Baltimore Is The Cure

The Yankees have beaten the orioles 11 straight at home.

Montgomery showed some good stuff yesterday.  Nothing jumps off the page, but his fastball was 92-94 with some movement, his Cutter was about 89 MPH and he used it against righties, his change was about 83 MPH with a good sinking tail, and his curve was pretty sharp at around 80 MPH.  That is a nice repertoire.   He hung a change a few times and made some bad pitches, but that is a good arsenal to be effective and it is about spotting the pitches for him.   

Baltimore is usually a cure for Yankee woes and with Baltimore hot off of a 3 game sweep of Boston (that sounds good), nothing was for sure, but Montgomery Cessa and Chapman shut them out with 4 hits, 2 walks and 13 k's.  Montgomery didn't walk anyone but allowed all 4 of the hits. 

My notes:

Sanchez had a long way to go for a pop-up and overran it and ended up missing the pop-up.  When he tried to stop he was at the top of the Yankee dugout and his metal cleats lit up a spark as he tried to break.  Cone said, his cleats were like a sparking match and that was the first time he had ever seen that.

I think Gleyber stays back on ground balls too much; he needs to have more of a sense of urgency.  I think with the Yankees locking up DJ, the only place for Gleyber will be 3rd base.  Maybe the plan is dealing with poor defense for a few years and then moving on from Gio, who is 29 now.  Gio is arbitration-eligible for the next 2 years and then a UFA.  

The Yankees must have swung at 8 pitches in 4 games that almost hit them inside

I have listened to the announcers a little more than normal for me (I usually don't because I am fast-forwarding) and they were talking about Hicks being too patient.  Yes, there is such a thing as being too patient, but in this case, they were trying to find what was wrong with Hicks and using that as a reason which was not accurate.  The truth is that this is only 4 games and he has not swung the bat well and he actually has swung at a lot of bad pitches.  Poor announcing, mostly from Kay and Oneil over the weekend.

After 4 walks, Stanton absolutely crushed a 471 foot Grand Slam!  The pitch was grooved, but for perspective on how far of a blast it was, Judge's HR was 330 feet.  That being said, 1 for 12 is not going to cut it for Stanton even if he would still be on a pace for 200 RBI's.

The Yankees were up 7-0 and Judge was up with the bases loaded.  A new pitcher came in and he threw 4 straight fastballs for a 3-1 count.  The strike was fouled back by Judge.  He should be sitting for nothing but heat here, but instead, he took a fastball right down the middle.  This was surprising but with the count 3-2, he should stay looking for the fastball and he got it but he fouled it off.  He should take the same approach but for some reason Judge took a called 3rd strike on a fastball right down the middle? This was very surprising, what could he have been thinking?

In speaking about Chapman's new splitter, Kay asked if Chapman would have the guts to throw his 4th best pitch in a key spot?  Cone, being nice, said that is an excellent question and then had a good answer.  He basically stated that it is about confidence but the good thing about the pitch is that when the fastball is off, the slider is his next pitch and that works better against lefties.  The splitter is now something he can throw to a righty.  This doesn't preclude him from throwing a slider to a righty or the splitter to the lefty, but Cone's point was correct.  I think it is a good pitch and that is what is exciting.  It has good drop and just a little left to right movement, but it is at around 89-90 MPH, his slider is at about 85 MPH and his fastball is around 98 on avg.  That is a nice repertoire.  he actually threw 100 3 or 4 times last night.  The big issue with him is the walks.  It appears that he controls his slider better than his fastball and that will be interesting to monitor.

Fun point - during the game, they showed video of when Mattingly played 3rd base and he made some very good and aggressive plays there.  He was a magician in the field (and at the plate).  I wish he were part of the Yankee leadership team; that is one thing that would have been good

I still don't think the Yankees are swinging really well.  They are missing hittable pitches and taking a lot of good pitches.  7 walks and a grand slam help it look better, but we will improve.