Game Thread: New York Yankees vs. Boston Red Sox 6/30

And just like that it is game time here in the Bronx between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox. In the middle game of this three-game weekend set the Yankees will send Sonny Gray hoping for sunny skies above the Bronx, while the Red Sox will counter with their ace, Chris Sale. The game will be played at 7:15 pm ET inside Yankee Stadium and can be seen on FOX. You can also follow along with the game on MLB TV, with the MLB At-Bat app and by tuning into the Yankees radio broadcast with John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman on WFN.

Follow us on Twitter, @GreedyStripes, and “Like” us on Facebook, The Greedy Pinstripes, to keep up with us and the team all season long. Enjoy the game, make Sale remember the 2017 season where he failed to record a win against the Baby Bombers, and go Yankees!!

Meet a Prospect: Reid Anderson

With their 40^th round pick, 1207^th overall, in the 2018 MLB First Year Players Draft the New York Yankees selected Reid Anderson, a right-handed pitcher out of Brown University. Let’s meet the man that concluded the Yankees 2018 Draft when he was selected. This is Meet a Prospect: The Reid Anderson Edition.

Anderson, an Aledo, Texas native, was a starter for Brown University all four years while at the school pitching in a total of 31 games, 26 as a starting pitcher. Along the way Anderson racked up 130 strikeouts over 143 innings across four seasons including a team-high 41 K’s as a junior in 2017. Anderson did pitch to a 5.98 ERA while at Brown University, but the right-hander was much stronger in High School pitching to a 12-1 record with a 0.72 ERA with 80 strikeouts in 70 innings.

The Yankees have signed their 40th round pick so let us be one of the first to welcome him not only to the Yankees organization, but to the Yankees family as well. You can follow Reid on Twitter by following @YouKnowTaco , one of the best Twitter handles in all of baseball in my opinion.

Meet a Prospect: Sincere Smith

With their 32^nd round pick, 967^th overall, in the 2018 MLB First Year Players Draft the New York Yankees selected Sincere Smith, a shortstop out of East Bladen High School in North Carolina. Sincere is a versatile athlete that played both baseball and football in high school, playing shortstop and pitching for the baseball team while playing quarterback, wide receiver and cornerback as a member of the school’s football team. Wow. Let’s meet this young man. This is Meet a Prospect: The Sincere Smith Edition.

Smith stands at 5’11” and weighs in at 170 lbs. while throwing and batting from the right side. Smith was a Four County (NC) All-Conference First Team selection and was also named the East Bladen High School’s team MVP in 2018. Smith’s speed and arm strength will be on full display at the lowest levels of the Yankees minor league system, but something tells me that with a little hard work from Sincere that he won’t be down there for long.

Sincere has sincerely enjoyed the whole MLB Draft has experience and has already signed a deal with the New York Yankees, let’s welcome him not only to the organization but to the family as well. Unfortunately, we will have to do that the old-fashioned way as Sincere does not have any known Twitter or social media accounts as of the time of this writing.

Keep Rolling With It...

Photo Credit: AP (Julie Jacobson)

Yankees Roll Past Red Sox, 8-1…

The title of the post is courtesy of Greg Bird’s words after the game as he finally contributed  to the Yankees offense in a big way. His two home runs helped power the Yankees past Boston in the first game of the three-game set at Yankee Stadium.  

Gleyber Torres set the tone early when he stretched a double into a triple leading off the second inning. Thanks to a drawn-in infield, Miguel Andujar’s bloop fly fell in between four Red Sox defenders in shallow center, scoring Torres with the game’s first run. It may not have been pretty but whatever it takes. Advantage, Yanks.

The fourth inning proved to be fruitful for the Yankees against Red Sox starter Eduardo Rodriguez.  Rodriguez entered the game with a 9-2 record, tied for the team lead for wins with Rick Porcello and David Price. Down 0-2, Giancarlo Stanton worked a walk off Rodriguez to open the fourth. Didi Gregorius followed with a deep fly to right center which one-hopped off the warning track up against the wall for a double to put runners at second and third with no outs. Gleyber Torres hit a fly to Andrew Benintendi in left which allowed Stanton to tag and score. Next, the Yankees got back-to-back home runs from Miguel Andujar and Greg Bird to increase their lead to 5-0. I thought it was funny how Paul O’Neill of the YES Network was describing how Bird’s swing was slow to come around as Bird’s ball flew over the left field wall. A quick correction in words made by O’Neill. Nice audible, Paulie!

Photo Credit: Jim McIsaac

The Red Sox finally got their first (and only) run off CC Sabathia in the fifth inning. The dangerous Mookie Betts hit a two-out double to left center and scored when Andrew Benintendi followed with a double to the right field wall. Benintendi stole third but was stranded on the second inning-ending fly out of the night with runners in scoring position by J.D. Martinez. It was a really nice job by Sabathia and later Chad Green to contain the red hot Martinez who finished 0-for-4. If Martinez had gotten a couple of huge hits, the game would have looked very differently.    

It was a great start for CC Sabathia who took the team into the seventh inning rather than his usual five. Sabathia enters his 38th month of July tomorrow but he didn’t show any signs of age on this night. After recording the first two outs of the seventh, Jackie Bradley Jr was hit by a pitch to bring the always lethal Mookie Betts to the plate. It probably would have been a good spot for Aaron Boone to make a pitching change, but he stayed with the crafty veteran.  CC, showing some athleticism, took a grounder from Betts on his 97th pitch to flip it to Greg Bird for the final out. Time for the showers for Sabathia but it was a job well done. Seven solid innings, six hits, the lone fifth inning run, a walk and five strikeouts. You could not have asked for a better performance.  

In the bottom of the seventh, with Red Sox reliever Justin Haley in for Rodriguez, the Yankees picked up a couple more runs on Aaron Judge’s home run to right after Aaron Hicks had singled. It had been a battle of Fresno State alumnus but Judge was the better Bulldog this time around (as expected of course).  

Photo Credit: NJ Advance Media for NJ.com (Andrew Mills)

The Yankees scored their final run in the bottom of the eighth inning with Haley still on the mound for the Sox. It might have been more but Miguel Andujar was thrown out trying to stretch a single into a double before Greg Bird came to the plate. With the bases empty, Bird blasted a homer to right for his second dinger of the game. 8-1, Yankees.  

Photo Credit: NY Post (Paul J Bereswill)

Chad Green had pitched a clean eighth inning for the Yankees, but I am always sweating bullets when the unreliable Chasen Shreve enters a game. Despite a seven-run lead, it was not easy watching Shreve take the mound for the ninth. He retired the three batters he faced, including the last two by strikeout to end the game so there was no cause for alarm. I guess that’s why they pay Aaron Boone to make these decisions and not me.  

With the win, the Yankees (53-26) are back in a first-place tie with the Red Sox. It is amazing how the two teams have battled neck-and-neck for the past month with no more than a two-game separation. No MLB teams have better winning percentages than the Yankees (.671) and Red Sox (.663). The Tampa Bay Rays, fourteen games out in the AL East, would only be 4 1/2 games out if they played in the AL Central.  

It was nice to see Brandon Drury in the Yankees dugout even if he didn’t get to play on Friday night.There’s no doubt we’ll see him sometime this weekend. It’s funny how Greg Bird answered Drury’s arrival with two home runs. Felt kind of like the effect Clint Frazier has on Aaron Hicks when Red Thunder pulls on the pinstripes. Still, I expect Drury to play a big role in the march to October and hope he’s up with the big league club for the long haul. 

Great credit goes to the rookies (Gleyber Torres and Miguel Andujar) for this game. Neither player is intimidated by playing in Baseball’s biggest rivalry on its largest stage. I can’t imagine playing with that type of pressure at such a young age. But time and again, they come up with the plays to ignite the Yankees offense. I was one who wanted the Yankees to re-sign Todd Frazier in the off-season and if that had happened, the Yankees might be trailing the Red Sox in the standings. Frazier is only batting .219/.305/.373 with 8 homers and 29 RBI’s, while Andujar is delivering .283/.309/.521 with 12 home runs and 38 RBI’s. The Toddfather has 15 extra base hits, Andujar has 39. Wow. A big disparity in numbers…and age.  

Photo Credit: NJ Advance Media for NJ.com (Andrew Mills)

Friday night was a very good night for all things-Yankees as the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders took down the top Red Sox affiliate, Pawtucket, 7-4, behind the arm of Chance Adams who yielded only one run over five innings for the win.  

The Yankees send Sonny Gray to the mound today to face Chris Sale. Of the three games this weekend, this is the one that I have the least confidence for despite the Yankees history of success against Sale. I’d probably feel better if it was anyone other than Gray on the mound.  Well, not anyone, I’d hate to see Luis Cessa in this spot. Maybe Gray can surprise me like Shreve did last night. I hope so.

Go Yankees!

Meet a Prospect: Max Burt

With their 28^th round pick, 847^th overall, in the 2018 MLB First Year Players Draft the New York Yankees selected Max Burt, a third baseman out of Northeastern University in Massachusetts. Burt was a senior at Northeastern and had not been previously drafted, let’s meet him. This is Meet a Prospect: The Max Burt Edition.

Burt stands 6’2” and weighs in at 185 lbs. as he bats and throws from the right side. Burt has four years of college under his belt at Northeastern where he played shortstop and served as the team captain for the Huskies while leading the team to an NCAA tournament appearance in 2018. Burt also helped Northeastern become a perennial contender in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) showing that his leader skills and maturity may become an invaluable tool for him going forward as he begins his professional career. 

Burt is defensive player more so than an offensive player and he even won the CAA Defensive Player of the Year Award in 2017. Burt has a strong throwing arm and can man the third base position with ease, but his offense and lack of power may not translate to him sticking there if he were to reach the Major League level. Burt had just 12 home runs in his four years with the Huskies and another three home runs while playing in the Cape Cod League for two seasons.

Burt has experience as an amateur at shortstop, third base and as catcher so he may become one of those versatile players that the Yankees love so much, and the type of player that every team covets. Stay tuned. Burt has already agreed to sign with the club so let’s welcome him not only to the Yankees organization, but to the family as well. You can follow Max on twitter by following @MaxBurt14.

Game Preview: New York Yankees vs. Boston Red Sox 6/30

Good morning Yankees family. Tonight in the Bronx the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox will continue their three-game weekend set in the Bronx with the middle game of the series. After last night’s southpaw showdown we will be treated with another lefty in Boston’s Chris Sale while the Yankees will counter with right-hander Sonny Gray. Sonny Gray at home, instant shudders sent down my spine. Sonny Gray at home against the Boston Red Sox, I’m beyond shuddering, and I am literally shaking. Sonny Gray at home, against the Red Sox, and on FOX on a Saturday night… I’m dead. Let’s get this thing over with to it here in the Bronx.

Gray took the loss in his last start against the Tampa Bay Rays much like he took the loss in his last start against the Boston Red Sox on April 12. In that start against Boston the Yankees righty allowed six runs in three innings in a loss. Meanwhile in his last start in Tampa the Yankees right-hander allowed four runs on six hits in 6.2 innings of work in another loss. Gray is 5-5 on the season.

Sale has enjoyed another strong season in Boston here in 2018 and has been especially tough as of late, the perfect storm if you’re a fan of the Red Sox. Sale has struck out at least nine batters in each of his last four outings and will look to build on a strong start against the Yankees back on April 10^th where he struck out eight while allowing eight hits and one run in six innings of work.

The game will be played at 7:15 pm ET inside Yankee Stadium and can be seen on FOX. You can also follow along with the game on MLB TV, with the MLB At-Bat app and by tuning into the Yankees radio broadcast with John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman on WFN.

Enjoy the game, it is high… it is far… it is caught by the second baseman in short right field for the out… and go Yankees!!

Hello… Predictions

Good morning Yankees family and welcome officially to the weekend, it’s Saturday and we made it. I wanted to start the morning off with something that I genuinely enjoy doing, making predictions for the upcoming game and season. Tonight, the Yankees will play host to the Boston Red Sox inside Yankee Stadium with a pitching matchup of Chris Sale vs. Sonny Gray.

Sonny Gray at home makes me want to go “ugh” while I am sure most of the Yankees offense had a similar reaction when they saw that the Red Sox left-handed ace was making the start. Well, everyone with the exception of Greg Bird I’d say.

So, my prediction. Greg Bird will continue his dominance over Sale and hit another home run tonight off of him in the Bronx. You can @ me, do it on Twitter. @GreedyStripes.

And my baby, I predict just another amazing day and weekend with you. Because love. I love you.

This Day in New York Yankees History 6/30: Yankees Pull a Kansas City in All-Star Game

On this day in 2002 the Yankees became the first team in the American League since the 1956 Chicago White Sox to have four infielders and a catcher on the All Star roster. Jason Giambi, Alfonso Soriano, and Jorge Posada were voted in by the fans and Derek Jeter and Robin Ventura were chosen by the AL manager Joe Torre.


Also on this day in 1961 Whitey Ford became the first American League pitcher to win eight games in one month. Ford would throw a complete game win over the Washington Senators as the Yankees would win 5-1. This would be the Yankees 22nd team victory in June, a great month.


Finally on this day Cy Young showed why Major League Baseball would soon name their prestigious pitchers award after him, well that and leading the majors in wins and losses in his career, on this day in 1908 as Young no-hit the Highlanders 8-0. The 41 year old Red Sox pitcher would pitch his third no hitter of his career against the team that would soon be the New York Yankees.