The Judgian Blast...

Credit:  Elsa-Getty Images

Yankees 5, Mets 3...

...Ya gotta love John Sterling and his home run calls.  Aaron Judge hits a home run and it's almost bigger news than the game itself.  His blast, which traveled into the third deck of the left center stands, traveled 457 feet at a velocity of 117 mph to help power the Yankees to the win over the New York Mets.  It was funny to watch the Mets outfielders stand without moving as they watched the ball fly over.  

I didn't like the first inning when the Yankees failed to take advantage of a scoring opportunity and the Mets did not.  Jacoby Ellsbury led off with a single lined to right.  He stole second (the throw bouncing off Ellsbury as he slid), and later advanced to third on Aaron Judge's ground out back to the pitcher.  Robert Gsellman looked at Ellsbury but didn't hold him long enough before throwing Judge out.  Unfortunately, the Yankees could not bring Ells home.  In the bottom of the inning, the Mets didn't waste their opportunity. Juan Lagares opened with a double down the third base line all the way to the corner off Yankees starter Jaime Garcia.  After moving to third on a ground out, he scored on a sacrifice fly to left by Yoenis Cespedes.  The Mets had the early 1-0 lead.

The second inning was weird but the Yankees came away with the game-tying run.  With the Mets rotating third baseman Travis d'Arnaud and second baseman Asdrubal Cabrera in frequent positional switches, Chase Headley drew a one-out walk against Mets starter Robert Gsellman.  A wild pitch by Gsellman into the dirt through catcher Rene Rivera's legs allowed Headley to move to second, followed by a passed ball on Rivera that advanced him to third. Rivera's look back at Gsellman was a classic "WTF?". Garrett Cooper grounded out to third on a diving stop by Asdrubal Cabrera but Headley scored on the play.  The Yankees had tied the game.

Aaron Judge led off the 4th inning with his towering blast. It was one of those "wow" moments.  The home run was Judge's 37th of the year.  The Yankees had taken their first lead of the game, 2-1.

Credit:  Frank Franklin II-Associated Press

In the bottom of the 5th, Rene Rivera hit a two-out solo homer over the wall in left center to tie the game.  It seemed so wrong that his homer counted as much as Judge's did.  

The Yankees took their second lead of the game in the 6th inning.  Aaron Judge singled on a liner to left with one out.  Successive walks to Didi Gregorius and Gary Sanchez loaded the bases and ended the day for Robert Gsellman.  Reliever Paul Sewald was brought into the game and Chase Headley greeted him with a sacrifice fly to center which scored Judge.  3-2, Yankees.

In the bottom of the inning, the Mets came right back to tie the game again.  Asdrubal Cabrera opened the inning with a single to left.  He subsequently  tried to steal second on a ball that got away from Gary Sanchez, but it was a bad idea to test El Gary's arm.  Out at second.  Yoenis Cespedes drew a walk from Jaime Garcia and Michael Conforto doubled to left...a roller to the wall, advancing Cespedes to third.  Manager Joe Girardi pulled Garcia and brought Tommy Kahnle into the game.  Travis d'Arnaud lofted a sacrifice fly to center that scored Cespedes but Kahnle was able to limit the damage to only the one run. Game was tied again at 3.

Ronald Torreyes led off the 7th inning with a double to the left field corner.  What can you say about Toe? He is constantly coming up with key, unsung hits in critical moments. A sacrifice bunt by Brett Gardner, pinch-hitting for Kahnle, pushed Toe to third. Successive walks of Jacoby Ellsbury and Aaron Hicks by Paul Sewald loaded the bases. Admittedly, the fourth ball to Hicks looked like the third strike but oh well, I'll take it. Aaron Judge had first crack at the potential scoring opportunity but he popped out to the catcher.  Didi Gregorius was next and he didn't miss his opportunity.  He rapped a double with authority to the right field corner, scoring both Toe and Ellsbury.  

Credit:  Frank Franklin II-Associated Press

From there, the Yankees rode the bullpen arms of Adam Warren and David Robertson to victory.  The Mets were given four outs in the bottom of the 9th when a third strike on Amed Rosario rolled under Gary Sanchez's glove to the backstop, allowing Rosario to reach first.  Robertson was charged with the wild pitch, but Sanchez should have had his glove down.  Robertson shook it off and did what he does best.  He closed the game out for his 14th save on a called strikeout of Rene Rivera who had represented the potential tying run.  I continue to be thankful every day that DRob is a Yankee again.

Credit:  Frank Franklin II-Associated Press

The Yankees (64-55) were unable to pick up any ground on the Boston Red Sox.  The Sox were trailing the St Louis Cardinals, 4-2, in the bottom of the 9th at Fenway Park, but Xander Bogaerts homered and Mookie Betts hit a two-run double to give the Red Sox the 5-4 walk-off win.  So, the Yankees remain 4 1/2 games behind the Sox.  The Sox are off today so the Yankees will either gain or lose a 1/2 game depending upon the outcome  of the Yankees-Mets series finale.  Both the Tampa Bay Rays and Baltimore Orioles lost.  The Rays dropped a 3-2 contest to the Toronto Blue Jays and the O's were beaten 7-6 by Yonder Alonso and the Seattle Mariners.  So, they trail the Yankees by 5 1/2 and 6 games, respectively.  

Despite the monster home run, Aaron Judge set the MLB record for consecutive games with a strikeout for non-pitchers with a swinging strikeout in the top of the 9th.  He has now struck out in 32 successive games.  

Although he was on the mound when the Mets tied the game in the 6th, Tommy Kahnle (2-3) was the beneficiary of the two-run double by Didi Gregorius in the 7th to take the win. Excellent job by Adam Warren who pitched two innings of scoreless one-hit ball with 3 strikeouts.  I am sure that the Chicago Cubs look at Warren and wonder where that guy was at the start of last season.

Mets starting catcher Travis d'Arnaud, who hadn't played third since high school, was forced to play the position when both Wilmer Flores and Jose Reyes were scratched before the game due to ribcage injuries.  d'Arnaud and Cabrera, the second baseman, made a total of 22 positional switches during the course of the game.  Cabrera would frequently move to third for right-handed hitters.  It was a smart play by Mets manager Terry Collins as he limited the fielding chances for d'Arnaud.  Cabrera took all of the grounders to third and d'Arnaud only had to deal with a popup.  

Credit:  Elsa-Getty Images

Odds & Ends...

Credit to Anthony Castrovince of MLB.com for the words of Yankees Managing General Partner Hal Steinbrenner at the MLB Owners Meeting in Chicago: 

• If we don't make the play-offs, it's a failure.  Any year, any year.  That's just the mindset for us.
• It was a great first two and a half months.  It's been tough the last two months for the most part.  But I think they're coming out of it and the pitching additions we made at the Deadline are already helping, and we're going to have a strong last five, six weeks. 
• The changes we did at the last Trade Deadline a year ago clearly [were] a difficult decision. But I made it, it was mine, and we got a lot of good players from it and we still stayed in contention until the last couple weeks. But we've been fortunate. The young guys we kept talking about for three, four years finally got to the point where they could contribute at the big league level. Other guys -- [international] signings like Estevan Florial -- have been good. So we've got a very good player development system right now, and we're competing. That's always a very good sign. And it's always tough to give up some of the top [prospects], but I wasn't going to do it for a rental. If you do it, you do it for a young guy that's under control for a year or two.
• We can still go into the free-agent market. We'll just have to see who's ready [in the Minor League system] and who's not and how the team looks at X [payroll] number.

Credit:  Nam Y Huh-Associated Press

Greg Bird began his rehab assignment last night with the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders.  After the RailRiders completed the rain suspended game from the night before (which they lost 9-4 to the Gwinnett Braves), Bird was penciled into the lineup at first base for the regularly scheduled Wednesday game.  He was 0-for-2 with a strikeout in the first four innings of the RailRiders' 4-1 loss to the Braves.  Chance Adams, 9-4, was the losing pitcher.

CC Sabathia will be activated off the DL on Saturday according to Sweeny Murti of WFAN. He's scheduled to make the start against the Boston Red Sox.  I wish I felt more optimistic about this news than I do.

Have a great Thursday!  Let's sweep the Subway Series with a win!  Go Yankees!