Well, eventually one of those guys was going to give up a run. Ryan Zimmerman hit an opposite-field walk-off homer against Andrew Miller in the 10th inning to deliver a crushing 8-6 loss to New York. What’s even worse is that the Yankees had a 6-2 lead going into bottom of the fifth and they failed to hold it. A win against one of the hottest teams in baseball would have been huge for the Yankees. Instead, they now have dropped six of the last seven.

Nate “Eh”valdi

He’s a young guy and he has makings of being a better pitcher. Tonight, he once proved again that he can please and be infuriating in a same outing.

In the first inning, Nathan Eovaldi allowed two bombs – one to Ian Desmond and another to Bryce “overrated” Harper. For both pitches, however, it wasn’t like Eovaldi served up an absolute meatball – Desmond’s homer came from a veering fastball on the lower outside corner and Harper lifted a low slider that somehow carried out of the right center wall. What power that 22-year old has.

But after that, Eovaldi seemed to have settled in. From second to fourth inning, the righty allowed only one baserunner – a walk to Harper – and struck out four. That was probably three of the best innings from Eovaldi we’ve seen this season.

In the fifth inning, however, the Nats’ bat barraged Eovaldi with four consecutive hits that scored three runs. The 6-2 Yankee lead became a 6-5 lead, and Joe Girardi pulled him out as Harper came up to bat. See, this was just like watching the eighth inning Nate’s previous start – cruising along only to allow baserunners bit by bit. It’s annoying, especially considering the velocity he has.

All good things must end
We are definitely used to seeing Miller and Dellin Betances throw scoreless frames. In fact, that’s literally all they had done so far this season. With the game tied at 6 in the eighth inning, Betances came in and threw two scoreless innings – striking out three, walking one and allowing zero hits.

Girardi turned to Miller to pitch the tenth inning. When he came in, a lot of eyes turned to the eventual Miller vs. Harper battle, a matchup of two of the hottest performers in baseball. With runner on first, Miller struck out Harper after going into a full count. Because Miller was being Miller and the biggest offensive threat was out of the way, I assumed that Yankees would get out of the inning unscathed…

…then Ryan Zimmerman happened. The Nats first baseman hit the outside fastball on the screws and the flyball hit the right field foul pole for a walk-off homer. Miller finally has an ERA – 0.98 – and quite frankly, it’s a bit disheartening to see that. Let’s hope Dellin’s stretch goes quite further.

Let’s talk about Carpenter

I was quite excited when Yankees turned Manny Banuelos into David Carpenter in the offseason. The righty was one of the best eighth inning guys for the playoff-bound Braves in 2013 and had a good 2014 season. In 2015, as a Yankee, Carpenter has just not been good. After allowing a game-tying homer to Wilson Ramos tonight in the sixth inning, he has a 5.28 ERA with a 5.56 FIP. That’s pretty bad, especially for someone who was seen as the seventh inning guy in the offseason. That was probably the spot Chris Martin would have pitched had he not gone down with an injury. Martin is by no means a thoroughly reliable reliever but he does have a 3.55 ERA and a stellar 2.04 FIP.

But then again, I was hoping that Carpenter would figure things out sooner or later – and I still do feel that. But with the team in a 1-6 funk, the last thing the Yanks needed was blowing a close lead against a very good and hot team. Urgh.

Leftovers

Mark Teixeira is one of the players that shaved off the mustache prior to tonight’s game but that did not affect his bat at all. He went 2-for-3 with a two-run homer and two walks. His line has bumped up to .258/.380/.602, good for a 161 wRC+. Hoo man. Imagine if his wrist still hasn’t healed.

Losing Jacoby Ellsbury hurts. He had a 126 wRC+ coming into tonight’s game with the team-best 1.3 fWAR. The team is not doing well and one of the last things Yankees needed was losing their speedy leadoff man. Here’s to hoping that Heathcott can do a decent job patching up the lost production. That would be awesome. Get well soon, Jacoby.

Stephen Drew had a rare multi-hit game. He went 2-for-4 and hit a go-ahead 2-run single in the fourth inning. I feel like every time Drew has a performance like this, Rob Refsnyder’s ML debut gets delayed by… I dunno, two or three weeks or so.

Box Score, WPA, Standing

As always, here’s the box score, WPA and updated standings. Yankees are still in the first place but they share the spot with the Rays now.

Source: FanGraphs

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Tomorrow, the Yankees will face off the Nationals again in Washington. RHP Adam Parish Warren will be on the hill. If he can repeat the 7-inning 3ER performance from the previous start against the Rays, that would be dandy – provided that the offense can score more than three, of course. Also, I will be at the game. It will be my last night as a college student. Time to live it up.

It’s not often you see a game where Chris Young (the pitcher) is more unhittable than Michael Pineda. Well, that’s just baseball. It’s also not often you see a game where Yankee pitching seemed to have imploded despite starting their staff ace. It wasn’t just the pitching though – the bats went pretty quiet, collecting only five hits and a run. Overall, this was a match that made me want to fall asleep early to forget.

Oh yea, they’ve also lost four in a row. That’s not pleasant either.

5.1 IP, 10 hits allowed, 1 K,

If I told you before the game that Big Mike was going to pitch this poorly, would you have believed it? Probably not. Well, the Royals are very contact-oriented team. Entering tonight’s game, their hitters have the lowest strikeout rate with a 14.6% – the next lowest in the list is the Braves at 16.7%. I didn’t think he was going to strike out 16 hitters again but not gonna lie, it was just weird to see him not punch out anyone until the fifth inning.

Well, no strikeouts aside, up to five innings, Pineda was throwing a decent start – he had allowed only 2 runs and the score was a close (2-1). In the sixth inning, however, all heck broke loose. Alex Gordon doubled to lead off the inning and Pineda induced a grounder from Salvador Perez, which advanced the runner to third.

With one out and a runner on third, the Yankees hoped to prevent a run by playing infield and outfield in, but Omar Infante drove a meatball into way deep outfield for a RBI triple. 3-1 Royals. You’d think that allowing a booming XBH to a hitter with 68 wRC+ would get Pineda out of the game, but Joe Girardi let him face Paulo Orlando. The outfielder hit a single to drive in another run and then Pineda was out. Engh.

I’m not too worried about Big Mike after this start. He’s a good pitcher and good pitchers do go through rough patches because they are human. His velocity wasn’t outrageously low or anything. Sometimes hitting beats good pitchers and that’s pretty much how I see it happened tonight.

Bullpen Implosion

So we have Dellin Betances and Andrew Miller, great! But Yankees didn’t really get to use either tonight. I was hoping that David Carpenter would somehow get the Yankees out of the jam at 4-1, but, alas, life isn’t perfect. He induced a grounder that Stephen Drew fielded, but the second baseman botched the toss to Didi Gregorius – all runners were safe. Girardi didn’t waste any time and pulled the right-hander out for Justin Wilson. Welp.

The lefty faced five hitters and got only one out. It took three singles and a walk for Joe to pull him out and put in… Jose Ramirez. Mercifully, the young righty got New York out of the inning but he allowed three more runs in the next inning before getting substituted for Branden Pinder. So when it was all said and done, it was seven earned runs allowed by the Yankee bullpen in 2.2 IP. They also allowed three walks and struck out only one. As Pusha T would say, yuck.

Leftovers:

Yea this was a pretty forgettable game offense-wise. Mark Teixeira did go 2-for-3, A-Rod hit that booming double to lead off the fourth inning and scored the lone Yankee run and… besides that, meh.

Box Score, WPA, Standings:

Here’s the box score and updated standings. And, of course, WPA.

Source: FanGraphs

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Yankees have a 7:10 PM EST start tomorrow. The big lefty Sabathia goes against Danny Duffy. First win since Monday or a five-game losing streak? We shall see.

So we not only witnessed A-Rod move up the all-time home run ranks, the Yankees also defeated one of their division rivals to start off the home series. When you look at results, not much to complain about, right? Well, it was a stressful one to watch but the bottom line is, New York won using some power hitting and a  shutdown bullpen, which seems to be a formula that’s worked well enough to lead the division.

No. 661

The inevitable has happened and it could have happened few innings earlier. First inning, with two runners on, Alex Rodriguez hit a towering fly ball to the opposite field. For a moment, it looked like Rodriguez was going to get a Yankee Stadium-aided homer … but none other than Delmon Young timed the jump right to rob it. Granted, it looked like a fly ball that a lot of outfielders would have been able to catch, but what if?

But you know what, A-Rod got another big fly two innings later. It was hit quite deep and no one had a chance to catch it. In fact, it landed left to the Monument Park, so yeah. If you want to hit a milestone homer, might as well as hit it big. And of course, that dinger put A-Rod ahead of Willie Mays for the No. 4 spot on the all-time home run list. Next up? Babe Ruth (714) for No. 3 spot.

One of those outings:

Here is Nathan Eovaldi’s line from tonight:

5.2 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 3 BB, 3 K

First off, I wish he was able to finish the sixth inning just so the line looks neater (6, 6, 3, 3, 3, 3. Eh? Eh?) but Joe Girardi doesn’t care about that. Secondly, tonight’s start illustrated what keeps Eovaldi from taking his skills to the next level — making mistake pitches that result in hard contacts and the inability to finish off a hitter with a strikeout, which is frustrating given his gifted arm strength. But he’s still young and it’s up to him to learn and adapt.

I should also note that Eovaldi gave up two homers tonight — one to former Yankee minor leaguer Jimmy Paredes (who is hitting for a torrid 178 wRC+ in 65 PA this season) and Caleb Joseph. His 2015 HR/9 rate is now at 1.32, which is double his career figure of 0.66.  Oh well. It’s one of the drawbacks of moving to a hitter-friendly ballpark. It was nice seeing him pump up mid-to-late-90’s heat (just for the sake of aesthetics, I must admit), but there’s a lot to work on for Nate. If he is able to develop, I have a feeling that we’ll have the pleasure of watching a special pitcher grow in front of our eyes for the next few years. Yes, I’m optimistic.

Bullpen again:

You know, Justin Wilson has a solid 2.79 ERA, but when he comes in, I feel like a pitcher with a 4.79 ERA is on the hill — probably because of his 5.59 BB/9. Thank goodness for his power stuff, which makes it easy to forgive his less-than-ideal command. Tonight, by the way, Wilson had a relatively easy outing after inheriting a 4-3 lead with two runners on. While he did not strike out any, he induced three grounders and a fly ball, retiring all four hitters faced. That’s all the Yankees needed from tonight’s 7th inning guy.

After Wilson, Dellin Betances game in and well … he did what Betances does the best — get hitters out. He got Adam Jones to ground out, Delmon Young to line out to Stephen Drew, and made Chris Davis look foolish with a swinging strikeout. Every time Dellin has a good outing, I always praise Yeezus that he took the $1 million bonus from the Yankees instead of going to Vanderbilt or playing basketball back in 2006.

With the score still at 4-3, the unofficial closer Andrew Miller came in for the save. Baltimore, by the way, is not a light-hitting team and there’s always a chance for a dicey situation whenever a runner gets on. So when Miller walked Steve Pearce to start the ninth … well … it felt dicey. But that feeling did not last long. J.J. Hardy popped out and the next two hitters struck out swinging to end the game. Boom. Save no. 12.

Leftovers:

Overshadowed by A-Rod’s HR milestone was Mark Teixeira’s performance. Tex went 2-for-3 and both hits drove in runs — one of them a double to drive in the go-ahead run in the bottom of fifth. His 2015 line is at .223/.345/.606, good for a 148 wRC+ and .383 ISO. If only his BABIP could be higher than .153.

Jacoby Ellsbury and Brett Gardner also proved themselves as two of the hottest ML bats again. Both combined for 4-for-7 with a walk and scored three out of four runs for New York. Tonight was basically a Ells-Gardy-A-Rod-Tex show for the offense as the rest of lineup combined for a meager 3-for-19.

Box Score, WPA, Standings, etc.:

Here’s the box score, WPA and updated standings.  Also, check out our Bullpen Workload and Announcer Standings pages.

Source: FanGraphs

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Tomorrow, Yankees take on the Orioles again. Adam Warren goes against Miguel Gonzalez. Here’s to hoping that the bats do something against this Orioles righty this time around. It would be sweet if the Yankees take the series as well especially because I live in Maryland.

So, let’s start with the good news: Chase Whitley looked like an ace out there. He’s definitely earned more trust with that gem. Okay, time for bad news: pretty much everything else that happened after he left. The Yankees had a chance to extend the winning streak to four and nail the first game of the series in the Rogers Centre, but the painful eighth inning got in the way and New York lost 3-1. For now, just be happy that we are still in the first place. Can’t win them all.

Chase the ace:

Whitley tossed seven scoreless innings, gave up six hits, no walks and struck out six. That’s a great line and yet it still doesn’t feel like it doesn’t do justice on how well he pitched tonight. He hit corners, lured hitters, changed speeds and made some great hitters look silly.

Only major blunder from Chase tonight came from the third inning. With one out, Ezequiel Carrera tried to bunt for a base hit. Whitley picked up the ball but did not get a complete grip and threw it way off target. Carrera advanced to third. Fortunately, Whitley got Devon Travis to strike out swinging and Josh Donaldson to ground out to end the inning. Phew.

It’s only been two ML starts for Whitley this season but he’s shown the ability to strike out hitters (11 K’s in 12 IP) and throw strikes (only 1 walk allowed). Definitely don’t expect him to maintain this sub-1.00 ERA but two sharp outings against division rivals is encouraging.

The eighth inning of doom:

Chase Whitley was mostly a reliever in minors. He did not adapt to a regular starting role until last year and needless to say, I don’t think it was a horrible decision to pull him after 90 pitches thrown, especially with the caliber of bullpen the Yankees have. Joe Girardi put in Chris Martin, who has essentially put himself into the Circle of Trust this season.

Martin got the reigning AL Rookie of the Month Devon Travis to ground out. Josh Donaldson followed that up with a single and so did Jose Bautista. With the cleanup hitter Edwin Encarnacion coming up, Girardi sub’d in Dellin Betances. On the first pitch curveball that the slugger did not particularly hit well … the ball dropped in front of Brett Gardner by the left field line for a fair ball and a run scored. Just last night, a David Ortiz line drive with bases loaded sucked right into the center fielder’s glove, and tonight, a blooper by Encarnacion falls right by the line and becomes a game-tying double. Go figure.

Former Yankee Russell Martin came in to pinch hit. With the count full, the catcher hit a hard grounder down the line that Chase Headley somehow caught. Headley’s throw, however, eluded Garrett Jones’s glove as the first baseman couldn’t handle the hard bouncer in front of him. Two more Jays runs scored. 3-1 Toronto. Sigh. Mark Teixeira definitely would have handled that throw better but I don’t think it was an easy throw to cleanly scoop.

Leftovers:

Carlos Beltran went 1-for-3 but he did hit the ball hard on all three at-bats. He also hit a leadoff double in the seventh inning that got the only Yankee scoring going. I do have to mention that the only pitcher he faced tonight was R.A. Dickey, who is not exactly an overpowering guy, but Beltran’s bat seemed to show some life since the Red Sox series, which is good.

Brett Gardner walked twice but his six-game hitting streak came to an end as he also went 0-for-2. Jacoby Ellsbury did not go 4-for-4 tonight but he did get a hit so it’s 1-for-4 instead. Unlike last night, tonight’s game went by quite quickly but then again, I would definitely trade the faster pace of game for some more Yankee runs.

Box Scores, WPA, Standings:

Here is the box score and updated standings. Oh, and WPA.

Source: FanGraphs

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What’s next:

The series continues at Toronto tomorrow. #BigMike goes against Marco Estrada, who gave up tons of homers last year (1.73 HR/9). Hope there’s another winning streak starting soon.

Make it three in a row for the Yankees. New York beat Tampa 4-2 to improve their record to 13-8. Chase Whitley threw five solid innings and the bullpen, not led by the usual cast, held on pretty well to win it. Yankees have won four series in a row and ten games out of last twelve. This is pretty enjoyable, guys. Winning!

Ace Whitley:
Chase Whitley was called up to make a spot start. Even though he had been throwing well in Triple-A, having to face a division rival and facing opponent’s best starter (Jake Odorizzi) is not an easy task.

However, the right-hander prevailed. In 5 innings, Whitley allowed six hits but allowed only one run and struck out five. His location and secondary pitches looked sharp. His only run allowed came on the third, when Asdrubal Cabrera hit an RBI double to drive in the runner from first. Unfazed, Whitley struck out the next two hitters – Evan Longoria and James Loney – to get out of the jam.

Just like Adam Warren last night, Whitley pitched well and gave the Yanks a good chance to win. Some spot starter, huh? I wonder if he’ll be making more ML starts now that Masahiro Tanaka is on the 15-day DL.

Call me Esmil:

In the sixth inning, Chasen Shreve came in after Chase to begin the bullpen relay. Tonight was definitely not one of Shreve’s strong showings, however. The lefty walked Loney to start the inning and allowed a long RBI triple to Logan Forsythe. Lead trimmed to 4-2. Shreve did strike out Kevin Kiermaier but Joe Girardi brought in Esmil Rogers to face Tim Beckham. With a runner on third and one out, Rogers struck out Beckham and Rene Rivera grounded out to avoid further damage.

But wait, he wasn’t done! Esmil went on to pitch two more scoreless innings, in which he struck out four and only allowed two baserunners. Big arms like Justin Wilson, Dellin Betances and Andrew Miller had a heavy workload lately and Rogers came up big with this solid 2.2 innings of work. Memorable moment? That 90-mph slider/cutter to get Longoria to strike out swinging was pretty nasty.

Leftovers:

Brian McCann is a fine catcher. He didn’t get off the the best offensive start (.250/.299/.417 before tonight’s game) but tonight, he drove in three of the four Yankee runs with two doubles. After tonight’s game, his line bumped up to .266/.310/.453, which is good for a 108 wRC+. Solid.

Speaking of a big free agent acquired after the 2013 season, Jacoby Ellsbury went 3-for-4, upping his season slash to .308/.400/.372. You know, I’d like to see a bit more power output from him but I can’t complain too much on how he’s been seeing the ball. Hopefully, more doubles and homers come along. So far, Ellsbury has 24 hits this season and only three are extra base hits. So basically, he’s the anti-Mark Teixeira.

Carlos Beltran went 0-for-3 and his season slash is now a dreadful .159/.217/.270. He’s also struck out 29.0% of the time, which is much higher than his 16.1% career rate. What’s the deal with that? Even when he struggled with injuries last year, he struck out around 17.8 % rate.

Instead of the unofficial 9th inning guy Andrew Miller, Chris Martin came into pitch for the save in the ninth inning. Martin had 14 saves in minor leagues but none in the majors before tonight. He pitched a scoreless inning — two lineouts, a single and a strikeout. Congrats on the first one, Chris!

Box Score, WPA, Standings:

Here is the box score, WPA, and updated standings. Spoiler: Yankees are still in the first place.

Source: FanGraphs

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Yankees will have #BIGMIKE taking the mound tomorrow afternoon against Drew Smyly. Let’s get greedy and hope for a sweep. 14-8 is better than 13-9.

Before tonight’s game, New York and Tampa were tied at the top of the division with 11-8 records. Well, one of those two won and it happened to be the Yankees. New York now sits on the top of the division and it’s a very good feeling. Adam Warren delivered his best start of the season and the offense benefited from a few miscues from the Rays pitching to win this one 4-1.

A Warren-ted Compliment

The fifth starter looked much better today than on his other starts. From early on, Adam Warren’s fastball sat around 94 and he located his secondary pitches well. In the first inning, he got into a bit of trouble with runners on second and third and one out — he struck out the dangerous Evan Longoria swinging with a changeup inside and James Loney grounded out. In the second inning, Warren struck out all three batters he faced — Brandon Guyer, Kevin Kiermaier and Tim Beckham — and it was quite impressive. I mean, if Warren can bring on well-located fastballs around 93~94 miles per hour and can throw slider or changeup in any count, I think he’d be a pretty darn good number five starter.

Only noticeable blemish Warren left was the sixth inning. David DeJesus singled to start the inning and Warren uncorked a wild pitch to Steven Souza Jr. to let the runner advance to second. Souza flew out deep to center, advancing DeJesus to third. With the infield in, Warren induced a grounder from Asdrubal Cabrera … and Stephen Drew threw a cricket-pitch-like bouncer to Brian McCann — DeJesus was safe at home and the game tied up, 1-1. Warren took care of one more batter and Joe Girardi sub’d him out for Justin Wilson.

Man, if it weren’t for the Drew’s faulty throw, Warren probably would have been the winning pitcher. But what is more valuable is that he went out, showed some really good stuff and dominated the division rival lineup to give New York a chance to win. Warren’s final line: 5.2 innings pitched, 5 hits, 1 earned run, 0 walk and 6 strikeouts. The last two figures look awesome given that he had allowed 8 walks and struck out only 6 in the previous 15 innings he logged before tonight. So yea, more of this please, Adam.

Scoring… more than the opponent

I don’t think tonight’s game will go down as especially memorable or anything but the team did what it could do to get a win — sometimes, it takes mistakes from the opponent. The game was in a 0-0 tie in the bottom of fifth. Rays starter, Nate Karns, had been cruising through the Yankee lineup and his command fizzled a bit that inning. With the bases loaded and two outs, the Rays manager Kevin Cash, not wanting to take any more chance, sub’d him out for a fresh bullpen arm Brandon Gomes. However, Gomes showed even worse command and walked Brett Gardner with bases loaded. Oops.

The Yanks’ next run was way more exciting. With the game tied at one, McCann unloaded a bunch of power into a Brandon Gomes meatball and sent the ball towards the second deck in the right field. It was one of those shots that you knew was gone right off the bat. 2-1 Yanks. The ghost of Carlos Beltran followed it up with a line drive double to the center field wall. After Chris Young struck out, manager Kevin Cash brought in the lefty Everett Teaford to face Stephen Drew. I thought it was an interesting choice. Teaford had not pitched in the bigs since July 14, 2013 and he was mediocre in Korea last year (5-6, 5.24 ERA in 99.2 innings pitched with the LG Twins). Well, I guess they liked what they saw of him so far this year. He did not do his immediate job though — Drew doubled to right field corner to score Beltran. 3-1 Yankees lead.

Yankees scored again in the bottom of the eighth. McCann singled to begin the inning. Beltran and Young followed that up by striking out swinging (welp) but Drew singled and Didi walked to get the bases loaded. I thought it was quite odd that Cash did not substitute out Teaford by then. Instead, he stuck the lefty in to face Jacoby Ellsbury. On the third pitch, Jacoby took a 88-mph pitch to the right arm. 4-1 Yankees. Not the prettiest way to score but it’s a scoring nonetheless.

Leftovers: 

Warren pitched very well tonight but bullpen was flat-out awesome. Four pitchers — Wilson, David Carpenter, Dellin Betances and Andrew Miller — combined for 3.1 innings pitched, allowed only one hit and one walk and struck out 4. So good. So good. We all could get used to this. The unofficial 8th inning guy Betances dropped an especially nasty curve/slurve to strike out Asdrubal Cabrera to end the eighth and that was just unfair. Cabrera knew that he was gone as soon as the ball got to the mitt. Dellin just looks like an unstoppable force at this point.

Box Score, WPA, Standings: 

Here is the box score, win probability chart  and updated standings. First place, guys, first place!

Source: FanGraphs

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Tomorrow, the Yankees will have Chase Whitley making the first 2015 ML start of the year as a spot starter. He will face the current Rays ace, Jake Odorizzi. Will the winning streak continue tomorrow at YSIII? We shall see. Would be sweet to extend the division lead and take the series at home.

On the paper, the Adam Warren vs. David Price matchup didn’t sound sexy for the Yankee fans. However, the offense pounced on the former Cy winner to warrant at least a series tie in Detroit. New York has taken seven of their last ten and tied the Blue Jays for the second place in AL East (and a game behind the first-place Red Sox).

So, About That First Inning…:

Maybe David Price was looking forward to the snow too much, or the cold and snowy atmosphere really messed with him a lot, but he clearly did not have it tonight. He started the game off by plunking Jacoby Ellsbury and consistently missing spots. Chris Young singled, Alex Rodriguez struck out and Mark Teixeira walked. Brian McCann drove in the first run of the game with a single to Yoenis Cespedes. Carlos Beltran followed that up by striking out (sigh) but the fun started right after. Chase Headley drove in Young with a ground ball single to left field, giving Yanks a 2-0 lead. With two outs, bases loaded, Gregorio Petit came up.

Petit, who was hitting for an ungodly .111/.150/.111 line before tonight’s game, took Price’s slider down the middle into the gap for a bases-clearing double. Man, snow or no snow, you don’t see something like this every day. The Yanks led 5-0. Price proceeded to walk Didi Gregorius and allowed an RBI single to Ellsbury. By the way, that was the first run that Ells drove in this season and it took a very gutsy Rob Thomson call — Petit ran on Cespedes’ very strong arm and Avila couldn’t handle the throw properly. If he did, Ellsbury might have had to wait another day for the first RBI of 2015.

That was just the first part of the first inning saga for pitchers. In the bottom of the first, Adam Warren’s command also caught the David Price disease. Instead of allowing meatballs, the righty just couldn’t find the strike zone. Warren walked four (!!!) of the first five batters faced. One batter he did not walk – Ian Kinsler – lined out sharply to center. After walking in a run, Warren faced Cespedes. The Cuban outfielder hit a grounder to Didi, who made a nice diving stop and was in a good position to get a force out at third … but he went a much harder way and threw to second awkwardly. What? I honestly have no idea what prompted Gregorius to do that. Next batter, Nick Castellanos, hit a grounder to Gregorius. Didi, instead of quickly throwing overhand to turn a double play, did a slower underhand toss to second base for a force out and Castellanos was safe at first. The lead cut to 6-3. Argh.

This inning just screamed of not only the big league inexperience but just overall baseball inexperience for Didi, which shouldn’t be the case since he’s been playing at least since the teens. Given the way he seemed to field the ball in Spring Training, I predict that he’ll find his groove back at some point. He just seems to be in some kind of funk right now.

Oh, and after the force out, Warren allowed an RBI single to Alex Avila. A 6-0 laugher became a 6-4 nailbiter in a matter of half of an inning. Yeesh.

The 5th Starter:

Warren had not all that been inspiring in first two starts as the Yankee fifth starter (9 IP, 11 H, 5 ER, 4 BB and 3 K’s). Even before getting the second out of the first inning, he doubled his walk total of the season and it seemed like New York needed to score way more than six to earn a win. However, after a tumultuous first inning, Warren settled down nicely. For the next 4.2 innings pitched, Warren allowed only three hits, no runs, no walks and struck out three. Not bad. It was definitely suboptimal (and I’m putting that lightly) condition for pitchers in the beginning and unlike Price, Warren did a nice job rebounding from it. Props.

Warren’s line for the season now stands at 5.40 ERA/5.61 FIP and his walk rate (4.80 BB/9) is higher than his strikeout rate (3.60 K/9). But hopefully he’ll build from the latter portion of tonight’s start. I don’t want to be watching another game where the fans genuinely seem to yearn for Chris Capuano’s return to the rotation.

No offense to you Detroit, but here’s our offense:

So, 13 runs. Not too shabby. Remember that Yankees’ big Achilles heel in 2013 and 2014 was the inability to score runs? Believe it or not: the Yankees are now second in the entire league in runs scored with 83, trailing only to the Blue Jays (87).

Five starters in the lineup had two or more hits tonight (Ellsbury, Young, McCann, Beltran, Headley) and the team totaled 15. Gregorio Petit, who hit an aforementioned bases-clearing double in the first inning, walked twice (including an intentional one, no kidding!). Teixeira, who now has a .202 batting average and a .925 OPS, hit a towering three-run homer in the seventh inning to pad his slugging percentage. He could use some love from the BABIP gods right now but it’s good to see him hit for good power in early in the season.

By the way, how fun is it to watch Chris Young right now? After a 3-for-6 performance, his 2015 line is .368/.442/.816 in 44 PA’s, which is ridiculous. For obvious reasons, I don’t expect him to keep that kind of production up for too long but it’s really fun to be in the moment for it. I still have a thread of hope that he could’ve found something that clicked and Jose Bautista’d his career with the Yankees … but that’s a pipe dream.

Extra Notes:

Bullpen was pretty solid tonight. Justin Wilson, David Carpenter and Chasen Shreve combined for 3.1 innings pitched, allowed only a hit and struck out six. That’s pretty nasty.

On the note of an excellent offensive showing, how about this? According to our Katie Sharp, the Yankees are the only team in the majors to score 13 runs or more multiple times so far in 2015. Here’s to many more for the rest of season. Hopefully. Not going to kid you, It’s fun to see this team score a lot of runs again.

Box Score, WPA Graph & Standings:

Here are the box score and video highlights.  Oh, and win probability chart.

Source: FanGraphs

Up Next:

The Yankees look to take the four-game series in Comerica with their ace Masahiro Tanaka on the mound. The Nipponese righty shut down the Rays last time out and he’ll look to repeat that against the Tigers’ starter Anibal Sanchez. Oh, by the way, New York has a winning streak going again. Let’s hope it continues!