The Streak is Over!

 ...And I hope we are starting a new one!  A 7 game losing streak in a 60 game season is the equivalent to a 19 game losing streak in a normal 162 game season.  That is a seriously bad run.  It was especially bad because the last 3 losses were all very tough ones.  Those three bad games started on Tuesday after the first loss of a doubleheader against Atlanta.  In the 2nd game, Tanaka was cruising and inexplicably, Boone made a bad decision taking Tanaka out.  Tanaka had retired his last 7 batters, allowed only 3 hits and no walks, and was in total command all 5 innings; his pitch total was 66 pitches.  Just because it was a 7 inning game, I would not manage differently.  Anyway, Tanaka was taken out and Green allowed an 0-2 single and then a HR to lose the game.  

The doubleheader on Friday against the Mets, where we lost both games in brutal fashion, closed out the losing streak.  In the first game, we blew a 4-0 lead going into the 5th (7 inning game) and a 4-1 lead going into the 6th.  Then in the 2nd game, we blew a 3-1 lead going into the 5th and a 3-2 lead going g into the bottom of the 7th where Chapman allowed a walk-off 2 run HR after walking the tying run.  This game was even worse because we had bases loaded and 2nd and 3rd with 1 out and didn't score.  The 2nd and 3rd situation was frustrating because Estrada walked on a 3-2 pitch that would have made it bases loaded with one out, but he was rung up on a curve from a lefty that never even made the outside part of the plate; it was a terrible call.

But, somehow, the Yankees overcame all that negative momentum 😊and won  2-1 on Saturday (on a wild pitch by our ex-teammate Betances).  On Sunday we had a doubleheader again and had a shocking comeback from being down 7-2 in the last (7th inning).  We got one guy on via a throwing error but then had 2 straight outs.  We then were given a walk and a HBP and then a single by Voit where Estrada (possibly the 3rd base coach) made what should have been a game-ending horrible decision to go to 3rd with 2 outs and didn't even slide.  However, the Mets 3B caught the ball and when tagging Estrada the ball kicked away from him giving the Yankees even more life.  Then a 3-2 pitch, Hicks lined a HR to tie the game.  We then scored the winning run in extra innings with 2 outs as Tauchman (starting at 2nd base) just got around the tag at home plate to have a huge win and a brutal loss for the Mets.  It was the 1st time in 20 years the Yanks had come back from 5 runs in the last inning (and were given 2 errors, a walk and a HBP to do so).  

The second game of the DH was another good one for a variety of reasons.  1) It was a close game throughout and went into extra innings, 2) the Yankees won on a pinch-hit grand slam by Sanchez and 3) we got to see one of our top prospects pitch and he didn't disappoint.  Devi Garcia, 21, has a young Pedro kind of feel about him.  He doesn't throw as hard as Pedro, but throws 90-94 and was mostly around 93.  But he has good spin rates and life to his fastball.  He also has a very good curve and changeup as well.  Garcia went 6 innings allowing 4 hits and no walks striking out 6.  He did allow an unearned run thanks to Voit misplaying a grounder, but it was encouraging.  He missed a lot of spots but he was effectively wild and was not afraid to throw inside to righties.  

Some quick notes:

• I don't like the starting at 2nd base in extra innings, It is too artificial, just end the game in a tie if you don't want to play longer...or just play 3 more innings and then tie if nobody wins at that point.  Why are ties such an issue?
• In college, I played two 7 inning games or one 9 inning game, but I don't really like a hybrid.  I get why this year, but in general, my feeling is every game should be roughly the same and 7 inning games are just different.  I know we have rain outs after 5 games, but I always felt those games should be continued as well.  I am more OK with 7 inning DH's than I am with the runner starting at 2nd base
• That running play where Estrada should have been tagged out at 3rd base really ticked me off and so did Etrada getting called out on that 3-2 pitch.
• I have a little more confidence in Britton to close than Chapman.  Both guys scare me with Sanchez behind the plate as wild pitches or passed balls are commonplace
• It is amazing the amount of injuries we are having again...Where is teh overhaul of our medical staff?.
• a 3 game winning streak is about an 8 game winning streak.  We are more than halfway through teh year...yeah, halfway already.

The Save

I will post about the most recent game and confirm comments I have made many times.  I believe managers use their closer's differently because of the save rule.  Last night was a great example.  The Yankees had used all their most reliable relievers going into the 9th inning and had a 4 run lead.  Why not just bring your closer in at that moment?  I get that 4 runs is more than 3, but the goal is to win the game while also setting yourself up for a better chance of winning in the future.  Bringing in Britton, does not accomplish the latter, but clearly reduces your chances in the present game.  It reduces your chances in a few ways, first, the closer will not be in as good a mental and even physical spot if he has to come into the 9th inning after it has started.  He has to loosen up just in case, but does have to start to throw (not just stretch).  If he has the 9th from the start, he is preparing and timing his throwing to coincide with the end of the bottom of the 8th.  Second, with the new rule, this makes even less sense, as the reliever must face at least 3 batters so the game could be a lot closer if you feel the need to go to your reliever.  I don't believe the closer will be as sharp being in limbo.  I know that this may be opinion and I usually need some facts to back this up, but the new rule is, well, new and I am not sure if there are specific stats about not starting the 9th for a closer and what their OPS against is compared to starting the 9th?  It is probably somewhere, but I don't have it.  At the end of the day, if Britton is ready to pitch the 9th, don't screw around with Holder, just bring in Britton and close out the game.  Yes, Holder could have pitched a perfect 9th, but Britton still stretched and had to do some throwing so it isn't like he had a full day rest (remember I am a fan of giving a guy a full day off with no actvility as that is a true day off.)  Finally, there is a chance that Britton is not needed the next game in a Yankee blow out or a loss where he isn't needed.  In this case, we had a day off so even more reason to close out the win!

I want to go back to the loss against the team that is our largest competition in our division (TB).  The Yankees were up 3-0 going into the bottom of the 7th inning.  Paxton was pitching well but I would have taken him out and locked in those 6 good innings and built off of that.  He had 81 pitches and I believe the pitchers are still not up to full strength; especially Paxton who is 3-4 MPH under his norm.  8 pitches later, including an 0-2 pitch hit for a 2 run HR, the score was tied and we had one out.  We end up losing the game because of this decision and some continued awful defense by Sanchez.  He allowed another ball to not be blocked that probably should be and with the runner on 3rd base, I believe Britton is reluctant to throw his heavy sinker because a PB or WP is likely.  

While on Sanchez, he has had numerous WP's that should have been blocked and already a few passed balls.  His defense is worse and this idea of getting down on one knee was a bad one; it didn't make sense to me when I heard about it and the outcome has been terrible so far.  Further, his hitting has been horrible.  He did hit a HR yesterday after having a really good AB the previous day that ended with a bullet for an out, but he is still struggling mightily.  Maybe he is coming out but his overall numbers are a .454 OPS hitting .104 with 25 K's in 48 AB's

Frazier had a great game last night, coming across and making a decent running catch in RF and going 3-4 with a HR and a double!  It would be great if he can contribute

Gardner is still a step slower and another ball yesterday fell in that he would have had in the past.  His offense has also been weak.  Hitting .171, but 3 HR's has his OPS at .676 (not good but not terrible)

DJ is now hitting .431 and while he doesn't have much power or walk a lot, his OPS is still at 1.048.  He needs to hit .330 because of the lack of power and walks.  His defense has been a little shakier than normal, but he is such a great guy to have on the team in so many ways...and fun to watch.

With Stanton out, this may be a big time for Ford to show that last year was not a fluke.  He is lefty which is helpful, although last year in only 33 AB's against southpaws he had more HR's than he did against righties 100+ AB's against righties.  His OPS was 1.389 against lefties and .766 against righties.  While not statistically valid, he is 0-5 against lefties this year and has a .734 OPS against righties in only 22 AB's.  If I had my choice, I would rather him be awful against lefties and a .800+ OPS against righties; our team is so right dominant.

The final comment is about Torres.  I feel comfortable he will turn it around, but he is struggling badly (.509 OPS).  He was up in a big spot with the bases loaded and 2 outs and struck out on 3 pitches.  His defense won't be as good/steady as Didi's, but after hitting really well for his two years, I am comfortable he will hit much better; 50 OPS points better than Didi is a good number to look at.  Right now he is 265 OPS points behind Didi, so it will be interesting to watch.

7-1 Start!

Quick recap on the two Oriole games

•  When Cole is on the mound you feel like this game is ours.  I am not sure why Boone let Cole go out there for the 7^th inning after getting through 6 innings with one run and we had a 7-1 lead?  Cole did end up allowing 2 runs in the 7^th and threw 102 pitches.  Why stretch him to 100 in that situation and so early in the year (his 2^nd start?) 
• Judge and DJ were the hitting stars as DJ picked up 4 hits and Judge homered.
• In the 2^nd game against Baltimore, Happ was just not sharp and 4 runs in 4 innings tells the same story.
• O’neill says a lot of things that I just disagree with.   He talks about momentum being so important and while he has come around a little on statistics, he is very far away from reality on them still.  I won’t go into all of Oneill’s comments, but Cone is on the other spectrum and I am a large fan of Cone’s.  One of Oneill’s comments about a mediocre pitcher on Baltimore was, “his changeup is bar far his best pitch… outside of his fastball”   Really???
• The Yankees scored 5 in the 1^st and fell behind 6-5 going into the 9^th before Judge stepped up and hit a 3 run HR
•  Loaisiga allowed the 2 runs in the 8^th, but he looked very good.  His breaking ball was very sharp and he also was throwing 96-97.  He had some control issues at first, but he will be a big part of our team.
•  Britton was very sharp in getting the save

Quick recap on the Red Sox 3 game series at empty Yankee stadium.

•  This Boston team is simply not a threat to us in its current makeup. 
•   Sanchez – He has great bat speed and will hit a lot better, but he is lost at the plate and his defense is annoying the heck out of me.  This one leg down thing is a bad idea and it will start to hurt his blocking ability.  I stated in my previous post that his thigh was exposed, but with nobody on base I saw he was protecting his thigh with his open throwing hand…so his thigh should be fine…I don’t understand what the Yankees are doing with him defensively, but it is wrong.
• Montgomery did a nice job of mixing up his pitches and throwing strikes.  5.2 ininngs with one run
• Chad Green came in and was dominant in 2 innings striking out 4.  I liked that he worked in his breaking ball more.
• Saturday’s game I missed as I didn’t record it so I don’t have much to say other than Judge homered again, Torres committed his 3^rd error (There will be a lot) and the pitcher Nick Nelson had a hitless 3 innings of relief striking out 4.  I watched some highlights and he looked to have a decent slider a good change and a 96-98 MPH fastball!
• Sunday’s game had a lot going on in it.
•  Paxton usually throws 95-96 MPH and he had his lowest velocity game in many years (maybe ever in the majors) as he was about 92.  He was 3-4 MPH lower than normal and that is significant and it showed poorly in his performance
• Hicks misplayed 2 balls into doubles that he probably could have caught both of them.  Hopefully, that was just a glitch in the matrix.
• Paxton bounced a pitch well in front of the plate and because Sanchez had his knee down, he didn’t move at all and the ball ricocheted off of him to the backstop.  This moved the runner to 3^rd and then Paxton was reluctant to throw another breaking pitch with Sanchez’ lack of ability and threw a fastball that was hit for a 2 run 2 our HR.  Sanchez is a mess around the dish right now.  At least he got an important hit and his first extra-base hit of the year.  He is now 2-22 with only one walk and 12 strikeouts
• Andujar is only 1-8 but he should be able to hit well.  He did boot a single and turned it into a triple with poor fielding of a grounder (ironically)
• Gardner has not looked good so far having only 1 hit in 16 AB’s…it was a HR though.  His fielding has not been sharp either.
• Tauchman will probably see a little more duty all over as he may be our 2^nd best OFr..  Normally Hicks can play defense in CF better than Tauchman, but we want to keep everyone healthy. 
• I wouldn't be shocked if Britton kept the closer job.
•  Judge has been amazing.  Not only did he double off a runner from the field, but he has also had huge hits that were game-winners (last AB).  Judge now has 6 HR’s and 14 RBI’s in 8 games.  For perspective, if this was a 162 game year that would be 122 HR’s and 284 RBI’s in a year J

And finally, I have discussed this many times, in fact, scroll down a few posts to the 10-30 one and I go into this again.  This is about the play where there is no stretch from 1B on a play in front of the plate.  This allows a lot of close plays to be safe when they should easily be out.  In this case, you can see the huge difference in not stretching and in fact, not even getting the feet correct and gaining one foot, let along 3 feet easy.  He was still barely out, but the next time maybe not.  Where the ball is would already be in the mitt with a even a slight stretch.  You can also see the feet where they are in line with the invisible line to 2nd base.  Luke is also toward the back of the back of the bag and not on the side.  I get not being able to use your right foot on the bag even if that got you your best stretch, but just stand up from your desk and do what Voit is doing (his arm isn't even stretched) and then take a long stride with your right foot and extend your arm...how many extra feet would you get?  3-4 feet?  This is almost all first baseman as well as I have documented.  It amazes me this still goes on.

Great start to the year, but all the Covid cases concern me as to what will happen as we move forward.  Also, what happens if the Yankees get hit later in the year when the playoffs start?