With the offense struggling, I am a little annoyed that the Yankees didn't try and bunt Gardner in the 5th inning up 2-0 with 1st and 2nd and nobody out. It is a perfect time to bunt and put some pressure on the defense and then (most likely) you have 2nd and 3rd with 1 out. I think he also has the opportunity to beat it out...of course, he has the opportunity to mess it up as well. This is what I was saying before an outcome happened...and the outcome ended up pretty close anyway as Gardner ripped a line drive to medium deep RC and Romine tagged and went to 3rd. Judge walked and then Bird, who has been awful at the plate, weakly pops up to short LF, followed by another terrible AB for Stanton. Again, how about bunting once in awhile even to get the defense moving. Bird should bunt down 3rd when they shift him!
Bird was up again in the 8th inning with 1st and 3rd and 1 out and hit into a DP. Bird is now hitting .191 with a .680 OPS and only 4 RBI's! For perspective on guys hitting less than .200, Sanchez is hitting .190 and has an OPS of .721 and would have 9 RBI's if he had the same amount of AB's.
Stanton watched 2 fastballs go on strikes and then the pitcher threw 2 sliders far off the plate that he didn't swing at and then on the 3rd slider way off the plate he swung...C'mon man!
Didi was our offense striking a HR on a curve followed by a HR off a fastball; great to see.
Romine, who started for Sanchez in a game not started by Gray did a nice job with a hit and a sac fly and called a good game.
Great job by the pitching staff! CC, 5.2 shutout innings, then green 1.1, Betances and Chapman closing out the shutout. Betances has been excellent of late. In his last 13 innings, he has allowed only 1 run on 2 hits and 6 walks while striking out 21! Betances did hit Harper, who got hit twice and walked twice.
Boston won
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41 points of OPS (the difference between Sanchez and Bird) really isn't that much. It represents 20 points of batting average from a batter who hits no extra base hits, never walks, and never sacrifices. From a player who does hit X bases and walks, the difference in batting average will be less. So at best, you're saying Bird makes Sanchez look like a 211 hitter by comparison. And it's actually less. Yay. :-)
ReplyDeleteA "Righetti Save" for Chapman tonight (3 run lead, 1 inning pitched).