The West Was Not Lost - In Fact Kind

Wednesday's Game:

The Yankees found themselves down 5-0 as CC had a rough time keeping the ball in the yard.  He allowed 3 dingers in 5 innings.  The Yankees were fortunate that the Angels allowed us to peck away at them by walking our guys and playing poor defense (their catcher is very weak).  We scored  2 in the 6th and then tied in the 7th before winning it in the 9th.  Loaisiga pitched a scoreless 3 innings to get teh win and Chapman got the save (still not hitting 100 very often if at all).  In the 9th, Wade did a good job by getting on base and then stealing 2nd and then scoring. 

Thursday's game:

Tanaka was given a 4 run lead going into the bottom of the 5th and he couldn't hold it.  He gave up two 2-run HR's in the 5th   Then in the 6th got a pop out followed by a walk and then got another pop out followed by another walk on 3-2.  This is where Boone had a tough decision.  Tanaka was not sharp in the 5th and was pitching carefully in the 6th.  He had only 89 pitches and I have a lot of faith in Tanaka to reach back when he needs to as he tends to be good in key spots.  That being said, with what should be a good bullpen, I can understand taking him out after allowing 4 runs the previous inning.  I took notes and wrote I would stick with Tanaka here for another batter as he had easily handled Fletcher in his 2 previous AB's.  Unfortunately, after Sanchez had a passed ball (he still is a bad receiver and gets crossed up too much - but has been much better at blocking balls and threw out a runner on a perfect throw), Fletcher got a single and both runners scored.  Holder got the next out but we were down 6-5.  In the 7th, Boone took out Holder to use Tarpley against the lefties and Tarpley was awful walking two batters and Harvey continued the poor bullpen pitching as 5 runs scored in the 7th and the game was over.

Friday's Game

Paxton started and did fairly well, while the offense had 15 hits led by Luke and Lemahieu who had 6 hits combined.  The Yankees hit Bumgarner well and cruised to a 7-3 victory.

Saturday's game:

Happ did a great job as he hit his spots extremely well right on the inside part of the plate and also top of the zone and then worked down with his offspeed pitches.  He went 7 innings without allowing a run.  Sanchez hit a bomb for a grand slam and we had a 6-0 lead until the 9th where Cessa gave back 4 runs before Chapman had to come in and get the final out.  It is amazing how bad our bullpen has been.  This game was in the bag until the 9th.

SF had a terrible LF'r that cost them a few times in the series and their normally reliable SS booted an easy DP ball with the bases loaded and nobody out and once he picked it up he looked at 2nd and the double clutched before throwing late to 1st.  Once he booted the ball, if he would have just picked up the ball and thrown to 1st he would have gotten Sanchez by a step; instead, everyone was safe.  That was a huge play.

Sunday's game:

We scored 2 runs in each of the first 3 innings and then tacked on 2 more for a 8-0 lead.  In the bottom of the 6th, German who was pitching great, lost it, and they scored 4 runs off of him.  We ended up winning 11-5.

What I noticed:

• We were playing 2 teams that simply didn't play well against us.  It is amazing that we are playing on a pace to win 98 games when we are missing more starters (almost twice as many) than any team since modern day stats have been tracking them.  (For those stat junkies, our WAR on the IR was twice what any other team had.)  BTW, WAR has some limitations and defensive stats are still flawed, even if getting better.
• The Angels had no lefties in their pen...that amazes me as it makes managing against them so much easier
• When Andujar comes back I would DH him and maybe play some 1B and 3rd base.  Urshela has been playing well and we should continue to ride that.  I would send Ford down when Andujar comes back.  I also know that Urshela got hit on the hand and left the game so I hope he is OK?
• I said in the preseason blog that I thought Voit was for real as a hitter and he is not disappointing.  He uses a leg kick (in his case a sweep) for timing, but he is able to adjust for offspeed pitches by keeping his hands back and still unloading on breaking pitches.  This is why he is less off-balance than our other big righties who look very bad on low and away pitches more frequently. (He has a .935 OPS now).  His weakness is up and in fastballs, but if a pitcher makes a mistake he can turn on it and he also has been able to muscle the balls up the middle by pulling his hands in.
• Paxton was tipping pitches so he is moving his hand around in the glove a lot now from the stretch.  He has to watch though as he is slowly dropping his hands after his stop from the stretch and good base stealers will take advantage of that.  One did and he stole without a throw.  For clarity, he comes set and then fiddles around in his glove and before he starts up again, he has been slowly moving downward which would give the runner a head start.
• Romine was setting up too early with runners on 2nd base and guys can give the location.  He knows better than that or needs to fake it sometimes.
• Britton's stuff has been outstanding, but he struggled to throw strikes the other night.  He was throwing 94-96 with amazing sink on his ball, but he needs to throw more strikes as 7 walks in 11 innings are too many.
• Chapman has not had his good fastball yet; I am hopeful it is the cooler weather still?
• Kahnle has been getting his changeup in good spots and has been very effective with his 96 MPH fastball.  Somebody needs to step up
• Voit got thrown out at 3rd base tagging up on a great throw.  The key was the fielder surrounded the ball and had momentum toward 3rd base and got rid of the ball on 2 steps rather than the 3-5 some people take.
• Urshela has a .925 OPS right now and has been a huge reason for our success.  
• The other guys like Ford and Tauchman are not hitting for avg, but have worked the counts well and gotten on base.    Their OPS's are 708 and .711 which is as much as we could hope for considering both guys are hitting in the high .100's.  I don't see Ford staying in teh majors.  I don't expect Tauchman either but at least he could be a serviceable weak hitting corner OF.
• Maybin was brought in for defense.  He hits equally to both sides and I think it would be better if we get some more specialized guys to fill in, but it made sense when Frazier got hurt.  It seems like a long time ago, but we could have used Ellsbury against righties if he could have gotten himself healthy.
• Wade still doesn't have an extra-base hit and still has not shown enough, but he has been decent in his last 20 AB's with a .263 BA and a .417 OBP (which for him is important as he turned 5 singles into doubles stealing bases).  We could use him to step up.  He also has covered ground in the OF making a long running catch into the corner.  
• Both LeMahieu and Urshela left the game but X-rays were clean...thankfully
• Off today and on to Arizona

West Coast Trip

These west coast games can be brutal on OUR sleep.  I almost always record the games and then try and watch either late at night or very early.  The first game (Monday night), I was working late and went to bed at midnight and ended up getting up at 3 am and the work day didn't allow me to watch the game until last night (while the Tuesday night game was being recorded.  The irony is that when I got up at 3 am the game was just finishing up...

Anyway, getting you a quick lunch time update...the Monday late night game was a fairly wild one.  It was mostly a pitchers dual, but mostly because of weak hitting.  It was 2-2 after the 3rd and that held all the way to the 12th inning where we pushed a run across on a double by Frazier (who didn't slide and almost was out) and then Tauchman moved him to 3rd and Urshela came through with a sac fly.

Unfortunately, Chapman was not able to secure the one run save and we ended up winning it in the 14th as Urshela came through again with a single to knock in our run with 2 outs.  An interesting move happened where Holder got the 1st two outs in the 14th and Calhoun ( a lefty was up) and because the Angels lost their DH earlier their pitcher was up afterward.  Boone elected to intentionally walk Calhoun to pitch to the pitchers spot as the Angels had no other position players to pinch hit.  I am not sure I would have done that, just because with a 1 run lead you could allow a SB and a fluke hit and the game is tied and then you don't have the pitcher leading off the next inning.  It is an interesting call but Calhoun doesn't even have amazing lefty righty stats as his OPS against righties last year was .670 and he is a mediocre hitter.  Anyway, it worked, but I have to give you my opinion and sometimes bad moves work and good moves don't (and this move wasn't crazy)

In Tuesday's game, German pitched really well again only allowing 1 run that was caused by his own error in 6.2 innings.  He left with us cruising to a 7-1 lead until Green came in and was horrible once again (His ERA is now 16.43 in 7.2 innings).  He allowed 4 runs to score without getting an out in the 8th inning and Cessa came in and was able to get us to 9th with a 2 run lead.  Britton closed this time and had his sinker working great and he got 3 straight groundouts to make it a more relaxing 9th inning.  Even though has has not been great for us, if he continues to get his feel back, I would not be shocked if he regained the closer job.

Urshela has really played well for us.  His defense has been excellent and he has supplied reasonably good offense.  He is providing well above replacement level performance with great defense and a .740 OPS.

Torres - We could use Gleyber to step up for us.  He went through a short hot streak, but his OPS is only .708...

Congratulations to Ford who got his 1st Major league HR and has his OPS up to .776 showing a good eye and mediocre stick.  WE need guys like this to have one of their career stretches.

Another congratulations to Thairo Estrada who got his 1st major league hits as well and has sacrificed perfectly, walked and got 2 hits in 4 AB's.

Meanwhile Wade looks to still be over-matched at the plate with an sub .500 OPS

LeMahieu has been struggling at the plate as well as his OPS has plummeted to a .713 OPS having a 2-28 run.  I would not be leading him off and never liked him there to begin with.  Of course, the guy who was supposed to be on his final year for us and be our occasional leadoff guy batted 3rd for us and has been on a hot streak with an OPS now at .851.  Of course, I am talking about our LF who is playing CF and now batting 3rd...Gardner.

Go figure...then again we have won the first 2 games on the west coast trip starting these 5 juggernaut names: Tauchman, Ford, Estrada, Wade and Romine.

Lets win at least one of these last 2 against the Angels.

The Walking Wounded

I want to start with last night’s game (Sunday).  Paxton was excellent as he had an excellent breaking ball and great control.  His fastball hit 97 once but most of the night was around 95/96 (less than the 98 he was dealing against the Red Sox), but he located it very well.  He worked in changing speeds and elevations great.  After 6 innings we had a 5-0 lead (thanks to a 3 run bomb by Frazier) and Paxton was throwing well but threw 95 pitches.  I felt that he should come out of the game and save him as at most you would get another inning out of him.  Instead, Boone stuck with him and he allowed a double and a walk and then took him out.  While pitches are important, starting another inning is a lot to me, when you have to rest and go back out there when you are near your end, I just thought it was time to shut him down.  Fortunately, Kahnle did a good job (his control was very good and his change had good movement) and got us out of the inning with no runs.  He had thrown 17 pitches and I felt it was fine to take him out.  Unfortunately, Green was awful again allowing a cheap popup (that a better fielding 1B, or at least one with more speed, might have caught, but Ford was playing there) a walk and a single.  Britton was warming up prior, but for some reason, Boone went with Ottavino with a switch hitter who is equal both ways and then a lefty in Gordon?  The matchups were one reason, but also the fact Britton was up made me wonder why he didn’t go with him?  I could see if the matchups were more righties than that could override it.  Regardless, Ottavino had nothing and allowed a double and then a HR to Gordon to tie the game at 5.  Then he allowed a HR to Dozier and we were now down by 1.  Really terrible job by Ottavino, but also Boone messed that up.

In the bottom of the 8^th, Tauchman led off with a double, but Urshela and Ford got out moving Tauchman to 3^rd.  Romine came through with a big 2 out single tying the game!  He was fortunate to get a fastball in the inside part of the plate but perfect height.

Chapman pitched the 9^th and looked pretty good; he allowed a single and 2 SB’s, but he got out of the inning.  The odd thing was he threw 18 straight fastballs.  Part of that was the speedy Hamilton was on the base, but he stole the bases anyway and you have to get the batter. 

Britton came in anyway to pitch the 10^th and got the job done, he did tweak his groin when he covered on a rundown, but he stayed in the game…hopefully he won’t be yet another on the IL (BTW, when did the DL become the IL, I must have missed that memo?)

In the 10^th the Royals brought in a lefty who threw hard but could not find the plate and he walked Tauchman and Urshela to start the inning and now the lefty Ford was up.  I would have brought Ford up to the plate to see if he would leave the pitcher out there as a righty was up there.  In my opinion, there was no way they would leave this guy in there even to face a lefty, but Boone just made the move to bring Thairo Estrada for his first major league AB.  Kennedy was brought in to face him and Estrada put down a perfect bunt.  Based on the hitter we had, I was OK with bunting, but I would have tried to bluff the Ford AB.  Regardless, it worked as Romine came through again with what would have been a deep fly out, but with the OF correctly in, it beat the OF for a deep single and the victory.

Overall, the only bad move was not bringing in Britton and it ended up hurting us today.  The other moves were only my preference and could be debated.

Switching to the Friday game, CC struggled with is control but fought through it walking 4 but not allowing an ER.  Gardner had a good game, but we saw some bad fielding by CC and then a few bad plays by Voit of which one earned him an error and the other gave a guy a hit.  The bullpen did a good job and held onto the 6-2 win.

Saturday, Voit let another ball go under his glove for a triple and that should have been an error if you ask me.  Tanka worked his way through that and gave us 7 good innings without his best stuff.  We hit 4 HR’s, but the big news was Judge being added to the injured list and I think this could be a month.

It is crazy the amount of injuries we have.   Our 8 position players out are: Judge, Hicks and Stanton in the OF, and our infield that is out would be Bird at 1^st, we will put Tulo at 2^nd base, Didi at SS and Andujar at 3^rd base and we round out the team with Sanchez out.  Of course, we still have Betances and Severino out as well.

Onto 4 games against the 9-14 Angels. 

Game 2 Against the Red Sox

Happ was a little off early and had trouble spotting his changeup.  He wasn't able to expand the strike zone inside (which is important to him), but they were balls and when he leaked a fastball over the plate Martinez hit a HR to CF.  Martinez is an excellent hitter as he is able to pull his hands in to get the barrel on the ball but not lose much power.  The big blow was the 2 run HR he gave up to Vazquez who is a very weak hitter.

Now we are down 3-0 early against Eovaldi, who has been lit up this year, but has pitched very well against us. 

In the 4th we got a leadoff walk by Voit on a 3-2 count and then Torres got on with a fielders choice where Nunez dropped the ball at 2nd base.  Nunez was always weak with the glove and he played out his rear for the Red Sox last year.  After LeMahieu was called out on strikes (good pitch), Frazier ripped a double down the line scoring 1.  With 2nd and 3rd and 1 out, Tauchman struck on a 3-2 pitch that landed in front of home plate (ruining what was a decent AB and would have been very good if he worked the walk).  He should have expected something off the plate with 1B open.  Urshela hit a line drive that Steve Pearce made a 2-run saving dive on to end the inning. 

In the 6th and still down 3-1, the ump started giving the Red Sox the pitches off the plate and while we went down 1,2,3 in the 6th, Voit shoudl have walked on a 3-2 count but was called out on a pitch off the plate and as teh leadoff guy, the inning could have been much different where Eovaldi was closing in on 100 pitches and woudl have been from the stretch. 

Meanwhile, Happ settled in and kept the Sox off the board, but did allow Devers to get a single that Luk probably should have turned into an out.  He made the stop on a half sliding dive and then stumbled a bit and from his knees threw very low to Happ and Happ couldn't corral the bad throw.  It wasn't an easy stop so they gave him a hit, but I wouldn't have had an issue with an error either as a smooth 1B gets that.  Kahnle came and after allowing a SB, he pitched out of trouble, pumping a 98 MPH fastball by Bradley to end the inning.

Now we got into the weak Red Sox pen.  Frazier lined a single on the first pitch and Tauchman walked.  The ump again called a first pitch curve a strike to Urshela that was a ball and he ended up striking out.  Romine walked to load the bases and Workman was pulled for not throwing strikes.  Brasier came in and threw 2 curveballs to Gardner for strikes (one taken and one fouled off).  Down 0-2, I was expecting another curve in the dirt or a very high fastball, but Brasier threw a fastball down the middle of the plate and Gardner hit perhaps the most meaningful hit of the year as he ripped a Grand Slam for what was also his 100th HR!  It was a bad pitch but gave us a 5-3 lead and Gardner was pumped (as was the crowd, myself and I am sure some of you who watched it) and you could see him open-mouthed going "woo" around the bases.  What a great way to get your 100th HR, with a slam against the Sox!

With only a 5-3 lead the game was far from over, and I was annoyed when Judge was called out on a pitch across his shins.  The box showed this to be a little low, possibly just touching the box, but the review showed it was 5 inches low.  This is one of the reasons I really don't like the box live.  It is not adjusted to the size of the batter and just isn't that accurate.  For those reasons and the fact it blocks the view of the catcher some and the perspective that we have of the plate.  Finally, they have now changed the color inside the box so it is lighter than the rest.  It is annoying to me and I am fine superimposing the pitch after every live pitch, in fact, they should do that, but give me the live feed without disrupting the view.

Ottavino came in for the 8th and his first pitch was a slider closer to the strike calls that we had called against us but it was called a ball.  Interestingly, he did strike out Betts on a fastball in the same spot.  Ottavino made us sweat by loading the bases with a very inconsistent slider, sometimes just spinning, but he got Nunez to fly out on the 1st pitch to end the inning. 

Chapman had a good 9th and we swept the two-game series!

Other Notes:

At 14-4 should we start to take Tampa seriously?  Any time a team is off to a good start you have to look at them, but they are very young and almost everyone is playing above their expected level.  That being said, this is not a fluke team; they won 90 games last year and very close to division winners last year (Cleveland 91, Dodgers 92 and Atlanta 90).  They are also very forward thinking, using that one inning starter at times.  There are pros and cons to it but now that they are not doing it all the time, I think it has merit.  I had written in this blog a few times that in a postseason game if I had a lefty and righty, I would have started the tough lefty to get their lineup with the righties in it (or vice versa) and then at the first sign of trouble bring in the starter I wanted anyway. This way, you have better matchups.

Onto KC where German pitches against Homer Bailey(who has not been good since 2014).

Game 1 against Boston

First, it was great to see the Yankees and Red Sox honor the Genius Maker by wearing his number for this game! 

...And it worked as the Yankees breezed to victory

...And before I get a lot of mail, yes, I know it was for Jackie Robinson.

Paxton came out throwing 98 and hitting spots well.  Sale came out and threw roughly 96 (harder than he has thrown this year) and was mixing his pitches well.

The difference was Paxton kept hitting spots and even threw a great pitch 99 MPH up and in and barely out of the box and then followed with a perfectly placed slider just off the plate to get us out of a key moment of the game.  This moment was set up by a poor play by Judge who cruised after a high fly ball and misjudged it enough where he jumped and didn't get to the fly and hit on top of the wall for a double making it 2nd and 3rd with nobody out in the 4th inning.  Judge then made up for it with his arm as two shallow flyballs were not tested because of his arm; someone with a lesser arm would have been tested on the 1 out fly.  That set up the K by Paxton on the great slider after the 99 MPH fastball.

The Yanks kept tacking on runs.  Frazier hit a HR on a slider that was similar to the Judge play, but Betts play was harder because he was running faster, didn't have the home field advantage of knowing the stadium as well and just couldn't get there.

Even Tauchman got into the offense with a double on a slider right down the middle and later hit a HR on a slider.  He has his OPS at .773 and maybe this will get him some confidence, but he has not looked good at the plate to me.  The fact we are starting him in LF against a tough lefty (the HR was off a righty) shows how injured we are.

A few other notes:

Judge was heavily involved today.  Outside of the above, he got 2 hits,  a well-earned walk, a SB and then got to 3rd on the bad throw to go along with 2 not heads up plays.  One was on a line drive by Voit with 1st and 2nd and Judge was on first.  Bradley retrieved the ball and then threw weakly to 2nd base where Judge had rounded the base and dived back safely because the throw bounced away from the 2nd baseman.  The throw beat him and he would have been out ending the inning before the run scored.  Could have been a really bad play, but we got lucky the Red Sox didn't execute.  Later, he should have tried to score on a shallow fly ball to JD Martinez, who doesn't throw well, and he would have scored if he tagged up correctly; he ended up leaving too early and stopped (not sure what happened there?)  The outcome ended up being a blowout but any of those could have been bad.

CC came back and looked good.  He may have some "old age games" but he looked just like CC and that was very encouraging

Bird went on the DL.  Bird is actually one of those guys that could make us a better team if he could give us some sild lefty protection in the lineup, but he has not played well (.550 OPS) and he only hurt our depth based on his lack of production

Urshela has really helped us a lot at 3rd base.  Not only has he played really well defensively, but he has also hit well in his 27 plate appearance (.867 OPS)

Paxton was excellent!

Gardner has his OPS above .700, as he has been more productive of late (.742 OPS over his last 15 games)

...and Congrats to the NY Islanders for sweeping Pittsburgh! 

Houston; Problem Not Solved

It is tough to beat a team when your starting C, SS, 3rd, CF and DH are missing along with your best starter and one of your top relievers.  But, we had a lead in every game and held a lead later in games twice.

Excuses aside, we have to play better

Gardner showed he is a step slower just missing a few balls and those were big plays.  He is still a really good LF'r defensively, but he has always been just avg in CF and now is weaker there.  Gardner playing every day is not good for us.  We need another CF'r

Wade just does not seem to be a major league player.  he bounced a ball on a routine DP and is overmatched at the plate.

Romine has been awful in his time playing this year.  He does have a HR which was hit off a 2nd baseman who came into pitch, but outside of that, he is 2-14 with no walks or extra base hits.  his defense has also been poor, but he made a good play yesterday when he blocked a ball with 1st and 2nd and while the ball got away from him a little he quickly dissected the opportunity to not throw to 3rd, but to throw to 1st base and pick off the runner and he nailed him.  Not an easy play.

I don't believe Paxton threw a strike with his breaking ball or change until his 40th pitch.  His change was awful all night, but later he started to get better with his curve.  He was not sharp and so far has not pitched well (he will get better, although that is not going out on a limb as he has a 6 ERA now)

Kahnle was awful yesterday and has allowed 4 hits and 4 walks in 4 innings.

LeMahieu has really been great so far.  He has shown to be very good at 3rd, excellent at 2nd base and has a .993 OPS.

Bird had his first good game in a while, this is very important to us as we need some lefty in the lineup.  He was only 1-2 but he had very good AB's and walked twice.  Hopefully he gets going

Judge had his head up his rear his 1st 2 AB's (he k'd his first 3 AB's), but the first 2 were simply terrible AB's taking 3 curves for strikes and swinging at 3 curves that were balls.  the last AB featured all curves also, but at least he took a few balls and just swung through a curve that was a strike.  he has a very odd approach to the plate in that he seems to sometimes have his mind made up that he is taking a pitch no matter what, but he is immensely talented.  I guess the point is that there is room for improvement which is really exciting for a guy who has been tremendous so far.

Turn the page

Houston, We have a Problem

This was a tough loss because this was a game we should have won.

This was a good game though.  It had almost a playoff atmosphere.  The pitchers were making every pitch important and for me, that is always fun to watch because I call almost every pitch.  The pitchers were sharp and while the announcers were claiming Verlander didn't have it, he had very good command of his fastball, his curve was as good as I have seen it and his change was used effectively.  His slider was not as good as normal and he hung a few of those, but he was tough.  That being said,  Tanaka was better than Verlander and Boone's early pull was a mistake.  The concern one has is that our bullpen should be so strong that we can pull our starters after 5 or 6 innings and then dominate.  This is true and should be fairly accurate, but when the starter is fresh and pitching well why take him out unless matchups are really bad the 3rd or 4th time through the lineup?   Tanaka definitely holds back some with his fastball as he tends to throw harder as the game goes on.  This happens frequently and when he needs to reach back he has another 2 MPH in him.   In the 6th inning, he did that and just missed a strikeout when he threw a fastball at 95 mph by Springer that was a tiny bit off the plate and could easily have been called a strike 3; especially when the 4 strikes were called that were farther out of the strike zone and all were against the Yankees (the Sanchez one in the 7th inning when he complained was a good example).  Overall, the ump did a good job on very close pitches by both pitchers, but all 4 bad calls went against us (we didn't get any gifts).

Back to Tanaka, he pitched out of trouble in the 6th, but had allowed only one run and that was on a hanging splitter inside that Altuve crushed for a HR.  He did allow a double on another hanging cutter inside, but he was pinpoint with his control and his slider was very good.  He had only 78 pitches after 6 innings and just because we have a good and what should be great bullpen, Tanaka had at least one more inning in him.  Remember, he used to throw complete games all the time.

Also, while we have great arms in the pen, do we really have full faith in any of them?  I mean, they get the job done and will have low ERA's, but it is usually a nail biter.  Britton has still not been as sharp as he was in 2016 and while his stuff can be deadly, he is not controlling it well;  Ottavino has control issues, as does Chapman and Betances when he is back.  Green doesn't have the stuff the others have but is a good arm and Holder is a level below IMO.  My point is that they are great arms with great stuff, but they are no lock like we used to have with Rivera.  This is why the Genius Maker name was born as he bailed out managers decisions (usually Torre) most every time and for a long period of time.

As for the game, I like when we work pitchers and while you can't always take strike one, I like getting deep counts and getting into the bullpen early.  The 3rd inning could have set the tone better and was a key part of the game to me.  After a full count strikeout by Frazier, Urshela walked, Gardner singled on a 3-2 count, Judge walked on a 3-2 count and we had bases loaded 1 out and a lot of pitches by Verlander.  On an 0-1 count Voit ripped a line drive to RF that held up Gardner enough where he had to make sure the line drive dropped in and was not able to score.  But now we had a run in and bases loaded one out!  TWO pitches later Verlander was on the bench out of the inning.  Sanchez popped up on the 1st pitch and Torres grounded out on the first pitch.  You have the pitcher on the ropes and we let him out of it very easy.  That drove me crazy and was a pivotal part of the game (along with taking Tanaka out)

Houston got their runs on a single, a walk and a double that we had a perfect relay on had a very close play at the plate, but they were safe; the same happened twice on DP tries where we just missed turning them.  Just tough breaks there.  We also had a tough break when Houston scored their winning run.  Ottavino jammed Correa and it ended up being a perfectly placed swinging bunt that got Bird and Ottavino crossed up.

Torres and Bird were 0-8 with Torres leaving 5 men on base and Bird looking terrible by striking out all 4 times.  His head is up his rear.  He was taking fastballs for strikes and swinging at breaking balls in the dirt.

Urshela continues to play very well in the field and has been contributing at the plate.  If he could give us an OPS of .720 or above it would be good (right now at .830).  Gardner, Voit and Bird need to hit better.

This was a game that our very banged up team should have won.  This one was on our manager and a little bad luck.

HR Derby in Baltimore

Yankees hit 7 HR's yesterday; that is usually enough to win a ballgame and in this case, 15-3 was a blowout

Side note: I didn't get far into this before I had to look up if a team has ever hit 7 HR's and lost.  It has happened 3 times with the most recent being the White Sox hitting 7 and losing to Toronto (all were solo shots).

Notes:

Torres hit a HR to straight away center on a 3-2 count; the power these guys have even with 2 strikes is impressive.

Frazier hit two more HR's and the impressive thing was on the first one he hit a curve out to CF as he let the ball travel deeper into the plate than when he turned on the hanging curveball the other night.  His 2nd HR was another breaking ball he yanked over the LF wall.  The man with the quick bat has hit 3 HR's in the last 2 nights and did so all on breaking balls.

Sanchez had a 3 HR night and the 2nd one was very impressive in that he jumped all over a high fastball and crushed it to LF.  Great night for Sanchez who DH'd

The Yankees played Urshela at 3rd base.  Even though he was 2-3 with a walk and a double, he doesn't seem like a great stick to me, however, he looks like he has a very smooth glove at 3rd base and I would expect that will keep Wade off the field more.  Hopefully, the stick is better than I see and the glove is solid for Urshela

Romine let one ball go off his glove for a PB and another wild pitch that he should have blocked.  Romine did hit a HR off the Oriole 2nd baseman (Alberto) who came into pitch the 9th with the game out of reach.  BTW, Alberto looks to be an excellent hitter.  he has had some very impressive AB's in these early 6 games against us.

German pitched great and if he was taken out after 6 innings and 80 pitches, as he should have been, he would not have allowed any runs and only 1 hit and 1 walk.  I thought that it was enough as he started to miss a little more in the last 2 innings and 80 pitches were enough this early.  The thinking was probably 2 more batters and then bring in Tarpley against the lefty, but teh lead was enouigh where I would have let him end on a great note.  Instead, he allowed a single and a walk before Tarpley came in and allowed German's 2 runs and one of his own.  Tarpley is very tough on lefties but needs more to get righties out right now.

Boston and Tampa won

Everything Is A Battle

It doesn't seem to matter who we are playing, but with all the injuries we will need to battle for all wins. 

Happ didn't pitch that well again.  2 runs in 4.1 innings isn't bad (4.15 ERA), but he didn't make it through the 5th as he had 88 pitches thrown and he wasn't throwing well.  His fastball was about normal and he was spotting it just OK, but his changeup was not moving as well as you want and at 86-87 it wasn't enough of a differential from his 92 MPH fastball.  When he threw it down the middle it was hit pretty well. 

Thanks to Judge's 2 HR's we were ahead 3-1.  All 14 of our runs in this series have been knocked via the HR.  That can be OK, but with so many key players out we will need some non HR's to knock in runs.

Holder came on in the 5th and was mediocre in that he allowed one of Happ's runs to score and then one of his was allowed on a bad play by Bird in the field.  First, I was very surprised that Holder started the 7th, I expected Green, Ottavino, Britton and Chapman to take the game from here.  Later, I learned that Boone, didn't want to use Britton 3 out of 4 days in a row; I can see that early in the year, but 3 out of 4 isn't so bad for only one inning.  Regardless, I would have used Green or Ottavino.  As it turned out, Holder hit Mullins and then allowed a single to Villar and Baltimore was in business with nobody out.  Ottavino was then brought in with 1st and 3rd and nobody out with the score 3-2 Yanks.  Chris Davis was brought in to pinch hit (an odd move as the guy hasn't had a hit in I believe 35 AB's (This year was 0-17 with 11 K's).  If you care the record is 46 AB's without a hit.  Anyway, miraculously, Davis hit a routine grounder to bird right on the line (almost foul) that Bird bobbled and then still tried to throw home and the runner beat the high throw.  A perfect throw most likely would not have been in time either, but once you bobble the ball you have to take the out. This was the 7th inning and it was the tying run not the go ahead, so you definitely take the out (probably do so even if it is the go-ahead as well).  After the bad play, it was 1st and 2nd nobody out and the game was tied.  After getting an infield pop up Baltimore stole 3rd on a very good throw from Sanchez that LeMehieu caught a little more out in front of the bag then you would like (more on this later).  The next guy hit a sac fly and we were down 4-3.

In the 8th, after 2 outs, Gleyber walked on 4 pitches and then LeMahieu lined a single to RF (he has been excellent so far).  Frazier came up and on a 2-2 count got a hanging slider that was right there and he didn't miss it for a 3 run HR!  Huge hit for him and the team.

Ottavino was still in and he was struggling in that his fastball didn't have much life and many of his sliders just didn't move (just spun).  He did walk the leadoff batter and then got 2 outs with the runner moving to 2nd base.  Green came in and on a 0-2 pitch hit the jersey of the batter for a very unfortunate HBP.  Fortunately, Chris Davis was up and actually hit the ball sharply but right at Bird for a short hop out. 

Chapman pitched the 9th for the save.

Some other notes:

• I mentioned the steal play where the ball was caught before the bag and then the fielder needs to reach back and tag the runner.  This happened on the play I wrote earlier at 3rd base and it also happened on a pickoff throw from Sanchez to Gleyber where he should have let the ball travel closer to the runner and we could have gotten an out.  Torres is usually good at that on straight steals almost catching the ball and tagging at the same time, but he didn't do it on the backhand (which is harder to do and why having a lefty first baseman makes it a lot easier to pick off a leading runner).
• Wade made a diving play up the middle where he hopped up quickly and made the throw to 1B in time.  It was by far the best play he has made in the field.  I was hopeful that maybe this would spark him at the plate as well, but he was 0-2 with 2 K's.  The Yankee brass keep talking him up, but he has not been able to hit at the major league level for us and as I have said many times, seems overmatched.  We will need him as I don't see any help on our roster right now.
• I stated the Happ was not sharp and that is true, but the HR he allowed in the first inning was not a bad pitch.  He put a fastball right on the outside black of the plate and while it was waist high, Mancini drove it to RF well.
• Bird made another weak play in the 4th inning as a ball was topped in between 1st and the pitcher and Happ got off the mound well but still had to go back (toward 2nd) to field the ball.  After gloving it he tossed it with his glove, instead of transferring it to the hand, and Bird never made it to the bag and it went as a throwing error (the runner went to 2nd). the throw didn't seem that bad, but the angle was not great to see if it went over the bag, but Bird was not decisive and ended up leaning toward fielding the ball rather than covering as he should have.  the reason why he would have to cover was that there was no play if Brid would have fielded the ball as Happ would never have been able to get to the base in time.  Bird didn't read it well.
• The Yankees had bases loaded and nobody out in the 6th inning and Sanchez got picked off of 3rd from the catcher.  Normally, I would be up in arms over this...especially after the boneheaded move Sanchez pulled at 2nd base the other night.  However, this time, Sanchez was not being lazy and was aware, but he simply stumbled on his way back and came off the bag.  He watched the play well and didn't get too far off and immediately went back, but he seemed to have caught his cleat either just before or on the bag which made him go over the bag into LF.  Terrible outcome for us, but it was a little unlucky.
• Boston lost on a walk-off single after almost having it happen on the previous play.  Betts threw a runner out at home on the previous AB, but the batter who hit the single continued to run to 2nd on the throw home so after the runner was out at home, Arizona still had a runner in scoring position; he ended up scoring the winning run on the next single.  It is sad we have to say that this was a heads up play to keep running just in case, but he did what he is supposed to do and it paid off.  Boston is now 2-8.

It Is Officially Baseball Season

You might ask why I would write the title of this post when we are more than a week into the season?  For me, Thursday's game was the first game where I was yelling/cheering at the TV; that means the games are starting to mean something. 

What got me excited?

The first inning, Sanchez took a foul ball off his throwing hand because he just leaves it hanging there waiting to get hit rather than hiding it until; he needs it.  It wasn't mentioned by anyone, but if you notice there was a moment where the ump took his time throwing the ball back to the pitcher and then took his team cleaning the plate (remember this is the 1st inning) and Sanchez was flexing is hand.  Not sure why these guys still leave themselves exposed; I have said this 30 times.

Also, in the first inning, Voit had a 3-1 count and swung at 2 very low changeups with Judge on 1B and struck out rather than taking the walk.  This was my first out loud "C'mon!"

There were a few bad calls that all went the wrong way for us from the ump behind the plate, so I was starting to agitated.

In the 6th inning, The Yanks trailed 4-1 and after Judge and Voit get out it looked like another tough game for us.  But Sanchez took a 1-2 fastball that was right on the outside corner and drove it over the CF fence for a HR.  Not much out of me other than, acknowledging the power.  After a Bird single and a LeMahieu single, Torres came up with 2 men on and 2 outs.  They were trying to pitch Torres outside as the catcher was lined up just off the plate outside.  But he missed badly and caught the inner part of the plate a little upstairs and Gleyber took it for strike one.  The catcher again tried to lineup off the plate, but this time he threw it right over the plate, but high (right on top of the strike zone) and Gleyber swung through it.  0-2 count, this time the catcher lined up even further outside, but the pitcher threw the pitch to the exact same location as strike two and Torres didn't miss it and hit a 3 run HR.  This got me pumped up as I yelled out "Yeah." 

I felt like we were getting terrible calls all game and it felt good to take the lead.  Judge had a pitch called a strike on him that was at least 6 inches too low. Later Judge had another on a 3-2 count where he was called out on a pitch that touched the white on the batters box.  Judge turned twice to the ump and jawed with him telling him that was not a strike.  Judge barely says anything and I am glad he said something; the umpire was terrible.  Those calls on Judge elicited some expletives from me, but it felt good to get into the game!

Voit made it easier on us with a 3 run dinger to put the game out of reach.

Boston lost!

Rough Start to Year

The main issue is the offense.  We made Boyd look like Sandy Koufax and the pitches he threw were not that great.  We struck out 18 times while only walking 4 times.  There were plenty of pitches to hit and we didn't take advantage of them.

I didn't think the umpire gave us a fair strike zone as strikes were called against us that were not called for us and this was most evident after an initial pitch was called a ball for Green and then his next pitch was deposited for a 2-1 lead in the 8th inning that held up.  That being said, we just didn't swing the bats well.  4 singles and 1 double isn't going to get it done.

Loaisiga did a decent job; he has really good stuff but has control issues.  That being said, he has a good arm.  His change could be a little better and slower as it is around 88 which is a little fast IMO.  His fastball is consistently at 95; so 7 MPH isn't terrible, but he would benefit from 8 or 9 MPH differential so he gets a little more sink at the end.  This brings me to something Michael Kay said, that really shows how little he knows.  He must have been reading something and he said that Boyd had the best mark in baseball as his changeup averaged 11.9 difference from his fastball.  Best? LOL, so if the difference was 14 MPH that would be better?  Nope, in fact, 11+ MPH is probably too much as it gives the batter a chance to reload.  The concept of a change is to keep the batter off balance and be out in front of the pitch and either pull it foul, get it off the end of the bat or swing too early.  It also is designed to change speeds and make the fastball look better.  This is why I don't listen too often as I fast forward in between pitches.  I do like Cone though!  I will say that Oneill had the best analysis he has given on hitting as he discussed guys opening up their hips for the inside pitch and then showed the plusses and minus' in doing so.  Normally, he is pretty generic and I think wrong in his comments and Cone usually shows "the other side."  Regardless, have to give Oneill credit and maybe he is coming around?

Back to the game - Judge made another excellent catch going back to the wall immediately and reaching his long arms up and making a catch on a bullet to the wall that I am not sure any other player could have made as his size made the difference.  Judge did give back as Torres smoked a ball to SS and Judge didn't get out of the way and got hit with the ball ending the inning.  Most likely, that would have been a single and Judge would have scored, even if he had to hold up as the ball might have split the OF's.  That should really not happen and in a 2-1 game could have been the difference.

Sanchez had another throwing error and this was his fault.  He made a nice backhanded scoop but should have eaten the ball instead of throwing down.  Many times you don't get a good grip on a pitch or get it out of the glove well, but you adjust your throw based on the placement of the ball on your fingers or even palm and Sanchez didn't and threw it low and toward 1st base again.  I think that is 4 throwing errors already.

In the 8th inning, Voit led off with a walk and I think Gardner should have been used to pinch run right away.  After 2 outs, Boone put Gardner in and then Gardner ended up being thrown out on a great throw.  My issue is that Gardner is not a guy who just goes in and steals right away.  He takes time to read the pitcher, plus if you were going to do it, why not give him the chance to score on a double with more hitters?  The odds of getting a double with 3 batters is greater than one batter or even a single where you go to 3rd are greater.?  It was as if they didn't think about it until 2 outs happened; that was a mistake.  I am not sure if Boone was asked about that, but if anyone knows, please send me an email or add it to the comments.

With Tulo out we have now lost 5 position players; that is crazy.  The only positive is that we should get most everyone back.

Boston won.

Pitchers Duel

This was a very good pitchers duel (Tanaka and Zimmerman), while each pitcher did make some mistakes, the majority of their pitches were on the black or just off the plate.  It was not a coincidence the score was 1-1 into the 9^th and only after a sac fly and a very bad break where the ball hit the bag and caused a double on what would have been an out. 

There were a lot of important and interesting AB’s, but I want to credit Frazier for laying off some good sliders and getting the ball to the OF and getting the sac fly.

Tanaka had a lot left in the tank as you could see he was starting to use his fastball more as the game went on and hit 94 (highest of the night) in the 7th as he started to let it loose, but I did feel it was good to bring in Ottavino to face the righties.  Ottavino looked great as he got a strikeout to end the 7th and then struck out their 2and 3 hitters, but with a lefty up I thought Britton would be used.  This goes against some of my thoughts of sticking with someone when they are hot, but it was just a feeling.  Their lefty hit one up the middle that got deflected and we barely got the out so it worked out to leave him in, but I would have handled it differently.  By handling it differently, Chapman would not have pitched the 9th in my scenario, but that is not really Boone's fault that Chapman had some control issues and after a walk, he threw a 95 MPH pitch down where a guy got his first major league hit.  This was Chapman's fault!   Chapman is really good, but he has the same issue as Betances sometimes where they just can't locate at all; very frustrating watching those struggles.

The lineup lacked juice with Wade at 2^nd base, Tauchman in LF, Romine behind the dish.  Frazier was the DH.  Further, Voit hasn’t been lining up the ball that well so we really didn’t have much juice.  I stated that Voit showed to be a real hitter and I didn’t think last year was a fluke, but he hasn’t been that sharp so far this year.  He did get hit on the hand so he may need a day or 2 to rest, but we need him with Stanton out.    Gardner is off to a bad start as well and he has to play with Hicks out.  Gleyber isn’t hitting much either, but a lot of the issues can be the cold as well; this is not really baseball weather.  This is why I hate having home games early, I would much rather them be on the road against the toughest opponents; these games early in the year in the cold are not good indications of how good or bad teams are so I would rather play the toughest out of division games on the schedule and be on the road.

I neglected to write about the excellent catch Judge made Monday night that might have saved the game.  His defense is really good when you combine his solid ability to get to the ball, his height and his great arm.

At least Boston lost 1-0

The Injuries Are Mounting

First, a word from the last two games against Baltimore:

                Ugh!

We play Baltimore 19 games this year and we want to win at least 14 of them.  We now have to go 13-3 for the remaining 16.

Game 2 – Paxton pitched very well.  He showed his live fastball and walked only one batter in 5.2 innings.  I like that we can ensure he doesn’t overextend himself but he should give us quality starts (5 or 6 innings of 2-3 ER types).  Tulo hit his 1^st homer by going the opposite way, but his swing still concerns me as it is a loopy uppercut.  He knows how to center a ball, but I think as he is aging it is harder to do.  Hopefully, he can continue being productive for us.  Sloppy game from the team with 3 throwing errors.  One of those early season games.

Game 3 – Happ simply couldn’t spot his fastball early and left his avg fastball in the middle of the plate and Baltimore took advantage of it.  Leaving 14 guys on base doesn’t help 2-12 with RISP).  I would not have brought in Tarpley with the game 5-4 in the 8^th; this was a time for one of our better pitchers.  This was a mistake as we have this great bullpen and we should take advantage of it.  Down 4-0 we had been scratching back and against a weaker team, we could have come back.  Unfortunately, Tarpley didn’t get the job done as he came in with 1 out and 1 on and allowed 2 runs to score.  We did mount a comeback scoring a run and having 2 guys on but Tulo struck out pinch-hitting for Gardner, waving at a slider that was well outside the strike zone.

Last night against Detroit:  I thought I was getting some April Fools jokes when I heard that Andujar may be out for the year and Stanton was out for a month, unfortunately, it was not a joke.  Hopefully, Andujar can rest for a month and be OK, but his throwing is already an issue and even if he didn’t deserve his throwing error that Bird should have caught, he still has an extra movement in his throw that stops him from having a crisp release; this injury could make it worse. 

Having LeMahieu now is very important and fortunately, you can see he can play defense.  He is not as comfortable at 3^rd base, but I think he will get there.

German, has very good stuff and I stated that I liked him last year, but it is frustrating when he can’t control his fastball well enough.  I don’t like 5 walks in 5 innings, but when you allow only 1 hit it is easier to swallow, even if hard to watch at times.

The bullpen took care of the last 4 innings.  Britton wasn’t sharp but his stuff can be so good that guys struggle to square up his sinker.  Chapman worked an easy 9^th and while he hasn’t hit even 99 in the cold, he located well. 

We will get to see what Wade can do; this is his chance to show what he is capable of.  He was mad he got sent down and now he must take advantage of his chances.

Some notes:

Sanchez has 2 HR’s and the one in the 2^nd inning showed off his power to straightaway center.  He took a slider out over the plate and extended with great power.  He still can’t receive well (the act of catching pitches softly and smoothly without jerking), but he has been much more active blocking.  His throwing has been off so far, but he will get it and honestly I thought two of his errors were on Torres as the ball faded toward 2^nd but Gleyber just didn’t move on two of them and the one last night would have been an out as it was an easy play for Torres.  That being said, Sanchez hasn’t thrown as well as he can.  Overall, I am happy to see what he has done and the effort behind home plate…He has not been lazy.

Glad to see Frazier up; he is very important to this team.  When you think about not getting Harper Frazier was one of the reasons (a lot of investment was obviously important as well) just like having Andujar was one of the reasons not to get Machado…time for Frazier to step up.

We have to fight through the injuries:

50% of our starting players: (Didi, Hicks, Stanton, Andujar) and the pitchers: (Severino, CC and Betances).  Shoot, even our top prospect, Estevan Florial broke his wrist.

2-2 and Boston is 1-4 (there one win was a comeback)