Saturday, August 5, 2017

Rusty Garcia & The Lonesome Bats...

Credit:  David Dermer-AP
Indians 7, Yankees 2...

The title of this post sounds like a Tex-Mex country band.  Unfortunately, it's the description of the Friday night Yankees who dropped their fourth straight game.

It was not a great debut for Jaime Garcia.  After the game, Manager Joe Girardi said that Garcia was up in the zone.  "He didn't throw as many strikes with his fastball as he usually does.  This is a guy that's pitched for three different teams in three different starts and been all over the country.  He looked rusty to me."  It wasn't just you, Joe, he looked rusty to us too.

The Indians scored two runs in the bottom of the 2nd inning to take the lead they would not relinquish.  Carlos Santana walked with two outs.  Former Yankee Austin Jackson doubled to the left field corner, and the relay throw from Clint Frazier to Didi Gregorius to Gary Sanchez was not in time as Santana slid head first with his hand reaching home plate ahead of the tag.  Ajax took third on the play and scored a subsequent passed ball on Gary Sanchez.

The next inning, the Indians added to their lead.  Brandon Guyer hit a lead-off single to left.  Michael Brantley singled to right.  As Guyer was running to third, the throw from Aaron Judge hit the runner and bounced up into the seats.  Guyer easily scored while Brantley took second.  A ground out moved Brantley to third, and he scored on a sacrifice fly to right by Edwin Encarnacion.

The Yankees had probably their biggest opportunity in the 5th inning.  After Indians starter Trevor Bauer threw a pitch up and in to Todd Frazier (which provoked Frazier to say a few works after he spun to avoid getting hit), Frazier blasted a one-out solo home run to right center (his 18th of the year).  Ronald Torreyes singled to the right field corner.  He thought about going for two but wisely held up at first.  Brett Gardner singled to left field as Torreyes moved to third.  Clint Frazier hit a sharp grounder to Indians third baseman Giovanny Urshela who made a highlight reel play when he threw across the runner to catcher Roberto Perez to nail Torreyes at the plate. With Gardner and Frazier on base, Aaron Judge patiently took a walk to load the bases.  Gary Sanchez, representing the potential go-ahead run, had a sloppy at-bat, chasing a few pitches out of the strike zone, and went down swinging to leave the bases full.  

Credit:  David Dermer-AP
The Indian came right back and added another run in the bottom of the 5th.  Brandon Guyer walked and stole second.  Michael Brantley singled to left, scoring Guyer.  A wild pitch and a subsequent ground out moved Brantley to third.  Girardi pulled Garcia and brought in Chad Green.  A wild pitch by Green allowed Brantley to score and it was 6-1 Indians.

Credit:  David Richard-USA TODAY Sports
Yankees reliever Tommy Kahnle pitched the 8th inning in relief of Green.  Jose Ramirez punched a double into left field in front of Clint Frazier, and Edwin Encarnacion followed with a double off the top of the wall in left, scoring Ramirez.  Kahnle settled down to retire the next three batters, but it was too little, too late for a team struggling to score runs.

The Yankees unsuccessfully tried one last rally in the top of the 9th against Indians reliever Bryan Shaw.  Chase Headley led off with a single to center but Todd Frazier grounded into a 6-4-3 double play.  Ronald Torreyes hit a soft infield single to short, and moved to second on defensive indifference.  Brett Gardner singled to center which scored Torreyes.  7-2, Indians.  But that would be all as Clint Frazier hit a grounder to third, erasing Gardner at second with the force out.

The Yankees (57-51) fell 3 games behind the Boston Red Sox with the loss.  The Red Sox, winners of four in a row, beat the Chicago White Sox, 3-2, in 11 innings.  Bummer.  No seriously, that is who was on the mound when the Sox scored the winning run (Aaron Bummer).  Can't blame Tyler Clippard...he gave the White Sox two scoreless innings.  The Tampa Bay Rays lost 2-0 to the Milwaukee Brewers so they remain 1 1/2 games behind the Yankees.  The Baltimore Orioles fell 5-2 to the Detroit Tigers so they are still 4 1/2 games behind the Yankees.

This was another disappointing loss.  There was so much optimism on Monday but five days later, it's hard not to have a 'glass is half empty' point of view.  I hate to single out any one player since this loss was a team effort, but Matt Holliday's bat is a liability.  He had another '0-fer' performance (hitless in four at-bats with a strikeout).  As good as he has been in the clubhouse, I think this is his one and only year in Pinstripes.  While I had previously felt that Clint Frazier should stay on the MLB roster when Aaron Hicks returns, his play of late (4 for his last 27 at-bats) has me wondering if a couple of weeks back at Scranton/Wilkes-Barre until the roster expands on September 1st might be the right move.  Gary Sanchez definitely needs to clean up his play.  

Credit:  David Maxwell-Getty Images
Odds & Ends...

The last time he was in New York to pitch, Yu Darvish was a Texas Ranger going against Masahiro Tanaka and the Yankees.  Last night, he returned to NYC but this time was a Los Angeles Dodger, making his NL debut, at Citi Field against Jacob DeGrom and the Mets.  Darvish fared much better against DeGrom than he did against Masahiro Tanaka.  He had a couple of Mets on base in the first inning, but settled down to go 7 strong innings, shutting out the Mets on 3 hits.  He walked only one batter while striking out 10.  He picked up the win in the Dodgers' 6-0 victory over the Mets.  I'd say that Darvish had a much better debut than Sonny Gray, but then again, Darvish has baseball's best team (most wins) behind him.  

Credit:  Elsa Garrison-Getty Images
According to Elias Sports, Jaime Garcia performed a MLB rarity on Friday night.  He is the first pitcher since Gus Weyhing in 1895 to have three consecutive starts in the same season with three different teams within the span of 20 days.


On July 21st, Jaime Garcia was the winning pitcher for the Atlanta Braves when they defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers, 12-3.  Garcia pitched 7 innings and allowed 7 hits and 3 runs.  On July 28th, he was the winning pitcher for the Minnesota Twins in their 6-3 victory over the Oakland A's.  He went 6 2/3 innings, giving up 8 hits and 3 runs.  The Yankees probably wish that he had held the Indians to only 3 runs, but then again, they would have still lost the game.  

Congrats to Tyler Austin!  His dramatic two-run home run yesterday in the bottom of the 9th inning powered the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders to a 3-1 walk-off win over the Pawtucket Red Sox.  Jake Cave singled in the first inning to extend his hitting streak to 19 games, the longest active streak in the International League and the season high for the RailRiders.

Dallas Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett was a pre-game guest in the Yankees clubhouse prior to yesterday's game.  He also watched batting practice.  I am sure that went over well with the Yankees fans who are die-hard Giants fan (not me, sorry).  

Credit:  David Dermer-AP
Justin Verlander of the Detroit Tigers has cleared waivers.  No thank you.  Like the pitcher, don't like the contract.

Have a great Saturday!  Time to get back into the win column.  Let's Go Yankees!

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Sorry for the Capatcha... Blame the Russians :)