I was very interested in this game as I wanted to see how German pitched and see if his velocity got back to a more consistent 95 with some run and also that his change at 87-89 would have more of a difference. I also was very interested to see how the fans reacted to Altuve and the cheating Astros who won and beat us because of cheating. The worst part was the players didn't get into trouble.
I was immediately "feeling" baseball for the first time in a long time. Altuve stepped to the plate and the crowd of 10k or (a guess) was roaring! It was electric! Boy, did they let Altuve have it and plenty of signs showed the displeasure of a possible title and an MVP for Judge that was taken away by crossing the line in cheating. A big asterisk was on a bunch of signs...lol. Judge deserved it more than Altuve even with his cheating. Less informed people thought Altuve's .346 batting avg. outperformed Judges .284 BA even though Judge had 52 HR's and an OPS of 1.049 compared to Altuve's .957 OPS. 92 points of OPS is a lot. For perspective, as crossing 1.000 may throw you off, it is the same point difference as a guy with a .750 OPS and one of .842. To be fair, Altuve did steal 32 bases while being caught only 6 times (probably because he knew top run when a breaking ball was coming (nobody thinks about that) which would add about 30 points to his OPS, but 60 is still a lot. Judge had 114 RBI's to 82 and 128 runs scored to Altuve's 112. Playing 2nd base and getting that production is better, but Judge had a stellar defensive year so I would call that a wash. The Jury says Judge wins!
On to the fun game:
- Unfortunately, German left a 93 MPH fastball over the heart of the plate and Bergman deposited it
- The Yankee came back on a hanging breaking ball to Stanton who got it over the fence on a high fly to give us a 2-1 lead. His OPS is now .887 after this 4 hit game and his hot streak,
- The Yankees continued to get guys on base as Greinke was really struggling to throw strikes as Judge walked Gio singled and Torres walked (not even close on ball 4) to load the bases with nobody out and 2 runs in. Fraizer steps to the plate and Greinke misses twice in the dirt. I literally said out loud to my wife (she rarely listens) they should give him a take sign to stop him from swinging. Greinke throws ball 3 pretty far outside, but the seemingly low IQ Frazier swings at it. 2-1 count and Grienke throws another ball outside and high but Frazier swings and yanks it into a DP to kill the rally. I don't think he is a smart player. I want him to do well, but he really ticks me off. Frazier and his OPS of .557 is followed by the equally pathetic Hicks (.579). Hicks grounded out. We had the chance to blow that game open.
- German left another 93 MPH ball on the inner part of the middle and Brantley crushed it for a long HR to make it 3-2. After a single, Gurriel got a double off the top of the wall that Frazier actually overran and should have caught it. He got to a farther spot and kind of reached back a little and the ball landed behind him off the top of the wall. I was surprised none of the announcers caught the mistake.
- 3-3 in the 5th the Yankees correctly called a pitch out (have to give them credit as this is called from the bench and they have not called one all year (I don't think). Great job by someone! Higgy was a little slow getting to the spot but did get rid of it quickly and threw a strike. However, despite Kay saying that odor made a great tag, Odor actually took the throw too far in front of the bag and then did catch and swing the tag fast. But, you want to let the ball travel as far as you can in the best case is to have your glove moving with the ball as you catch it. He might have been a little late but he made up for it with a quick tag and it was enough to show in replay that the runner was out.
- There was a great 6-5-3 double play where the shift was on. With Torres playing a 2nd base position shaded up the middle and Urshela playing SS a ball was hit up the middle and Torres came across quickly, fielded it sliding and flipped it to Urshela who caught it and did a pirouette and then threw to first to complete the sweet DP.
- And now one of the more weird plays you will see as there was a lot wrong with it. Bases loaded and 2 outs with DJ up. He took two strikes before swinging at a low ball and dribbled it to 3B where the fielder barehanded and threw low to 1b. DJ would have been safe and one run should have scored, but the first baseman didn't smother the ball to make sure it didn't get by him. The ball did get by him allowing the 2nd run to score and then threw home in plenty of time to get the 3rd runner, but the catcher didn't handle the low throw and went to tag Odor coming home and they collided after Odor stepped on home plate. Both players were hurt on the play, but it was a terrible play by the catcher and also a cheap one. The reason why they collided was the bat was in the way of Odor sliding, so he went in standing up. There is no excuse for the bat to be there on such a long play. The umpire should have cleared it and when I played the ump would ask me to sometimes, but someone should have cleared it as it is dangerous and could cause the bat to also hurt the catcher. So many bad plays on one dribbler, but the outcome was a great one for us and led us to victory.
- The umpire was really bad, he didn't hurt us, in fact, he might have helped us, but I never knew what he was going to call. There were bad calls both ways and when you think about the bat, the ump had a bad game.
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