The Yankees were on their way to what seemed like a relatively easy win Friday night before the bullpen made a mess of things — twice! — but, in the end, the Yankees secured their 13th win in the last 14 games. Miguel Andujar was the ninth inning hero. The final score: 7-6 good guys. The Yankees have won 22 of their first 32 games for the first time since going 23-9 to start 2003.
Bombs Away
If the Indians keep him in the rotation all year, Josh Tomlin is going to threaten Bert Blyleven’s single-season record of 50 home runs allowed. For real. He went into Friday’s start with ten homers allowed in 18.2 innings. He exited Friday’s start with 13 homers allowed in 25.2 innings. That’s a 4.6 HR/9. Oy.
It took a few innings, but the Yankees did eventually get to Tomlin on Friday. They stranded two runners in the first and the bases loaded in the second, then they went down 1-2-3 in the third before getting on the board in the fourth. Francisco Lindor’s error opened the door. Neil Walker started the inning with a single, then Miguel Andujar hit a tailor made 6-4-3 double play ball to Lindor, but he booted it, and everyone was safe. A gift.
The Indians were expecting Gleyber Torres to bunt with runners on first and second and no outs. The infield was in on the corners waiting for it. There’s no point in bunting runners up with a dude as hittable as Tomlin on the mound though. The threw Torres the hangiest of hanging curveballs on the first pitch, and Gleyber drove it into the left field stands for his first career homer and a 3-0 lead. To the action footage:
Gleyber Torres' mid-pitch swing timing adjustment is a thing of beauty. #yankees pic.twitter.com/2HngPINuop
— Sung Min Kim (@sung_minkim) May 5, 2018
That pitch deserved to be hit a long way, no doubt about it, and Torres did exactly that. Neat to see him get fooled by the breaking ball out of Tomlin’s hand, pick up on the hanger, and adjust. That is a nice piece of hitting. Not some opposite field single. At 21 years and 142 days, Gleyber is the youngest Yankee to go deep since John Ellis in 1969 (21 years and 269 days).
Two batters after the Torres homer, Aaron Judge golfed a solo dinger to left field for a 4-0 lead. For mere mortals, it’s a bloop single or weak fly ball off the end of the bat. For Judge, it’s a solo homer off the end of the bat. The 495-foot dingers get all the attention. Those little jam shot homers or homers off the end of the bat are what really make Judge ridiculous. Gary Sanchez hit a 461-foot solo homer the next inning for a 5-0 lead. Three homers, five runs.
Cy Cy Sabathia
Okay, he’s (probably) not going to win the Cy Young award, but CC Sabathia continues to be just amazing this season. Six scoreless innings Friday night gives him 23.1 innings with one earned run allowed in four starts since coming back from the disabled list. (He had that little hip thing, remember.) Sabathia also struck out seven batters, his most since striking out seven Blue Jays on June 1st last year.
All told, Sabathia allowed three baserunners Friday, and they were scattered. Yonder Alonso had a two-out single in the second inning. Jose Ramirez doubled with one out in the fourth and was immediately erased when Sanchez threw him out trying to steal third. Lindor doubled with two outs in the sixth and was stranded. That’s it. Twenty batters faced, 17 retired. (The other out was Ramirez’s caught stealing.)
The final line: 6 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 7 K on 92 pitches. The average exit velocity allowed: 79.1 mph. 79.1! Hitters simply have not been able to square up Sabathia in the early going this season. The cutter helps him miss the barrel and he disrupts the hitter’s timing with changeups and sliders. It is truly remarkable Sabathia has been able to reinvent himself like this. Not many guys can make this big an adjustment. Six starts into the season, the big man has a 1.39 ERA (3.62 FIP). Hell yeah.
Bullpen Meltdown, Part One
Seven straight outings without an earned run for Dellin Betances. (He did allow one unearned run.) It was also telling Aaron Boone used Dellin against the middle of the lineup in the seventh inning. The manager trusts him. Betances allowed a crummy infield single to Ramirez, then rebounded to strike out Edwin Encarnacion and Brandon Guyer, and get Alonso to ground out. Dellin has an 44.6% strikeout rate and a 8.9% walk rate in 13 innings this year.
Up 5-0 after seven innings? Bottom of the lineup due up? Seems like a good spot for Chasen Shreve. The regular late inning guys worked a bunch in Houston and it would’ve been nice to get them a nice off. Unfortunately, Shreve faced four batters and retired zero. Walk, single, thee-run homer by Bradley Zimmer, single. Yuck. Shreve had been pretty good this year prior to Friday. Not a good time for his first real bad outing of the season.
Zimmer’s homer forced Boone to use David Robertson — the middle of the order was due up — and the 5-0 lead turned 5-3 lead was officially blown when Ramirez swatted a two-run homer into the home bullpen. It was similar to the Justin Smoak at-bat in the first series. Ramirez kept fouling away two-strike curveballs and stayed alive until Robertson caught too much of the plate with a fastball. Six batters into the eighth, the 5-0 lead was gone.
Bullpen Meltdown, Part Two
In the bottom of the eighth, the Yankees answered right back and took the lead, and they had some help from Cleveland’s worn out bullpen. Alexi Ogando, who spent last season in Korea and hadn’t pitched in MLB since 2016, came out of the bullpen because Thursday’s doubleheader taxed manager Terry Francona’s bullpen. Ogando walked three batters in the eighth, including Judge with the bases loaded to force in a run.
Aroldis Chapman came on for the save in the ninth and it was clear right away he didn’t know where the ball was going. He pitched Tuesday and Thursday, so it was the second day of back-to-backs and his third appearance in four days. His velocity was fine. His control was not. Chapman allowed a single, hit Zimmer with a pitch, advanced the runners with a wild pitch, then allowed the game-tying run with another wild pitch. Look at his pitch locations:
Yeah, Chapman was a wee bit wild. After the game Boone confirmed the second wild pitch was a cross up. Sanchez was expecting a two-strike slider down in the zone and Chapman threw a 102 mph fastball that hit home plate umpire Tim Timmons in the face mask. Ouch. Chapman’s wildness meant that, once again, the Yankees and Indians were tied, this time 6-6. His first blown save of the season. (Robertson got his second blown save in the eighth.)
Once again though, the Yankees responded. I have no idea why Ogando stayed in to face Giancarlo Stanton to start the ninth inning. He faced Stanton, gave up a leadoff double into the right-center field gap, then was pulled for Cody Allen. If Allen was warmed up and available, why not make him face Stanton? I don’t understand. Whatever, man. Francona’s goof opened the door for the Yankees.
For a minute there, it appeared the Yankees would waste the leadoff double. Sanchez flew out and Aaron Hicks grounded out to first, putting Stanton at third with two outs. Walker, uh, walked to pass the baton to Miguel Andujar. Miggy Mantle looked a tad anxious at the plate. He swung through a first pitch fastball and a third pitch hanging curveball. Violent hacks. Andujar hacks. You know what I mean. He didn’t miss with his third swing.
Miguel Andujar bloops an RBI single into right to score Giancarlo Stanton and win the game for the Yankees 7-6 (00:44)
MLB Gameday: https://t.co/hCVKLReGcJ pic.twitter.com/7X4CRvFp38
— Ballpark Videos (@BallparkVids) May 5, 2018
A line drive in the box score! Allen hung the crap out of that curveball. It was probably a ball up above the zone. That pitch was supposed to dive down and out of the zone. Instead, it hung up near the top of the zone, and Andujar flicked it to shallow right field. Despite the big hacks, Andujar has really good bat-to-ball skills, and it showed there. He got a big hit during Thursday’s ninth inning rally and he got the game-winning hit in Friday’s ninth inning rally. Good two days for Miggy.
Leftovers
Scary moment in the eighth inning. Didi Gregorius had to race Lindor to the second base bag on a fielder’s choice and he slid to apply the tag, and Lindor inadvertently kicked him in the back of the head. Didi was down on the ground for a few minutes there. Fortunately he remained in the game. Boone confirmed Gregorius is okay, but he’s probably going to get Saturday off.
Walker’s starting to find a groove, folks. He was on base three times Thursday and he reached base four times Friday, twice on singles and twice on walks. Walker looks much more comfortable at the plate too. His ninth inning walk to set Andujar up for the walk-off was a good hard at-bat against Allen. Walker, Andujar, and Torres (i.e. the 7-8-9) hitters had two hits apiece.
Gregorius and Hicks were the only starters who failed to reach base. Gardner had a single and a walk, and Rajai Davis took a single away from him with a sliding catch, so hopefully this’ll get Brett going. Gardner (single, walk), Judge (homer, walk), Stanton (double, walk), Sanchez (homer, walk), Walker, Andujar, and Torres all reached base multiple times.
The bullpen: 3 IP, 7 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, 2 HR. Yeesh. Betances was the only reliever not to allow a run. The bullpen had been really strong of late. The last two games have been pretty messy though. Chapman in particular could use a breather Saturday, maybe even Sunday too. (Monday is an off-day.)
Box Score, WPA Graph & Standings
For the box score and updated standings, go to ESPN. For the video highlights, go to MLB. Here’s our Bullpen Workload page and the win probability graph:
Source: FanGraphs
Up Next
The Yankees and Indians are back at it Saturday afternoon. That’s a 1pm ET start. Sonny Gray and drone enthusiast/conspiracy theorist Trevor Bauer are the scheduled starting pitchers.
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