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