game, and at the age of 21 years and 231 days old, he became the youngest player in franchise history with two multi-homer games in a season.

No more retirement talk: CC Sabathia plans to pitch in 2019

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(Presswire)

A few weeks ago CC Sabathia said he would retire if the Yankees won the World Series, which is a very real possibility. However, if you listen to the R2C2 podcast at all, you know Sabathia has kinda been waffling on that retirement talk recently. He’s made the “I’m gonna retire if we win the World Series” thing seem more spur of the moment than a well thought out plan.

Well, last week, Sabathia essentially took back the retirement talk and told reporters he intents to pitch in 2019. Why? “The team is going to London (and) it’s free,” he jokingly told Pete Caldera. The Yankees will play two games in London against the Red Sox next June and Sabathia has been talking about wanting to make the trip since it was announced. So there you go. A good reason to come back.

In all seriousness though, Sabathia told Jon Morosi he does want to play one more season, though it’ll depend on the health of his right knee more than anything. From Morosi:

“I’m [going] start to start,” Sabathia said in Cleveland last weekend, prior to his final start of the first half. “I go out one start and feel like I can pitch five more years. I go out another start and I’m [feeling] done. But if I can stay healthy — if my knee holds up — hopefully I’ll play one more.”

Sabathia’s knee is bone-on-bone at this point and he received a lubrication injection over the All-Star break to help get him through the season. That’s nothing new. He’s been getting lubrication injections in the offseason and during the All-Star break for a few years now. All those years of that big body coming down on that right (landing) knee have taken their toll. Sabathia’s even said he’ll probably need the knee replaced once he retires.

Anyway, the just turned 38-year-old Sabathia has a 3.53 ERA (4.55 FIP) in 104.2 innings so far this season. He spent a little bit of time on the disabled list earlier this year for a hamstring issue, not the knee. Sabathia is, once again, a soft contact master. He has the second highest soft contact rate (25.9%) and the third lowest average exit velocity allowed (84.7 mph) in baseball. That’s who he is now. His days of overpowering hitters are over.

As long as the knee holds up, Sabathia returning to the Yankees is a no-brainer to me. The Yankees will need the pitching — Jordan Montgomery is not due back from Tommy John surgery until late next season, remember — and Sabathia will come on another cheap one-year contract. He’s a leader in the clubhouse and he’s shown that, even this late in his career, he can be effective in the tough pitcher’s environment that is Yankee Stadium and the AL East.

And for Sabathia himself, why in the world would he go anywhere else? His family lives in the area full-time and the Yankees will give him as good a chance to win as any team in baseball. Heck, Sabathia is talking about re-signing with the Yankees like it’s a foregone conclusion. He wants to go to London next season! Unless he signs with the Red Sox, no other team offers that opportunity. As long as the knee is okay, a new one-year deal is a no-brainer. As far as I’m concerned, the Yankees should give CC one-year contracts as long as he wants to keep pitching, Andy Pettitte style.

For now, the Yankees and Sabathia have to worry about getting through the 2018 season first. They’re trying to catch the Red Sox in the AL East and that’s something that starts tonight, when Sabathia gets the ball in the first of four at Fenway Park. Time to stop treading water and make a move. Once the season ends, it seems like a new contract with Sabathia should come together quickly. Let’s worry about everything that has to happen between now and then first.

DotF: Albert Abreu gets rocked in GCL rehab game

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FanGraphs ranked all the minor leaguers traded at the deadline. The highest ranked former Yankee? 3B Brandon Drury! Didn’t see that coming. He was fourth. Huh. Among the actual prospects the Yankees traded, OF Billy McKinney (No. 18) is a few spots above RHP Dillon Tate (No. 20).

Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders (6-2 loss to Rochester)

  • LF Mark Payton: 1-3, 1 BB
  • 2B Ronald Torreyes: 1-4, 1 K
  • DH Luke Voit: 0-3 — was lifted for a pinch-hitter in the eighth inning … DJ Eberle says Voit and RHP Luis Cessa are being called up … I assume Voit will replace Shane Robinson … as for Cessa, I guess it means J.A. Happ to the disabled list with his hand, foot, and mouth disease? … whatever it is, it has to be a disabled list situation because Cessa hasn’t been down ten days yet
  • 1B Mike Ford: 1-4, 1 R, 2 K
  • SS Abi Avelino: 0-4, 2 K
  • RHP Erik Swanson: 4.1 IP, 8 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, 1 HR, 3/4 GB/FB — 58 of 86 pitches were strikes (67%) … gave up a homer to Tyler Austin … two homers in two days for Austin against his former teammates
  • RHP Tommy Kahnle: 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 K — eight pitches, seven strikes

[Read more…]

Orioles 7, Yankees 5: It wasn’t as close as the score would lead you to believe

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I’m sorry, which team is the one that gave up on the season? It sure as hell didn’t look like the Orioles. Terrible pitching, sloppy defense, listless offense. The Yankees deserved the ass-whooping the last place Orioles gave them Wednesday afternoon. The final score was 7-5. The Yankees are the more talented team pretty much every time they take the field. It would be nice if they started playing like it.

(Presswire)

A Sonny Disaster
A truly pathetic showing from Sonny Gray. The Orioles have given up on the season. They traded their best hitter (Manny Machado) and another guy who was probably no worse than their third best hitter (Jonathan Schoop), and they were winless in their last eleven road games. In those eleven straight road losses, the Orioles scored more than two runs only five times, and more than three runs only three times. And Gray didn’t make it out of the third inning.

The second inning is when everything fell apart and, as poorly as Gray pitched, it was not all on him. Gleyber Torres was late covering first base on Caleb Joseph’s bunt and the Yankees were unable to get the free out the terrible O’s were trying to give them. Then, on Renato Nunez’s double to right, Shane Robinson misread the ball and initially broke in, which allowed it to sail over his head. I’m not sure he would’ve caught it anyway, but it was ugly.

As for Gray, he was up in the strike zone with everything. He was behind in the count a bunch (as usual) and, when he had to come over the plate, he really came over the plate. The action pitches in that second inning:

The highest pitch is ball four to walk Chris Davis, putting runners on first and second with one out. The second highest pitch was Joseph’s bunt. He reached base to loaded the bases with no outs when Torres was slow covering first. The third highest pitch was the hanging curveball Trey Mancini pulled to right field to drive in the game’s first run. Then there’s a bunch of pitches middle-middle and the Orioles made Gray pay.

Gray allowed two more runs in the third inning, though he was only on the mound for the first. He gave up a solo homer to Mancini on another hanging curveball. A walk and a single later, the Orioles had runners on the corners and Gray was deservedly booed off the mound. One of those inherited runners scored on a ground ball because Torres was again slow to cover a base, this time second. Gleyber wasn’t at second for the inning-ending force and Didi Gregorius didn’t have much of a chance to get the out at first. He tried, but the throw was too late.

Sonny’s final line: 2.2 IP, 8 H, 7 R, 7 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, 1 HR on 57 pitches. With a Game Score of 12, this was the worst start of Gray’s career. For real. Against an Orioles team that has traded its best players and might be the worst team baseball has seen since the 2003 Tigers. Robinson broke the wrong way on Nunez’s double and Torres made two lackadaisical plays, but Gray made mistake pitch after mistake pitch, and a crappy Orioles lineup roughed him up. Abysmal.

It is now August 1st and Sonny Gray has a 5.56 ERA (4.42 FIP) in 103.2 innings this season. Ninety-one pitchers have thrown 100 innings this season and only four have a higher ERA than Gray: Lucas Giolito (6.26), Jason Hammel (5.95), Alex Cobb (5.83), and Felix Hernandez (5.58). The Yankees have been patient — very patient — with Gray, but they’re in a division race and this can not continue. Put Lance Lynn in the rotation and move Sonny into low-leverage relief work. Sending him out there every fifth day, even against bad teams, just isn’t working.

(Presswire)

Too Little, Too Late
The Orioles put five runs on the the board in the top of the second and the Yankees, to their credit, tried to make a game of it in the bottom half. Torres hit a leadoff homer into the short porch, Greg Bird bunted against the shift (again), then Austin Romine and Brett Gardner picked up singles to load the bases with two outs. Romine blooped his into center. Gardner beat out an infield hit. So a homer, a bloop single, and two infield singles in the inning.

Anyway, the bases were loaded with two outs, and up to that point, the Yankees were hitless in their last 14 at-bats with the bases loaded (with four sac flies). Their last bases loaded hit was July 11th against the Orioles, coincidentally enough. Giancarlo Stanton extended the hitless streak to 15 at-bats with an inning-ending strikeout. The regression to the mean with the bases loaded will be glorious.

The Yankees scattered four baserunners from the third through seventh innings — Miguel Andujar and Romine reached on back-to-back errors in the fourth, then Shane Robinson grounded into an inning-ending double play — but, in the eighth, a bloop single and two walks loaded the bases, again with no outs. Andujar broke that 15 at-bat hitless streak with the bases loaded with a single to right. Hooray! Then Romine struck out and pinch-hitter Neil Walker hit into an inning-ending double play. Sigh.

In the ninth, when the game was largely out of reach, three straight Yankees reached base with two outs and two strikes. Gregorius singled, Aaron Hicks went from 0-2 to a walk, and Torres clocked a three-run home run into the left field seats. Second homer of the ballgame. Homers are cool and I’ll take it, especially since Torres has been scuffling since coming off the disabled list, but all that home run did was make the game seem closer than it really was.

(Presswire)

Leftovers
Welcome to the Yankees, Lance Lynn. He came out of the bullpen and threw 4.1 scoreless innings after Gray bowed out early. His final line: 4.1 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 5 K on 71 pitches. This was Lynn’s day to start with the Twins, so he was on normal rest and able to soak up innings. Also, Lynn threw 70 (!) fastballs among his 71 pitches, so the Yankees haven’t turned him on to the anti-fastball lifestyle yet.

Every starter had a hit except Robinson. The No. 9 spot in the lineup managed to make six outs in four plate appearances. Gregorius had three hits, Torres had his two homers, Andujar had two hits, and everyone else had one hit. Torres and Greg Bird drew back-to-back walks in that eighth inning mini-rally and Hicks drew a walk to set up Gleyber’s three-run bomb. Too little, too late.

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


Source: FanGraphs

Up Next
A big four-game series at Fenway Park is next. The Yankees have to make up ground this weekend if they want to win the AL East, or, at the very least, they have to split and not lose ground. I would much prefer gaining ground. Chris Sale was placed on the disabled list earlier this week and will not start Thursday night’s series opener as scheduled. It’ll be lefty Brian Johnson instead. CC Sabathia will be on the mound for the Yankees.

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.

Thoughts following the 2018 trade deadline

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The new lefty. (Presswire)

The 2018 non-waiver trade deadline has come and gone. The Yankees made six trades within the last week, five of which directly impacted the MLB roster, though they did not sneak in one last move prior to yesterday’s 4pm ET deadline. Lame! Not a big deal though. Let’s get to some deadline thoughts.

1. Perhaps my favorite thing about the trade deadline moves is that they Yankees fully committed to Miguel Andujar at third base. He doesn’t have to look over his shoulder at Brandon Drury anymore. The Yankees originally acquired Drury because they weren’t completely sold on Andujar — I could be completely wrong here, though that’s what it seemed like to me, and I don’t think it was unreasonable — and now, five months later, Drury gets moved and Andujar is the man at the hot corner. He’s earned it too. The kid’s hitting .292/.324/.497 (120 wRC+) with 45 extra-base hits in 94 games. Yeah, I wish he walked more and I wish he had more range defensively, but there’s so much to like about Andujar. The Yankees made their third base pick and said here you go kid, the position is yours the rest of the season while we’re in this division race. They’re showing a lot of confidence in him. Will that confidence still exist when Manny Machado becomes a free agent after the season? We’ll see. For now, the Yankees just gave Andujar a big vote of confidence. I love it.

2. As for things I didn’t love, I didn’t love effectively salary dumping Adam Warren — salary dumping him on another AL contender, no less — and I still don’t love it even after the other shoe dropped and the Yankees added Lance Lynn. Warren’s pretty good! Has been for a while and I don’t really trust A.J. Cole to fill that role. That said, what I think doesn’t matter. The Yankees made that series of moves for two reasons. One, Lynn is better able to move into the rotation than Warren, if necessary. And two, they probably believe there isn’t much of a difference between Warren and Lynn as a reliever. Lynn’s numbers as a starter this season aren’t great (5.10 ERA and 4.72 FIP), but let him air it out for an inning or two in relief and good things could happen. We’re only talking about maybe 20 innings the rest of the season, so any difference between Warren and Lynn is unlikely to be significant, and the fact Lynn can start makes it worth it.

3. Speaking of Lynn starting, my guess is it’ll happen quite a bit in the coming weeks, especially once rosters expand in September. Heck, the Yankees might go with a full blown six-man rotation in September. Last night’s game kicked off a 20 games in 20 days stretch and I’d put money on Lynn making a start or two during this stretch to give the other starters a little extra rest. Same when the Yankees play 14 games in 13 days in a few weeks. Luis Severino might be hitting a wall here in the second half, and any little bit of extra rest the Yankees can give CC Sabathia and Masahiro Tanaka is worthwhile. The balancing act won’t be easy — how do you keep Lynn stretched out to start when he’s sitting in the bullpen for weeks at a time? — but I don’t think this was a spur of the moment trade. The Yankees have a plan in place. They brought Lynn in specifically because he can start and relieve, and they already have an idea how they’ll use him the rest of the season.

4. No team in baseball throws fewer fastballs than the Yankees. Going into last night’s game their 44.8% fastball rate was the lowest in baseball. The Indians were a distant second at 49.4%. Bendy pitches are hard to hit, so the Yankees throw a lot of them. Now here are the pitchers with the highest fastball rates in baseball this year:

  1. Bartolo Colon: 79.0%
  2. Lance Lynn: 76.7%
  3. J.A. Happ: 74.5%
  4. Junior Guerra: 70.8%
  5. Trevor Williams: 70.2%

Hmmm. The anti-fastball Yankees just picked up two of the most extreme fastball pitchers in the game. Happ threw 78.1% fastballs the other day, so the Yankees haven’t changed him (yet). And I don’t think they will. Same with Lynn. They are fastball pitchers. They succeed by throwing a lot of fastballs. Why change it? They’re rentals. Stick with what works for them. I don’t think the Yankees made a concerted effort to add fastball pitchers at the trade deadline. I think that’s just kinda how the market shook out. If nothing else, Happ and Lynn will bring a much different dynamic to the pitching staff.

5. I am very glad the Yankees were able to keep Clint Frazier. Yes, his post-concussion migraines and the fact there was no controllable high-end starter available played a big part in that, but I’m still glad Frazier was able to stick around. “He survived this deadline and he survived the winter because we do value him,” said Brian Cashman to Bryan Hoch yesterday. It’s still unclear where exactly Frazier fits long-term — letting Brett Gardner go and sticking Clint in left field next year is the easy move, though I’d bet the farm on Gardner being a Yankees in 2019 — though there’s no need to figure that out now. Let him get healthy and get some at-bats before the season ends, then evaluate things in the offseason and Spring Training. I’m just glad Frazier is still around. Gary Sanchez joined the lineup in 2016 and had an impact. Aaron Judge did it last year. Gleyber Torres and Andujar are doing it this year. Frazier can do it next year. It’s fun to think about. Very happy Clint is still a Yankee. The more young talent, the better.

Clint. (Presswire)

6. The Yankees really cleaned up their 40-man roster at the deadline. They traded four prospects who were going to have to be added to the 40-man after the season (Cody Carroll, Caleb Frare, Josh Rogers, Dillon Tate) as well as three guys who figured to end up on the 40-man chopping block (Tyler Austin, Gio Gallegos, Billy McKinney). That creates flexibility during the season and will also make life easy when Rule 5 Draft protection times in November. I know it’s easy to say most Rule 5 Draft picks don’t stick, which is absolutely true, but there is a lot of selection bias there. The best players, the ones with the best chances to stick, are either added to the 40-man roster or traded ahead of time. Guys like Carroll and Rogers and Tate have a much better chance of sticking as a Rule 5 Draft pick than someone like, say, Anyelo Gomez or Nestor Cortes. At the moment the Yankees have one open 40-man spot with two more easily available by dropping Ryan Bollinger — Bollinger was called up yesterday because Lynn had yet to arrive and the Yankees didn’t want to play with a 24-man roster last night — and sliding Jordan Montgomery to the 60-day DL. A few weeks ago the 40-man roster was real tight and the Yankees were at risk of losing useful players for nothing on waivers. That is no longer a concern.

7. What are the Yankees going to do with those 40-man roster spots? Well, that remains to be seen, but I absolutely expect one of them to go to Justus Sheffield before the end of the season. He might only be a September call-up to work low-leverage spots out of the bullpen — the Happ and Lynn additions make it less likely Sheffield is needed as a starter now, and I am totally cool with that — and that’s fine. Letting a young pitcher get his feet wet as a reliever in September is a-okay with me. Point is, we’re going to see Sheffield in the big leagues at some point soon. We could also see some other young pitchers get those 40-man roster spots in September, like maybe Chance Adams or Stephen Tarpley, but Sheffield is the big one. He’s the best prospect in the organization and anytime you’re talking about a lefty with mid-90s gas and a wipeout slider pitching out of the bullpen, there’s going to be a chance for him to carve out a role quickly. Hey, maybe Sheffield can be the Yankees’ version of the 2002 Francisco Rodriguez. K-Rod came up as a September call-up in 2002, completely dominated, and the Angels had no choice but to carry him on the postseason roster. That’d be cool, though the Yankees have enough quality arms in the bullpen. We’ll see. I do think Sheffield is coming up at some point. The deadline moves helped clear a 40-man spot.

8. The Yankees traded a surprising among out of pitching depth at the deadline, huh? Warren, Gallegos, Carroll, and Chasen Shreve were all traded away. Three dudes with big league time this year and a fourth who was a phone call away. Rogers and I suppose even Tate could’ve been call-up options if necessary. Instead, the Yankees traded them all away. And to be fair, the Yankees did get three big league pitchers in return. It’s just kinda weird to see so much MLB pitching depth traded away. This tells me two things. One, the Yankees feel pretty darn good about kids like Sheffield and Adams and Tarpley as call-up options. And two, Tommy Kahnle is not a forgotten man. Reports indicate Kahnle is still more 95-96 mph with Triple-A Scranton rather than 98-99 mph like last year, and that is kinda worrisome, but 95-96 mph is still plenty good enough to get outs. Gallegos was the primary up-and-down reliever this year. Whenever the Yankees needed a 26th man for a doubleheader or just an extra arm for a few days, he got the call. I think Kahnle might be that guy now. That the Yankees traded away a decent amount of pitching depth and still have a guy like Kahnle — even a slightly reduced version of Kahnle — in reserve at Triple-A is pretty awesome.

9. Thanks to the recent trades the Yankees have maxed out their 2018-19 international bonus pool at $8,721,125. They’ve already signed a bunch of international free agents and it sounds like more signings are coming. The Yankees could be gearing up for a run at much ballyhooed Cuban outfielder Victor Victor Mesa — he’s still waiting to be cleared by MLB, so his signing is not imminent — though I think the Yankees traded for all that bonus money with the intention of using it on other players. Other teams are going to have more bonus money to offer Victor² and I will always bet on the team that offers the most money getting the player. Shohei Ohtani was a very unique case. Cuban players have a history of going to the highest bidder and that is totally cool. That’s what I’d do. Because of that, I think the Yankees have other signings lined up for all that bonus money. Either way, the Yankees typically do very well in Latin America, so I’m excited to see where they go. This trade deadline was as much as bolstering the MLB roster with Britton, Happ, and Lynn as it was about adding future talent to the organization through international free agency.

10. The trade deadline has passed but that does not mean the deal-making is over. Trades are still possible in August through trade waivers and, because the Yankees did not get the right-handed hitting outfielder they were said to be seeking, there’s a chance they’ll be active on trade rumors. A righty hitting outfielder and a catcher. Those are the two items atop the shopping list right now. The Yankees have two obstacles to navigate with trade waivers. One, only the Red Sox have a lower waiver priority. The Indians and Astros and Mariners and every other non-Red Sox team can place a claim to block a player from going to the Yankees. Happens all the time. At the same time, the Yankees can block a player from going to the Red Sox, so that’s cool. And two, the Yankees have to watch their claims because of the luxury tax plan. When you claim a player, you have to be prepared in case the other team dumps him and his contract on you, even when it seems unlikely. The Yankees won’t be able to claim Andrew McCutchen because the Giants might dump the remainder of his $14.75M salary on them and blow up the luxury tax plan. Making trades in August is always more complicated than making trades before the deadline, but it’s not impossible. The Yankees just have to watch their claims this year because of the luxury tax plan, which may put them at a disadvantage.

Yankees 6, Orioles 3: Tanaka and Andujar lead Yanks to a win

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Four wins in the first five games of this six-game homestand against the two worst teams in baseball. The Yankees are taking care of business. They won Tuesday’s series opener 6-3 over the Orioles and are a season high 31 games over .500 at 68-37.

(Jim McIsaac/Getty)

Six Scoreless For Tanaka
Make it 17 consecutive scoreless innings for Masahiro Tanaka, who is now sitting on a 3.84 ERA (4.42 FIP) in 98.1 innings. The numbers are starting to look respectable. Hope this means a big second half is on the way. This was the third straight strong outing for Tanaka, who’s looked much better since the dual hamstring injuries than he did before landing on the disabled list.

Things did get dicey in the first inning, however. Jace Peterson took a breaking ball to the foot and Adam Jones walked on four pitches, then Tanaka threw a first pitch ball to Mark Trumbo. Six straight pitches out of the zone. Tanaka was able to rebound to strike out Trumbo and get Chris Davis to roll over on a grounder into the shift. A 31-pitch first inning was not ideal, but it was scoreless, so I’ll take it.

Tanaka settled down after that first inning and retired 16 of the final 20 batters he faced. He allowed a leadoff double in the third inning, then struck out the next three batters. He allowed a one-out single in the fifth, then got an inning-ending double play. He allowed a leadoff walk and a one-out single in the sixth, then struck out the next two batters. Tanaka’s final line: 6 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 8 K on 105 pitches. Good work, Masahiro.

(Jim McIsaac/Getty)

Building The Lead
A leadoff walk, a one-out walk, and a two-run single gave the Yankees a quick 1-0 first inning lead against former Yankees farmhand Yefry Ramirez. The Yankees were in danger of stranding the two runners, but Gleyber Torres came through with the two-out, two-strike single back up the middle to score Brett Gardner from second base. Gleyber has struggled a bit since returning from the disabled list. Fortunately he came through there.

The Yankees added a second run in the third inning on a little flare single to left field by Didi Gregorius. It was more of a bloop than a flare, but whatever. Brett Gardner singled to center, stole second, then distracted shortstop Tim Beckham on Giancarlo Stanton’s ground ball and forced an error. Or at least I think he distracted Beckham and forced the error. He had to jump over the ball and it didn’t look like Beckham saw it well. Good inning for Gardner either way.

In the fifth inning, the Yankees finally broke the game open. Stanton took a pitch to back, Gregorius pulled a single to left, and Aaron Hicks worked a walk after Ramirez made him look pretty silly in his first two at-bats. Hicks finally picked up the changeup third time around. Anyway, Gleyber popped up the first pitch with the bases loaded and no outs (argh), though Greg Bird picked him up with (what else?) a sacrifice fly. The Bronx Sacrifice Fliers.

The Torres pop-up and Bird sac fly meant the Yankees were dangerously close to turning a bases loaded, no outs situation into just one run. That’s been happening a little too often lately. Fortunately, that did not happen. Ramirez left a fastball out over the plate to Miguel Andujar and Andujar drove it into the left field seats for a three-run home run and a 6-0 lead. The kid’s hands are lightning fast.

Believe it or not, that was Andujar’s first homer since June 29th. His over-the-fence pop disappeared for a while but he continued to hit. In 24 games and 94 plate appearances between that June 29th homer and his three-run homer in this game, Andujar still hit .322/.372/.402 (113 wRC+). The dingers weren’t there but everything else was. Love Andujar. Can’t wait to see this kid when he reaches his prime years.

Leftovers
Bit of a messy eighth inning for A.J. Cole, who went single, walk, double to the first three batters of the inning to give the Orioles two runs. He was charged with a third run when Kyle Higashioka couldn’t handle Dellin Betances’ fastball and Andujar couldn’t handle Higashioka’s throw as the runner tried to advance. Real sloppy play. Higashioka’s not going to hit much. The least he could do is catch the ball.

Anyway, Cole struck out two in a scoreless seventh before that messy eighth inning — he allowed three runs in 1.1 innings in this game after allowing two runs in his first 21.2 innings as a Yankee — and Betances struck out two of the three batters he faced to mop up that eighth inning mess. Aroldis Chapman struck out the side in the ninth. He’s struck out eight of the eleven batters he’s faced since Chasen Shreve had to bail him out against the Mets.

Two hits for Sir Didi and one hit each for Gardner, Torres, Andujar, and Higashioka. Hick drew two walks while Gardner, Gregorius, and Higashioka drew one each. The Yankees went 3-for-10 with runners in scoring position, which is objectively good. Too bad everyone only seems to remember the seven times they didn’t get a hit.

And finally, tonight was the the 53rd home game of the season and the 21st sellout. That is the most sellouts in a single season in the ten-year history of the new Yankee Stadium. The previous record was 20 in 2009. Still 28 more home games to go.

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


Source: FanGraphs

Up Next
Assuming the weather cooperates, the Yankees and Orioles will wrap up this two-game Wednesday afternoon. There are showers in the forecast though. Hopefully they clear out between now and then and they can get the game in. I am completely sick of rainouts. The Yankees have met their quota for the season. Sonny Gray and Alex Cobb are the scheduled starting pitchers for the 1pm ET game.