Friday, June 6, 2014

McCann's 3-Run Double Helps Whitley Collect First Career Win Over Royals

While yesterday's win over Oakland wasn't the slightest bit pretty, you have to acknowledge that it mattered.

The Yankees, who had lost four in a row coming into it, were obviously pretty down on themselves, making the fact that it wasn't a loss extremely meaningful. 

After tonight's 4-2 victory over the Royals, you have to think now that maybe it was actually the beginning of good times for New York's AL team, who are now a solid 31-29 on the season.

No, this evening's W wasn't perfect (the Yanks offense didn't score in their last six at-bats), but is was pretty stress-free.

After Brian Roberts put them on the board in the top of the second with a single, the Pinstripes made the game enough of a blowout to take the worry away from their pitchers in the third, when Brian McCann cleared the bases with a go-ahead, three-run double.

At that point, the Yankees possessed a comfortable 4-1 lead, enough to allow Chase Whitley to dominate.

Whitley, 0-0 in four starts coming in, tossed an impressive 7 innings of two-run ball, two trips around the bases better than his counterpart Jeremy Guthrie, who also lasted 7 frames.

Of those 21 outs, just 3 were strikeouts, as Whitley mostly succeeded in the outing due to grounders and fly balls.

After his exit, Dellin Betances and David Robertson entered for the second consecutive day, with Betances easily getting through the eighth.

Unfortunately, Robertson did have some trouble with two outs in the ninth, surrendering a double and a walk to give the home team some momentum.

He would eventually get out of the jam thanks to chopper off the bat of Salvador Perez (his 14th save in 16 opportunities), but still, the 21 pitches it took him to do so will likely keep him out tomorrow if he's needed, something pretty frustrating considering he struck out the first two hitters he faced.

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