There is a lot to write about in last night’s
game...buckle up...
The ump behind home plate did not have a good
game; probably a little more against us than for us, but just not
consistent. The Seattle coach (Lloyd
McClendon who went to Valpo and was there as a catcher before me) got thrown
out after two check swing calls. The first
was when Gardner tried to check his swing but went a little too far, but the 3rd
base umpire didn’t think so. What made
it look bad was Gardner took a step toward the bench thinking he would get
called out. It was a dumb move by
Gardner and I have no idea why he would have “given up” when it was not without
question. Anyway, the Seattle bench was
pissed and later when ARod clearly held up on a check swing and walked
McClendon flipped out and he and the catcher got tossed.
Gardner later in the game thought there were
three outs on a fly to CF and runners on 1st and 2nd. It didn’t hurt us as the runner would have
tagged anyway and the runner from first did not advance to 2nd, but
get your head in the game Gardner. I don’t
know Brett, but he doesn’t have great baseball smarts…probably why he can’t
read pitchers well when stealing. A guy
with his speed should steal 40 bases in his sleep and probably 50+.
CC still needs more than 6 MPH drop on his
changeup. I can’t believe this
adjustment has not been made yet? The
opposing rookie had 10 MPH and their closer has closer to 12. I think that is a little too much but it is
an outstanding change Rodney has. 8-10
is ideal for me in most cases. A good
example of not enough off the change occurred when CC spotted his change well
on the outside corner to a righty and he was a little out in front but hit it
solid enough to get through the hole.
The way the batter turned over on an outside pitch it should have been a
slow grounder and an easy play. A few
MPH less and that is off the end of the bat.
The Yanks left 2nd and 3rd
two outs as Headley got out and then in the bottom of the inning Seattle did the
same thing. In the Seattle inning, I
have no idea why the Yanks would throw Cano back to back fastballs on the inner
half of the plate when he was waving at breaking balls? More on this later…but this led to a run as
Cruz singled in a run.
CC got ticked off when Seager tried to bunt
against him with 1st and 3rd and 2 outs. CC made the easy play but was all fired
up. I have no idea why he is pissed
off. CC is a horrible and lazy fielder
so they should try and take advantage of it.
The only surprise was he bunted down 3rd and CC falls that
way so he did CC a favor.
In a huge spot Headley committed another error
on what could have been a DP, he stepped back and caught an in between hop and
he should have charged it. He is known
as a good fielder, but he has struggled a lot for us this year.
Tex was called out on what should have been
ball 4…the pitch was low and probably inside too…bad call.
CC was pulled for Carpenter in the bottom of the
6th inning with 2 outs and 1st and 3rd. I don’t have any faith in CC so I was Ok with
the move. Carpenter isn’t trust worthy
either though and allowed a single to break the tie and give Seattle a 2-1
lead. He got the next guy out to end the
inning though. Carpenter throws hard but
he needs his breaking pitches to be better.
He threw 4-5 sliders and none were close enough to even be offered at
and when he came back with the fastball he allowed the single.
The top of the 7th saw a huge
opportunity literally slip away as Gregorius lined a single leading off and
then we got a break when JR Murphy blooped a single to RC, however coming
around 2nd base, Didi lost his footing and got tagged out. Instead of 1st and 3rd
nobody out in a key spot in the game we had man on 1st with 1 out
and we didn’t score. It looked to me as
Didi spent too much time looking at the fielder and got too close to 2nd
base and then took the turn very wide (instead of cutting the base) and then
tried to cut it sharp on the dirt and lost his footing. Next time he should pick up the 3rd
base coach. Didi has been better of late with a .727 OPS
over his last 14 days which is much better than his .560 OPS prior.
Shreve did a good job in the bottom of the 7th
feeding Cano breaking balls and striking him out. He did get away with a fastball that Cruz
just missed as he left it out over the plate but then followed up with a
changeup that worked perfectly to strike him out. Just so you don’t think I am second guessing
all the time, I hated the fastball call as I felt that the change could get
Cruz, but it worked out.
Lindgren pitched in 8th. His fastball has some sink too it but I was
not impressed. He threw so many balls
and he was fortunate they swing at a lot of balls. His command will need to get much better to
effective. That being said, even after
not fielding a throw he should have from Tex that only a tiny bit behind him,
he didn’t allow a run against the weak bottom of the Seattle batting order.
We entered the 9th down by one and
Headley was smart against Rodney taking a pitch and ended up not swinging at
all and walking on 6 pitches. Now
Beltran came up against Rodney (who has had control issues this year) and swung
at a first pitch changeup and flew out. This
ticked me off. I could see swinging at a
first pitch fastball in a zone, but an outside changeup was very undisciplined
and as you know I like to work the counts and occasionally jump on a first
pitch. After Didi struck out on 3
changeups we were down to our final out.
Girardi correctly went to McCann who kept us alive with a single the
other way (McCann seems to be the only player who tries to beta the
shift). Now we had Drew up with the game
on the line. The only guy on the bench
is the rookie Flores so I understood leaving in the terribly disappointing
Drew. After getting an outside pitch
that should have been called a strike and then taking another strike we were
down to our final strike. They wanted a
fastball outside (and for a ball), but Rodney missed terribly and came inside
with a fastball that drew ripped down the line for a game tying double! Gardner could now give us the lead, but he
grounded out to SS
Betances walked the leadoff hitter on a pitch
that was better than the 3-0 strike and it was a strike. But he was able to K the pinch hitter and
then after a bunch of breaking balls threw a 99 and 98 MPH fastball above the
letters to Cano who swung through them for another K. He then got the dangerous Cruz to send us
into extra innings.
Jones led off with a single and after ARod popped
out to LF (he didn’t swing well last night) and a walk to Tex, Headley came up. Headley hit a bullet to the first baseman who
was going to try and go to 2nd but couldn’t get a handle on the ball
and when he turned back to first their pitcher had started to back up 3rd
or home and Headley (who ran hard out of the box from the start) beat the 1st
baseman to load the bases with one out.
Beltran was up with a chance to redeem himself (to me) after swinging at
the first pitch last time. This time the
first two pitches were balls and then after taking a strike and fouling off a
few he grounded into a DP to end the inning.
Ugh.
Wilson came in to pitch the 10th
with 2 lefties out of 3 coming up and he allowed a single to LF on a good pitch
(good hitting). Weeks then popped up a
bunt that Wilson did a full out dive for and then got up and threw to first on
a hop to double off the runner. Huge
play and also a good play by Drew who smoothly picked up the one hop throw that
was also off line.
Didi led off the 11th with a single
and McCann came up against a righty.
They didn’t have the heavy shift on so the bunt was not an automatic
play (it would be for me if they had the shift on), and McCann hit into a
DP. Drew singled to keep the inning
going and then Gardner hit a double to LC that gave us 2nd and 3rd
with 2 outs. Man that DP loomed large as Garrett Jones stepped to the plate as
Seattle went to the lefty Beimel. After
two off speed balls, Jones was sitting on a fastball and he got one over the
middle of the plate and at the knees and he deposited it over the RC fence for
a 3 run dinger!!!
In came Miller who struck out Ruggiano before
losing the touch on his slider and throwing a fastball to Castillo who singled
to LF. Still struggling with his slider
Miller hit Jackson on what would have been ball 4 anyway. Now with a lefty up Miller got his slider
going for a 1st pitch strike and then stuck with it getting Miller
to pop out for the 2nd out.
Cano was now up and I said I would get back to this earlier. I know that the slider left Miller for one or
2 batters but he had it back in the last AB and Cano loves swinging at the first
pitch. The slider was the call. Unfortunately they gave Cano a fastball and
he singled scoring a run and cutting the lead to 2 and the 18 HR Cruz stepped
to the plate as the winning run. Two
sliders had him at 1-1 before throwing 97 on the inside corner and Cruz watched
it. You could see the look was wow that
was a tough pitch…especially after the sliders.
After another ball, he struck out Cruz to end the game. WHEW
Great production from Drew and Jones giving us
unlikely stars of the game!
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