Monday saw our new acquisition Lynn have an excellent result against a weak Chicago team. I don't want to diminish what Lynn did as his repertoire looked very good. He was throwing his four seamer at 95 consistently (hit 97 once) and when he took 2 MPH off he tailed it away from lefties effectively. His slider has movement but it isn't late movement so that was mediocre, but his curve had good bite and was very useful. He is a good pitcher who throws high in the strike zone which I like to see. While he was a bit wild at times, he also pinpointed his fastball into the glove as well (I call that effectively wild), but he only allowed one walk (and 2 hits) in pitching 7.1 scoreless innings! This was only one start against the WS, but I thought this was a good trade based on his past.
CC's numbers looked good as well Tuesday night, but he was aided by the weaker hitting team as he left many pitches in the middle of the plate that they didn't take advantage of. CC struck out 12 in 5.2 innings, but I didn't think he threw well. His command was still very inconsistent while he walked 3, but fortunately, the White Sox are a bad team.
Some notes:
- Our offense was not very good again, but Stanton gave us a 2 run lead in the top of the 10th. Chapman was not available so Britton had his chance to close out and get his first save with the Yankees. After hitting the first batter he got his patented 2 ground balls and with one out away he lawn darted a pitch for a wild pitch and then overcompensated by throwing the next pitch at 96 MPH down the middle and Abreu deposited it for his 20th HR of the year to tie the game. Very frustrating as we need Britton to be an ace reliever and can't have this performance if we want to go anywhere in the playoffs. He still needs to get his command much better at this point...but the stuff is still outstanding.
- In the bottom of the 9th, Didi almost cost us as a DP ball where Torres athletically flipped the ball to Didi with his glove, but Didi was flat-footed at 2nd base and used all arm to throw to first and the runner was safe. There is a reason why middle infielders time their turn (cross) of 2nd base and that is to safely move out of the way of the runner, but also to get a lot on the throw as you turn it quickly (momentum). Not sure what Didi was thinking but he didn't get enough on the throw to turn the DP and gave Chicago another opportunity...fortunately, they are a bad team.
- The Yankees hit a few well-struck balls that went to the warning track as well as 2 almost homers that were taken away from them by great leaping catches by their CF'r Engel. Engel can't hit at all (.570 OPS), but he is an excellent defender.
- Sonny Gray pitched well for 3 shutout innings to get the win and while he didn't get credit for a save, he did save his win. It was good to see and hopefully he can make teh tranistion and help us out of the pen.
- Going back to the Red Sox disaster, I wanted to make two comments that I neglected to mention. 1) It would have been nice if Bird could have bailed out Andujar and made the scoop and win the game and 2) Eovaldi looked really good. I always liked his stuff, but he would make too many mistakes to be an ace. The part that was impressive to me was that he has learned to pitch better. he could always throw 98 consistently, but his secondary pitches were not great. He was throwing a cutter that was outstanding! It was moving like a sweeping slider at 94 MPH and that is new to his repertoire and very impressive (and concerning). That is a difference maker pitch for him; I would have liked to get him back based on what I saw. Hopefully, it was just a lucky day for him, but the Red Sox made a great move IMO. Have to give them credit...
- Ellsbury needs hip surgery and will be done until ST next year. It is a shame as we could have used him during this stretch that Judge is out with Frazier injured. Shane Robinson does not deserve to be on the roster (decent defender, but lifetime .592 OPS)...
- Mismatch tonight - must be a win for us.
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