Source: FanGraphs
The most poorly timed winning streak in franchise history continues. The offense picked up the bullpen (what!?) on Friday night as the Yankees eked out a 3-2 win over Madison Bumgarner and the Giants. The Yankees have now won five of their last six and eight of their last 12 games. It’s Friday night, so let’s recap with some bullpen points:
- Normal Rest? No Problem: This was not the cleanest outing by Masahiro Tanaka, but, at the end of the day, six scoreless innings is six scoreless innings. He pitched in and out of some jams early, most notably striking out Gregor Blanco to strand the bases loaded in the fourth. Tanaka also got some help from Carlos Beltran, who threw a runner out at the plate in the second. It was a perfect throw. Just perfect. Tanaka allowed four singles and two walks in his six innings. He fanned four.
- The First Two Runs: The Yankees had some chances to put a hurtin’ on Bumgarner early, but the result was only one run in the first and one run in the second. Starlin Castro doubled in Brett Gardner in the first, and Beltran singled in Ronald Torreyes in the second. The Yankees did strand the bases loaded in the first and another two runners in the second. They also stranded two more in the fifth. Bumgarner retired 15 of 18 batters faced after the second inning.
- Two Runs DMC: Props to the Giants for tying the game against the meat of New York’s bullpen. They scratched out a run against Dellin Betances in the seventh — he wild pitched the run home — and then did the same against Andrew Miller in the eighth. Pinch-hitter Mac Williamson clobbered a game-tying double on a high fastball. I thought it was out of the park off the bat. Instead, it clanked off the wall and score a run. Neither Dellin nor Miller looked particularly sharp.
- And The Yankees Take The Lead: What a dopey rally in the eighth. Chase Headley beat out an infield single, Mark Teixeira drew a walk, then, after Austin Romine was unable to get a bunt down, he hit a tailor made double play ball that Brandon Crawford threw away. It was his third error of the night. Wild. This one pulled Brandon Belt off first base, and Headley alertly darted for home to score the go-ahead run. Hey, whatever works, right? Aroldis Chapman pitched around a leadoff double (off Gardner’s glove) to shut the door in the ninth.
- Leftovers: Castro led the way offensively with three hits, all off Bumgarner … Beltran reached base four times (two hits, two walks), threw a runner out at the plate, and made a great running catch. It was a turn back the clock night for Carlos … the bullpen had a 31.1 inning scoreless streak snapped in that seventh inning … Betances, Miller, and Chapman each allowed a double. Seems unlikely that’ll happen in the same game again, even if no one gets traded … make sure you check out Grant Brisbee’s recap for the Giants’ perspective.
Here are the box score, video highlights, and updated standings. Don’t miss our Bullpen Workload and Announcer Standings pages too. The Yankees and Giants will resume this series Saturday afternoon. That’s a 4pm ET start. Ivan Nova and Jeff Samardzija will be the pitching matchup, so fans of both teams will be equally annoyed.
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