Well, that was disastrous. The Yankees had many opportunities to tie or take a lead but they flat out allowed the Rays to inch away and, eventually, take the game. In a game where the bats fought back to keep the team in the game, a couple of Gary Sanchez’s sluggish maneuvers cost the Yankees mightily. After this loss and a Red Sox win against the O’s tonight, New York is now 6 games back for the AL East division lead.

The back-and-forth

Oh boy. This game did not get off to a good start. After getting two easy outs in the first inning, Luis Severino allowed a double to Jake Bauers. Facing the cleanup hitter Ji-Man Choi, Severino threw a slider that Sanchez failed to catch on an obvious cross-up. The ball trickled down towards the third base side of the foul territory and Sanchez jogged towards it. Meanwhile, Bauers easily took third and… started to sprint home. Bauers saw that the Yankee catcher wasn’t really hustling to the ball and took advantage of that. Sanchez then started to act with sense of urgency, but his throw was off line. Bauers scored rather easily on a play where he should have ended up in third at best. That was an ugly, Little League-style error the Yankees committed and it’s hard to not fault Sanchez for it.

Luckily, the Yankees got a run back in the next inning. Giancarlo Stanton led things off by hitting a double. Well, it was a double on paper, but it was really a pop-up that dropped in between the CF and RF. I’m guessing the case of Tropicana Field striking again. It does get really hard to track high flyballs in that ballpark because the baseball can blend into the white rooftop. Aaron Hicks followed it up with a walk. Hunter Wood induced a pop out from Sanchez and strike out from Greg Bird to make it two outs, but Miguel Andujar drove in the first Yankee run with an RBI single to center. 1-1.

The game stayed 1-1 for the next few innings. The Rays brought in Matt Andriese as a part of their #bullpening program of the day and on the other side, Severino was pitching well until the fifth inning. After striking out Jesus Sucre to open the frame, Severino allowed back-to-back singles to Kevin Kiermaier and Matt Duffy. On a 1-1 count to Jake Bauers, Severino uncorked a slider on the inside part of the zone that just didn’t spin at all. You know what happens to hanging slider up the zone – it becomes a meatball. Bauers didn’t miss any of it and drove it over the right field wall for a three-run homer. Severino usually throws much, much better breaking balls. He can get called and swinging strikes with that pitch. However, there’s always that inherent danger with slider – it can induce some big dingers when not thrown carefully.

The Yanks got back two more in the next frame to make it a one-run game. Here’s how it went:

One thing of note: Stanton was really, really good today. Besides that pop-up double in the second, he was hitting solid line drives all over the field. You may know this, but Stanton leads the entire club with 108 base hits.

Right on cue, however, the Rays scored three in the bottom of sixth to make it 7-3. Daniel Robertson homered on the first pitch against Severino. Mallex Smith followed it up with a double and Willy Adames singled to center to knock Severino out of the game. Both of them scored off Chad Green and raised Severino’s season ERA up to 2.63. It’s Severino’s third subpar outing in a row. Eye test-wise, I am not really concerned about him. Severino’s velocity was there, he induced some ugly whiffs, but he did locate some pitches badly. I think his command is a bit off than how it was earlier this season and that’s fixable, especially given the caliber of pitcher he is.

The Yanks got three back in the top of the seventh. They loaded the bases with one out by drawing three walks (Nel Walker, Brett Gardner, Aaron Judge) against two Rays pitchers (Castillo and Schultz). Didi Gregorius grounded into a force out at first to score a run and Stanton followed it up with a two-RBI single to clear’em up to make it 7-6 Rays.

So about that ninth inning

Usually, people don’t really remember a loss to the Rays in the middle of a season, but this one is a little different. If there is such thing as “what if” in baseball, every team would be World Series contenders, but it might be something worth revisiting in tonight’s game.

Down 7-6 in the ninth inning, the Yankees had top of the order come to the plate. The first two hitters – Gardner and Judge – did what the top of the order is supposed to do and got on base by infield single and walk, respectively. Up comes the first dicey situation of the inning: Didi Gregorius up before Giancarlo Stanton. First off, it’s er, interesting how Judge and Stanton are still not hitting back-to-back. Secondly, Didi started the at-bat with a bunt foul. Interesting? The Yankees’ greatest asset is hitting for power and they seemingly opted to play for one run. It remains to be seen whether that was Gregorius’s or Boone’s call, but never forget that the manager has previously shown an open distaste for a hitter trying to bunt in the situation he doesn’t approve of it. My gut feeling says that Boone would have tried to squash Didi’s attempt to bunt if he felt that way, but he didn’t.

Anyways, Gregorius executed a successful sacrifice bunt to put both runners in scoring position. The Rays put the bat out of Stanton’s hands by intentionally walking him, because that was the sensible thing to do to a hot hitter who just went 4-for-4. Up came Aaron Hicks, who got a breaking ball down the zone and grounded into to a force out at home. Looking back to Didi’s bunt at this moment, while there was absolutely no guarantee that Gregorius would have walked or got a base hit, the Yankees’ decision to let him bunt really put them in a position where they are down with two outs with bases loaded instead of one. If the score is tied, I’d be more okay with that strategy, but with one run down, giving away free outs is… not what you want.

After all that, the big knocker of the inning had yet to come. With bases loaded, two outs, Gary Sanchez came to plate. On a 1-1 pitch, Sanchez squared a hard grounder up to middle that 1) SS Willy Adames fielded 2) he tossed to 2B Daniel Robertson for a force out attempt 3) but Hicks’s hustle slide kept the game alive… for that moment 4) Robertson immediately threw to first to get Sanchez out and end the game. Sanchez is not the fastest guy and he’s coming off of a groin injury, but good grief, he didn’t even pretend to hustle down the line to keep the Yanks alive.

Look, I believe that Sanchez gets more flack than he deserves in general, but this was an inexcusable effort. Down by one in the ninth, bases loaded with two outs, the basic Baseball 101 tells you that one should hustle out of the box to avoid losing as much as possible. Sanchez didn’t. My guess is that he saw the shortstop field the ball up the middle and assumed that he would make an easy force out to end the game.

Not only the lack of hustle might have cost the Yankees a run, but also Hicks’s sliding effort on the second base to desperately keep the game alive. Not great, folks! Sanchez has to know better. As Brendan Kuty of NJ.com pointed, if you can squat for nine innings, you can run out a grounder. I assume management will order some kind of wake-up call. Sanchez does have a history of being disciplined for low-effort plays in the past.

Leftovers

With the strikeout of Willy Adames in the second inning, Severino picked up his 500th career strikeout. Pretty neat. He’s the third ever Yankee to get to such milestone before the 25th birthday. The other two are Al Downing and Lefty Gomez, which is a nice company to be with.

Adam Warren and A.J. Cole each threw a scoreless inning in the seventh and eighth, respectively. Had the Yankees won tonight, both of them would have gotten an ample credit for keeping the team in the game.

Box score, highlights, standings and WPA

Here’s tonight’s box score, video highlights, updated standings and WPA.

Source: FanGraphs

The Yankees will be at it again in the Tropicana Field tomorrow. Masahiro Tanaka will be on the mound against Yonny Chirinos.

It wasn’t easy for the first seven innings, but the Bronx Bombers brought their power-hitting and bullpen forte to take the first game in Cleveland. Luis Severino wasn’t at his best but you know what good teams do? They use different strengths to pick up the win. It’s their 61st win of the season and they still sit 3.5 games behind the Red Sox, who won their 10th consecutive game tonight.

The back-and-forth battle

The Indians have a very vaunted top three of the lineup. We are talking Francisco Lindor-Michael Brantley-Jose Ramirez here. Lindor and Ramirez have been extremely scary this season. Coming into today, the duo is on pace for 90+ extra base hits each this season.

Anyways, Cleveland jumped on Severino early to start this game. Lindor led off with a double. Brantley followed it up with a grounder to advance him to third. Ramirez hit an RBI single to give the Indians a 1-0 lead. The Yankees got a break when Romine caught Ramirez stealing 2nd base. However, Edwin Encarnacion, who you may remember from his day killing AL East pitchers with Toronto, hit a hanging slider into the left field seats for a solo homer. 2-0 Indians. Sevy has seen better starts in his career.

Did the Yankees tie it up? Boy yes they did. For the first two innings, Corey Kluber seemed locked in. In the third inning, however, Miguel Andujar quickly ended the no-hitter by doubling off the left field wall. That would have been easily out in the Yankee Stadium, but Progressive Field’s got that high left field wall, so Andujar settled with a two-bagger. Kluber, in a true Kluber fashion, struck out Austin Romine and Neil Walker to make it two outs. Enter Brett Gardner. The gritty gutty outfielder took a cutter in the inner half of the zone and drove it just over the right field fence to make it a tie game.

The Indians took the lead again in the bottom of the frame. Brantley’s single and stolen base put a runner in the scoring position and Yonder Alonso drove him in with an RBI single. We can talk about this later but why not now – Severino was not sharp today. He wasn’t really fooling anyone. He struck out only one in five innings pitched and generated seven whiffs in 94 pitches. He gets a bit more than double that amount on normal days. Does that mean we should panic about him? Absolutely not. Pitchers are human and they go through rough stretches. Pitching is a very difficult art to master and it’s ridiculous how Severino has kept his ERA in low-2.00’s for most of the season.

Anyways, back to the game. Guess who took Kluber deep the next inning though? Yep, it was Didi Gregorius again. He took a slider right down the middle and hit a long, 430-feet dinger over the center field fence. Didi isn’t someone we think of in terms of raw power but goodness, that was some pop. That home run was a win for the Yankees and the #narrative.

The Yankees weren’t done there. Giancarlo Stanton singled to center and Aaron Hicks got on base on a fielder’s choice error. He laid down a bunt right in front of the catcher Yan Gomes and the throw to second went way off line, allowing Stanton to advance to third. Greg Bird followed it up with a deep double that missed being a home run by a few inches to make it 4-3 Yankees. With Kluber walking Andujar, the Yankees were poised for a bigger inning by having bases loaded with no out. However, Romine struck out and Walker lined into a double play to end the inning. That was quite anti-climactic.

And welp, the Indians tied it again in the fifth. Jose Ramirez, who is really good at hitting, squared up on a 99 mph Severino fastball for a solo home run. That was his 28th dinger of the year, which ties him for the MLB lead with J.D. Martinez.

The late grind

The Yankees went to the bullpen starting in the bottom of sixth while the lineup was still battling Corey Kluber. The game remained tied 4-4 until the top of the eighth. Gregorius earned a walk to lead off the frame. Two batters later, Aaron Hicks hit a 405-feet double to dead center to drive in the go-ahead run. That ended Kluber’s night at 114 pitches and the Indians brought in their LOOGY guy Oliver Perez (who will never not be in the MLB) to face Greg Bird.

During Bird’s at-bat, Hicks stole third on a very close call – so close that the Indians challenged it. That stolen base proved to be huge as Bird’s fly out to left became an easy sacrifice fly and padded another run for the Yanks. 6-4 New York. The Bombers added another run in the ninth on the second Gardner homer of the night. He got a Tyler Olson fastball near the inside edge and just turned on it. Result? A big fly that hit the right field foul pole. What’s better than a two-run lead? A three-run lead. The Yankees led 7-4 and the score stayed like that for good.

Leftovers

So Severino didn’t have his best day. You know who performed well tonight? The bullpen. Adam Warren, David Robertson, Dellin Betances and Aroldis Chapman all threw an inning each and combined for no hits and three strikeouts. That seems to be one huge contrast between the Yankees and Indians. Cleveland has a great rotation and their offense can knock in runs, but good lord their bullpen is terrible. The Yankees fought through the early parts of the game against a great starter and lineup and broke through their weakness to win the game.

Box score, highlights, standings and WPA

Here’s tonight’s box score, video highlights, updated standings, and WPA.

Source: FanGraphs

The Yankees will be at it again in Cleveland tomorrow for the game two of the four-game set. Domingo German will be on the hill against Shane Bieber.

The Yankees did not lose a series to the Orioles. Exhale! They played a game that is expected of a potential 100-win team facing a potential 100-loss team. Sonny Gray rebounded nicely after two disaster starts and the offense deliver vs. the Oriole ace Dylan Bundy. It’s funny how the Yankees had Sabathia, Cessa, Tanaka and Gray to start this series and the ones you’d expect the least won the games. Anywho, the Red Sox also won tonight so the Yanks are still 3.5 games back in the division.

Dingers!

The Yankees struck in the third in a big, big way. With two outs and runners on first and second, Stanton hit a grounder that deflected off of 3B Tim Beckham for a run-scoring single to give the Yankees a 1-0 lead. Had the ball been hit slightly differently, we could be talking about another scoreless inning and RISPFail, but the luck was on the Yankees side. Bundy walked Hicks to load the bases and Greg Bird stepped up to bat.

Bird got a breaking ball that spun towards middle and he didn’t miss any of it. He drove it high and deep into the far right corner for a foul-pole grand slam. I can’t lie though – the way the things went for the Yankees in this series, I thought, for a split-second, that it would just miss being a home run and result in a frustrating foul, but boy I’m glad that didn’t happen. After tonight’s game, Bird is hitting .208/.324/.440, which isn’t really sexy, but he’s been taking walks and power numbers are gradually climbing. As of now, he’s sporting a 109 wRC+, which isn’t bad! Imagine the kind of run production he can contribute if he continues heating up.

A Yankee second baseman hit a home run in the sixth inning to pad the lead. Nope, it wasn’t Gleyber Torres. It was… Tyler Wade!  Wade got a hold of a Mike Wright Jr. cutter and drove it for a 410-feet solo homer into the seats in right-center. Wade is not really a power guy but that was no cheapie. Take a look.

You gotta feel good for Wade. Dude came into the season determined to win a spot, suffered slumps and demotions, and is taking advantage of an opportunity at hand. Torres is the second baseman of future in Bronx, but Wade is doing himself a favor proving that he can hit in the majors. The Yanks tacked on another run in the seventh with an Austin Romine dinger.

Gray Good?

After two of the worst outings of the season, Gray followed it up with one of the bests. He went six scoreless innings, struck out eight and allowed only three hits.

Not for nothing, but it seems like Gray returned to his old mechanics from start of the season. Marc Carig noted that Gray had his hands closer to his body and displayed different delivery tempo. Does that mean Gray is fixed? Not really. It’s only one start and facing the Orioles is much, much different than facing the Red Sox. But given on the situation that Gray is in, any kind of change that leads to slight improvement is encouraging.

Looking at Gray’s pitch map, it seems clear on what was his game plan: away, away and away. The Orioles had a very RHH-heavy lineup (the only LHH being Chris Davis) and Gray was locating’em like this:

It’s also worth mentioning that the strategy also worked because his command was on more than usual tonight. He threw 58 out of 90 pitches for strikes (a 64.4% rate) allowed only a walk. All in all, this is the Sonny Gray that the Yankees envisioned when they acquired him last summer. The next items in the wishlist is 1) for Gray to keep pitching like this 2) adding another solid arm in the rotation.

I assume this outing earned a bit more vote of confidence for Gray in the rotation. Something of note is that Gray has had his best starts of the season versus Blue Jays, Orioles and Royals – the clubs that aren’t exactly known for their lineups. Then again, he did pitch a pair of two-run, six-innings starts against the Astros and Indians. Gray is having such an enigmatic 2018 season and it would be nice for him to figure something out sooner or later.

Leftovers

AJ Cole’s Yankee lore is getting deeper as days go on. The former Nationals top prospect put up two scoreless innings in relief of Sonny Gray and his ERA is now down to a minuscule 0.48. Look, he’s not really a late-inning or crucial situation arm, but there’s definitely a value of a guy who can soak inning in garbage situations. I’m glad Cole has worked out well for the Yankees and here’s to hoping that he can stick with the team long-term in a role he’s given. Speaking of garbage situation relievers, Chasen Shreve also made an appearance, striking out two in a scoreless inning.

Giancarlo Stanton, who lost out the AL All Star Final Vote to Jean Segura, had a four-hit game. His wRC+ is now up to 134, which is quite above-average and the best part is that, it very well go up from here on! Tyler Wade had a three-hit game and Romine had two hits. Greg Bird was 1-for-4 (with a grand slam) but he’s hit the ball hard here and there that resulted in loud outs. The results may not show as much but I was encouraged to see him square up on pitches.

Box score, highlights, standings and WPA

Here’s tonight’s box score, video highlights, updated standings and the WPA.

The Yankees will head to Cleveland for a four-game series. The first one will feature a whopping Luis Severino vs. Corey Kluber matchup, which has to be one of the best pitching head-to-heads of 2018.

A tough loss against a good team. The Yankees dropped tonight’s game against the Nats 5-4 after not being able to hold an early 3-1 lead. The story of the game was Juan Soto, a 19-year old wunderkind who, if you didn’t notice before tonight, can hit an absolute heck out of baseball. It was only the 4th one-run loss for the Bronx Bombers this season. Oh well, can’t win’em all. Let’s recap this thing.

The back-and-forth battle

Sonny Gray started the game by throwing 16 pitches to two hitters and getting neither out. Not great! Adam Eaton hit a ground-rule double and Trea Turner reached with an infield single to put runners on corners with Bryce Harper up. Gray did strike out Harper but by then, he had thrown a whopping 22 pitches. Anthony Rendon hit a sac fly to drive Eaton in and that was all the damage he allowed in the inning.

The Yankees got a run back in 10 pitches. Brett Gardner singled to center, stole a base and reached third when Spencer Kieboom’s throw got past the second baseman. Aaron Judge promptly drove him in with a sac fly.

Greg Bird, who was 5-for-40 entering tonight, gave the Yankees a go-ahead run in the 2nd with a solo HR to right. Erik Fedde hung a breaking ball up the zone and big league hitters don’t miss that, especially with Bird and his Yankee Stadium tailor-made swing. The Bronx Bombers added another in the third. Judge hit a big double (right off the plexiglass by the visitor’s bullpen) with one out, advanced to third on Didi Gregorius ground out, and Giancarlo Stanton drove him in with an RBI single just off Rendon’s glove. 3-1 Yanks.

That lead did not last long. In the fourth, Gray got the first two outs before allowing two baserunners via a Daniel Murphy walk and Matt Adams base hit. Enter Juan Soto. The youngster got a high-and-away Gray fastball and hit a towering fly ball that just kept carrying and carrying … and gone! The Yankee Stadium dimensions might have helped, but for a 19-year old to hit a 45-degree launch angle home run way opposite field, that’s some special pop on the bat. Anyways, it was a bad news for the Yanks. 4-3 Nats.

Here comes Gleyber Torres. Leading off the bottom of fifth, he hit a 435-feet bomb that hit the sign on the back of the visitor’s bullpen. That, of course, tied the game and also got him tied for the home run lead among American League 2nd baseman (with Yangervis Solarte). Let’s see it in GIF format since it is probably the most glorious thing the Yankee fans saw tonight:

You blink, you lose

Let’s fast forward to the seventh. With Chasen Shreve working his second inning of the night, Juan Soto absolutely unloaded on a fastball right down the middle for a home run over the Yankees bullpen. Statcast said it measured at 436 feet, but I don’t know if I believe that. That thing was absolutely crushed. Here is how Shreve located that 92-mph pitch:

and it went all the way there:

I thought it was … interesting Aaron Boone let Shreve work more than an inning. He’s been mostly limited to an inning’s worth of work (or less) this season. Prior to tonight, Shreve worked 18 out of 22 outings for an inning or less. In 3 out of 4 instances he went more than an inning, the Yankees were already on the losing side and the one they didn’t was during an extra inning game against Baltimore. In a tie game against a team that can do some damage, I don’t know if I would have let a reliever with a 1.74 HR/9 IP and 4.55 FIP that much leash.

The Yankees had a major opportunity to tie the game up in the eighth. Against Ryan Madson, who’s been in baseball as long as I’ve followed the MLB, Gregorius walked and Stanton singled to put two runners on with one out. That threat was dispelled relatively cheaply — Aaron Hicks struck out and Miguel Andujar flew out to end the frame. The Yankees followed it up with a quiet 1-2-3 inning against Sean Doolittle in the 9th to drop the ballgame.

Leftovers

Alright so Gray wasn’t that great today. He’s been better lately, but the outing will not do him any favors on the “Gray can’t pitch in Bronx” narrative. He went 5 IP, 7 H, 4 H, 2 BB, 1 K and 1 HR. Granted, the Nats lineup is pretty good but not being able to locate consistently in the zone cost him some pitch counts. Let’s make some contrasts. Here’s a pitching map from June 6 outing when Gray threw 8 scoreless vs. Jays.

And here’s one from tonight:

Even with simple eye test, you can see that there are noticeably more dots concentrated in the zone when he pitched well. Not as much tonight. It’s entirely possible that Gray was more conscious of the Nats hitters and/or being at the Yankee Stadium. Or he was just having an off-night with his command. Bottom line is, there’s quite a contrast between when he has a good or bad outing.

Some positive stuff: Bird went 2-for-4 tonight with a double and homer. Stanton had a three hit game as well! Gregorius went 0-for-2 but he walked twice. Those are the hitters that reached base more than once tonight. Hicks, Andujar and Romine, who are capable of better nights, went 0-for-12 combined.

Box score, highlights, standings and WPA

Here’s tonight’s box score, video highlights, updated standings and WPA. The Red Sox won tonight so the Yanks fall a game behind them in the AL East standings.

Source: FanGraphs

Up next

The Yankees host the Tampa Bay Rays for a four-game series. Domingo German will be on the hill and the Rays will send out their ace Blake Snell, who’s having a heck of a season (8-3, 2.30 ERA/3.31 FIP).

Remember how I said yesterday’s game was relatively stress-free? This one wasn’t like that. It was a deadlock tie for the first 12 innings with several scoring chances that the Yankees could’ve taken advantage of. Thankfully, New York ended it in a loud way with home runs from Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton in the 13th inning. Oh, and Sonny Gray was also really, really good and so was the bullpen. Can’t forget those guys. Overall, good win, and the Yankees have 40 of those this season and it’s only June 6. Let’s recap this thing.

An anatomy of Gray’s start

Sonny Gray is starting to turn the narrative around this season. After a rough start, he’s pitched a quality start five times out of the past seven starts. Going eight scoreless, tonight’s game might have been his best in 2018.

Gray started the game with four perfect innings. The perfect game bid broke in the fifth with a Justin Smoak leadoff double. That frame also happened to be the most trouble Gray got into. After the Smoak double, Kendrys Morales hit a single to put two runners in corners with no out. Kevin Pillar hit a grounder right at Miguel Andujar and the young third baseman wisely threw home for a force out. Smoak is not a fast runner and that run the Yanks prevented turned out to be huge (though you can never tell how the game would’ve unfolded in a different scenario). Gray followed up with a walk to Russell Martin to load the bases but induced an inning-ending GIDP from Devon Travis to end it.

A good diagnosis from tonight’s outing? Gray attacked the strike zone. Here is his pitch map from Baseball Savant:

99 pitches, 63 strikes. He did a pretty good job staying within the strike zone compared to when he’s having a bad day. Here’s his pitch map from May 26, when he allowed 5 ER in 3.2 IP versus the Angels:

A bit more all over the place here. Gray’s got an excellent stuff and it works wonders when he can locate it, and that was the case tonight. He went 8 innings, allowed 2 hits and struck out 8. He brought his season ERA under 5 (4.81) and has a 3.38 ERA in his past 7 starts, which goes back to that road game versus the Astros.

The lucky 13th

Sam Gaviglio isn’t really a household name in Toronto, but he threw a heck of a start tonight. Coming into tonight’s game, Gaviglio had pitched in Triple-A and made three starts with the big club. He wouldn’t be a guy that the Jays would send out for a must-win game but he pitched like that guy.

Gaviglio isn’t really an electric stuff guy, but his low-zone sinker approach worked well. The Yankee batters hit an average of 81.3 mph exit velocity against him (per Baseball Savant). That doesn’t mean that the Yankees didn’t have opportunities though. In the second inning, Austin Romine hit a smash up the middle with runner on corners only to be robbed by Travis for a base hit and a sure RBI. In the fifth, they had the bases loaded with two outs, but Greg Bird grounded to first to end the threat.

Things turned for the dramatics in the 13th. Again, it is nice to have power in the lineup. As the Yanks approached the softer part of the Jays bullpen, John Gibbons sent out Joe Biagini, who hasn’t been great in 2018 (7.50 ERA in 8 games before tonight). After a Gleyber Torres strike out, Brett Gardner singled to get on base. On a 1-2 count, Judge hit a hanging curveball low in the zone for a two-run homer. Judge had been scuffling for a bit while – he had that 8 strikeout doubleheader game and was 0-for-4 before that home run – so it’s nice to see him breaking out of it. Getting the team a lead is nice too.

Two batters later, Giancarlo Stanton hit one of the most ridiculous homers of the season. On a 1-0 changeup, Stanton crushed the pitch into the left field seats for a 119.3 mph (!!), 416 feet home run. 3-0 Yankees.

There’s just something about Stanton homers. We often use terms like “punishes,” “smashes,” “pulverizes,” etc. We’re gonna need something else for him. He swings at baseballs like he’s angry at them.

Leftovers

Remember that “We bring the heat” commercial from spring? That was full on effect tonight. Chad Green, Dellin Betances, David Robertson and Aroldis Chapman combined for a 5.0 IP, 2 H, 7K outing. Robertson’s been slowly progressing to his usual self, allowing only one run in his past 7 appearances. His ERA has dropped from 4.91 to 4.08. Much more like it. Chapman is having a heck of a season so far. After the save tonight, he has a 1.3 fWAR, which is tied for the best in AL with Mariners’ Edwin Diaz. Chappy also has a 46 strikeout sand 11 walks in 25.2 IP in 2018. That’ll do.

How does a team go 12 innings without scoring? The 2-3-4-5-6 hitters of the Yankees lineup went a combined 0-for-22 prior to Judge and Stanton dingers (after that, they were 2-for-26). Greg Bird had a rough one, going 0-for-6. Austin Romine also had an 0-fer night, going 0-for-5.

Box score, highlights, standings and WPA

Here’s tonight’s box score, video highlights, updated standings and WPA.

Source: FanGraphs

The Yanks have a day off tomorrow and then they will head to Queens for a weekend series versus the Mets. Masahiro Tanaka is scheduled to be on the mound against Jacob deGrom in Friday’s opener.

The Yankees are 30-9 since that 9-9 start to the season. A lot of those wins were stressful, but tonight’s was relatively nice. The Yanks and Jays were in a total pitching duel until the wheels fell off the home bullpen. CC Sabathia threw one of the best starts of the season and Miguel Andujar and Aaron Hicks each delivered big blows onto the way to the 7-2 victory. Let’s recap this thing.

CC’s still got it

Sabathia didn’t have a great May. In 5 starts last month, he had a 5.92 ERA in 24.1 IP, including 20 ER allowed in the past 18.1 IP. As the calendar page turned though, Sabathia looked pretty good (at least for tonight!).

First off, both starters tonight were pretty effective – and they got it done in different ways. Here is a pitch map from Sabathia…

And here is Marco Estrada’s

CC’s pitches were more spread out east-and-west through out the zone (and out of the zone) and Estrada’s pitches were more concentrated. Estrada also had a lot of pitches below the zone to lure hitters to whiff on balls below the knees – a classic north-and-south approach. Both pitchers don’t have overpowering stuff so it’s always interesting to see how the work the plate to get the hitters out.

After the scoreless five innings for both teams, the Blue Jays finally scored the game’s first run in the sixth. Teoscar Hernandez hit a high fly ball that just kept on carrying and landed behind the 328 feet wall mark. Statcast had the fly ball at a 17% hit probability (344 feet, 104.0 mph exit velo, 45 launch degree) but it did damage because the ball was pulled just well enough.

After the Yankees took a 4-1 lead, Sabathia gave up another dinger, this time to Kevin Pillar. It was hit better than the Hernandez home run but wasn’t really much of a moonshot either – a 367 footer that went over the left-center wall. CC has given up big flies this season for sure. After tonight, they’ve hit 10 out of the park in 57.2 IP, which is a 1.56 HR/9 IP rate. That doesn’t sound ideal but who says everything is perfect? At the same time, Sabathia gets outs by inducing easy in-play balls (0.069 BABIP against tonight).

All in all – really good outing from the big man (7.0 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 6 K’s). Two solo homers hurt but not enough tonight. The Blue Jays didn’t touch second or third base aside from the homers all game and we’ll take this outing from Sabathia all day.

Two blasts

The bats were pretty quiet for the first six innings. They had chances, but didn’t capitalize on them. Giancarlo Stanton missed a homer by inches in the first inning, settled for a double, and the following hitters failed to bring him in. Greg Bird led off the fourth with a ground-rule double and they couldn’t bring him in either. The Yankees also had a baserunner caught stealing in each of the fifth and sixth, which is not what you want! At the same time, Estrada’s changeup was killing them, inducing 9 whiffs in 40 counts.

In the seventh, Gary Sanchez led off with a single. Jays manager Gibbons made a bullpen move, swapping Estrada with Seung Hwan Oh. Oh has been serviceable for the Jays this season but man, it was not his best night. He nicked Didi Gregorius on the back foot and walked Hicks to load the bases with Andujar up. Miggy then squared up a hanging slider right down the middle and drive it all the way to the second deck – a 426 feet, no-doubter grand slam, 4-1 Yankees. It’s nice to have game-changing power in the lineup.

The beat went on in the eighth. Stanton and Didi got on base and the Yanks had Aaron Hicks facing Aaron Loup. Hicksy got a fastball up and away in the zone and put it over the right field wall and into the Yankees bullpen (David Robertson, who was warming up, caught the ball like it was nothing). And yep, that pretty much did it for tonight. With another power swing, the Yankees turned a save situation into a comfortable, five-run lead tonight. This team can look hapless at the bat for the first several innings of the game and then make the game out of reach in a hurry with a few swings. Love it. 7-2 was the score after the Hicks dinger, and that’s how it stayed for good.

Leftovers

David Robertson and Chasen Shreve each threw a scoreless, perfect inning to close the game out. The most notable part about the bullpen tonight was how Robertson’s curveball badly fooled Aledmys Diaz for a strike out. The pitch was far in the other batter’s box.

There are whiffs, and there are whiffs like this – probably a combination of Robertson’s curve spinning well and Diaz trying to be aggressive to get the ball in play.

Every starter on lineup besides Gleyber Torres and Gregorius had at least a base hit, even Tyler Austin (which was a grounder up the middle and the first baseman couldn’t handle the throw). Austin has looked pretty lost at the plate. In the past 24 at-bats, Austin is 2-for-24 with *squints eyes* 16 strikeouts. I assume he started tonight at the DH due to his past success against Estrada but didn’t really deliver tonight.

Box score, video highlights, standings and WPA
Here’s tonight’s box score, highlights, updated standings and WPA.

Source: FanGraphs

Up next

The Yankees are back at it in Toronto tomorrow. Sonny Gray will get the call on a 7:07 pm EST game start against Sam Gaviglio. The next win will be the no. 40 for the season and we’re only in early June!