50th Win!

You have to be impressed with this team.  Two of our starters are out and we plug in 2 young kids and we keep winning.  The team isn't even hitting on all cylinders but we keep winning.  Severino has a very uncharacteristic outing where his slider didn't have a lot of bite, his fastball was tailing off to the right of the plate and his change was staying up high, yet we win. 

This is a team that picks each other up and it helps that the back of the bullpen has been great of late.  Take a look at how amazing these guys have been since June 5th:

Chapman:   9 IP,  3 hits, 4 walks, 12k's and NO runs (actually has been scoreless for last 10.1 IP)
Betances:    8 IP,  1 hit,  2 walks, 17 k's and NO runs (actually has been scoreless for last 12 IP)
Green:       5.1 IP, 5 hits, 0 walks, 7 K's and NO runs (actually has been scoreless for last 8.1 IP)
Robertson  7.1 IP, 4 hits, 1 walk, 8 K's and NO runs
Holder -      7.1 IP, 1 hit,  1 walk, 6 K's and NO runs

Since June 5th these guys in the bullpen have pitched 37 scoreless innings (14 hits, 8 walks & 50 K's)

Wow!

They have been the difference when you see us come back from a 5-0 deficit and hit a 2 run HR late to tie the game and then a 2 run HR to win it in the 9th!  We scored 5 runs in the final 3 innings.

It was nice to see Stanton feel the stadium crowd on the game-winning HR (and another exciting win!).  He should have had another HR in his 1st AB tonight but he was robbed by a great catch.

I mentioned how the shift has taken so many hits away from players up the middle and it happened again when Loaisiga was pitching.  He had 1st and 2nd nobody out and a bullet up the middle went right to Torres who easily stepped on 2nd and threw to 1st for the DP.

Judge made a very good running play with 1 out and he was on 1st.  Did he hit a blooper that the LF should have called off the SS and caught it but it dropped in and Judge waited about 40% of the way to 2nd base and was ready to go either way when the ball dropped and barely made it to 2nd.  Most of the time a runner would be out there. 

Sanchez ran the bases well on a bullet single by Bird where he made it to 3rd.

Didi didn't read a play on the bases as well when Judge got caught in a rundown after the pitcher snagged a hit by Didi (those are hard to fault a runner on, but there is some blame). Didi could have run to 2nd but he kind of gave up too early as Judge worked hard to keep the play going.  Those little things can make a difference between winning and losing

On a sac fly to CF, Hicks got himself in throwing position and came in on the ball but took 5 steps after touching the ball before throwing it and the runner was safe as throw hit the mound and went a little up the line.  If the throw was online it would have been close, but if the throw was released 2 steps sooner (still giving him 3 steps) and off line the way it was, he would have been out.  I don't understand why some OF'rs take so long to get rid of the ball?  You don't see relay throws where a guy takes more than 2 steps and he should catch it in mid-air so he lands and throws at the same time.

I stated in my previous post when responding to your questions about whether I liked Tampa starting a reliever and then what are my thoughts about the shift, that I would write my own idea of what I would do...well here it is.  If I were a manager, I would take advantage of the real splits players have in regards to platooning numbers (R/L splits).  We already see it with lineups and with the LOOGY (lefty one-out guy) to come in and get the tough lefty.  The issue with this methodology (that works) is that it uses up a lot of players and is less efficient.  My "idea" is to teach my relievers to play OF.  They shag fly balls anyway so why not let them play a little?  Why?  Because you could bring in a "Jeff Nelson" to get a righty out and then when the next batter is a lefty, you bring in "Mike Stanton" but, instead of taking Nelson out of the game you move him to RF or LF depending on the hitters normal hitting.  This way you could mix and match your pitchers based on the lineup and your only downside (outside of injury risk) is that they won't play OF as well as your starter, but again, the ball has to find them and has to be a tough running play to make a difference.  The positive is you get great matchup advantages for a few innings and not waste players.  This Yankee team would not benefit from this strategy as our players are not as dominant one way.   Our one lefty (not our closer) isn't really better against lefties (which I don't like), but imagine a team with a Stanton and Nelson being able to match them up over the last 2 innings with no matter who is sent to the plate?  What a huge advantage.  Anyway, you get the idea