Rough Ending Going Into The ASG

I will get into the last two very close games, but I want to first point out why we don’t want our players playing in the All Star Game.  Playing the team in 2^nd place right before what should be three full days off, we rest Torres and LeMahieu and don’t start Sanchez behind the plate???  I find this absurd!   Regardless of whether we have guys going, I would not rest our players in a game against our closest competition, or the Red Sox for that matter.  I could care less about the ASG.  I think it was a mistake to rest our guys.

This was my reaction before Sunday’s game and the fact we swung the bats so poorly confirmed it.

Saturday's game.  

The first inning had me going as DJ got a leadoff single and Snell was paying so much attention to DJ that I took a mental note questioning why Snell was throwing over so often and keeping such close tabs on DJ?  DJ may be a leadoff guy, but he has attempted a SB on only 5% of the times he is on 1B.  After Judge took two very hittable pitches for strikes, he swung at a ball outside of the strike zone (this was the story of the Yankees for the last two games).  Hicks was up next, but DJ got picked off trying to steal 2^nd base!  This was shocking to me as Snell was paying so much attention to DJ (more than I have ever seen him get and more than Gardner gets) and then he tries to steal in that spot when there were so many other opportunities all year to steal?  It was a very odd decision.

We got what appeared to be a huge break by the ump, who was generous with his strike zone, in the 2^nd inning as it was 1^st and 3^rd with 1 out when Adames should have walked but was called out on a clear ball.  Unfortunately, the big break didn’t help (much) as TB singled in the run from 3^rd anyway.

Big moment in the 5^th inning as Judge was up with bases loaded and one out.  The first pitch was a hanging curve that judge took for a strike and then later got a fastball mistake that he fouled off and then another fastball mistake centered and flew weakly to RF and while the throw home was awful, holding Torres at 3^rd was the correct original decision.  Unfortunately, Hicks grounded out.

Chaz Roe had his slurve working great against the Yankees and Sanchez almost fell over with his knees buckling on a breaking ball that broke back into the strike zone.

BTW, Sanchez must have swung through almost 10 pitches.  While many were on the on the upper part of the strike zone as well as above the strike zone, he just kept missing. 

EE came up with the bases loaded and 2 outs and while he has been struggling, this seemed like an opportunity for him to get a huge hit for the Yankees.  Unfortunately, he had an excellent pitch to swing at, but got it slightly off the end of the bat and lined somewhat softly to LF.

The 9^th had drama as Hicks came to the plate trailing 3-2 with 2 outs and had an 0-2 count that he worked to 2-2.  He then lifted a game-tying HR that looked like the Yankees would do it again late.  However, Green came on and after getting the first two outs easily, he grooved a fastball that was hit into RF for a game-winning HR.

Sunday’s Game:

Now after that tough loss, we end up starting a guy at 2^nd base who most have never heard of and resting DH and Torres (back to my original rant).

Morton has been arguably the best pitcher in baseball this year and his stuff was electric again.  However, he left a lot of pitches right over the plate that we didn’t take advantage of.  A lot of that has to do with the speed and movement of his pitches, but when you are swinging well you take advantage of the mistakes and only Gardner was able to do this.

BTW, Brett has 15 HR’s!  That is shocking if you think that the most HR’s he has ever had was 21 (followed by 17) and that was done in 594 AB’s and his 15 HR’s has been done in 285 AB’s in what many thought may be his last year.  Brett has slowed in the field as we have seen him just miss a few he would have caught, but his defense is still really good in LF (mediocre in CF) and his OPS is .798 (the 2^nd highest mark of his career)

Not hitting the mistakes was our theme as our team only got 3 singles outside of Gardner and while we did rest some guys, there were a lot of very hittable pitches we missed in this game, especially from the bullpen. 

We had one real chance and that was in the 3^rd inning.  We had 1^st and 3^rd with nobody out and Hicks swung at 2 breaking balls that were balls and then they threw him a 3^rd breaking ball that was right down the middle and Hicks missed it.  Judge then had two fastballs to hit and fouled them both off before working the count full and taking ball 4 low; unfortunately, the ump called him out and this was a bad break and could have been the game changer.  Judge argued about as much as you will see and Boone could be seen cursing as well.  Terrible call that hurt as Didi flew out to end the threat.

The great stuff caused a lot but we missed strikes and swung at so many 3-2 pitches in the dirt; this is why we only scored 1 run!

Very tough way to go into the AS break, with an opportunity to get Tampa 10.5 games behind us, we end up only 6.5 ahead, but overall, we are doing great and I will get some stats out over the break.