- Two Homers, Two Sac Flies: Second homer in as many games for Andrew McCutchen. He clubbed a two-run shot Friday night. On Saturday, it was a leadoff homer in the top of the first for a quick 1-0 lead. The Yankees scored their second run on Giancarlo Stanton’s fifth inning sacrifice fly. Brett Gardner and McCutchen drew back-to-back walks and moved up on a passed ball to set that up. Then, in the seventh, Austin Romine slammed a go-ahead opposite field homer. That is not easy in Safeco Field. Gleyber Torres plated an insurance run with a ninth inning sacrifice fly. Miguel Andujar got hit by a pitch, pinch-runner Tyler Wade went first-to-third on Adeiny Hechavarria’s jam shot single, and Torres brought him home. Homers and sac flies. The Yankees’ two favorite ways to score. They lead MLB in both this year (232 homers, 51 sac flies).
- Lynn Rebounds: Much better start for Lance Lynn, who got knocked around pretty good the last four times out. He held the Mariners to two runs in six innings. One scored on a Mike Zunino solo homer to dead center. The other scored on a single, two grounders to move the runner up, and Dee Gordon’s little jam shot bloop to shallow left. Gardner was playing in and he still couldn’t get to it. That’s how shallow the bloop was. Lynn’s line: 6 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 2 K on 76 pitches. Even with that pitch count, Lynn was starting to labor a bit in the sixth, and I thought it was a smart move to get him out of the game rather than let him face the middle of the lineup a third time. I would’ve been okay with pulling him after five, to be honest.
- The Bullpen: Scary ninth inning after Zach Britton and David Robertson breezed through the seventh and eighth. With a 4-2 lead, Dellin Betances loaded the bases with a leadoff double, a one-out hit batsman, and a one-out walk. Gah. Fortunately, Betances is awesome, and he stuck out Denard Span and Kyle Seager to escape the jam and close out the win. Ballgame over. Yankees win. Also, Dellin is up to 38 straight appearances with a strikeout, extending his AL record. Aroldis Chapman’s big league record of 49 games is within reach.
- Chasing Homer History: Romine’s homer was his tenth of the season. He has ten homers in 350 plate appearances this year after hitting seven homers in 711 plate appearances from 2011-17. Crazy. Anyway, the Yankees now have ten players with double-digit homers this year (Romine, Stanton, Torres, Andujar, Gardner, Aaron Judge, Aaron Hicks, Didi Gregorius, Gary Sanchez, Greg Bird). Neil Walker (nine homers) and Luke Voit (seven) have a chance to make it 12 double-digit homer guys before the end of the season. That would be a record. Only four teams in history have had eleven 10+ homers guys (2014 Tigers, 2015 Astros, 2016 Twins, 2017 Astros). Incredible.
- Leftovers: Two hits for Andujar and two hits for Torres. McCutchen, Hechavarria, Romine, and Gardner had one each. McCutchen, Voit, and Gardner drew the walks … Andujar exited the game after his take a pitch to the forearm in the ninth inning, but he’s fine. He was coming out for a pinch-runner and defensive replacement anyway … Sonny Gray warmed up in the ninth inning. I assume that’s because he’d hasn’t picked up a baseball in a while after going home to be with his wife when she gave birth to their second child earlier this week. He needed to throw a bit.
Here are the box score, video highlights, updated standings, and postseason odds. Here’s our Bullpen Workload page. The Yankees will look to complete the three-game sweep Sunday afternoon. CC Sabathia and Erasmo Ramirez are the scheduled starting pitchers for that one. It’s a 4:10pm ET start.
Source: FanGraphs