From Bryan Hoch:
It is no stretch to say that the Yankees’ postseason dreams hung in the balance as Juan Soto took a few extra beats on the dirt warning track Thursday afternoon, having slid hard into the right-field wall while making a dazzling seventh-inning catch.
Almost every member of the Yankees’ defense clustered around the superstar, willing him back to his feet. Soto rose tentatively, flexing his left knee, then told manager Aaron Boone that he could continue in the game. A coast away, you could sense a city tentatively exhale, despite the Yankees’ 3-2 loss to the Mariners at T-Mobile Park.
“At that moment, I was literally just thinking about my health,” Soto said. “I know everybody wants me to be healthy in the playoffs. Definitely, I was thinking about my health more than anything else. … It’s a bruise, because I hit it off the wall — literally straight up in the concrete. It definitely feels better [after getting treatment].”
Less than 24 hours after toasting his team’s postseason entry in a wet and wild clinch celebration, Soto gave the Bombers a scare, completing what was arguably his best defensive grab of the season.
Initially diagnosed with a contusion, Soto will undergo precautionary X-rays. He had treatment after the game and said the knee “feels pretty good; not bad at all.”
It wouldn’t be a Yankee season without a key player getting hurt right before the postseason begins.
In all seriousness, I think Soto will be fine. He might have to miss a couple of games from inflammation, but a knee isn’t like a wrist or an ankle, you’re not playing two more innings on it if it is seriously injured. You’re just not. But I am sure that shit is going to swell up like CRAZY overnight, so I bet he’ll miss at least the first game against Oakland. Beyond that, I really don’t know. Hopefully just a game or two. The featured image is still that injury, as holy shit, was it scary!
In a nice piece of news, it sounds like Jake Cousins’ injury isn’t as serious as it first looked. It turns out that he has been dealing with some soreness in his pecs, and the reason his velocity was down in this outing wasn’t because he COULDN’T throw harder, but because he DECIDED to avoid throwing so hard so as to not aggravate his pecs, and obviously, they all decided that that wasn’t a smart decision, and it probably makes more sense to just let the pecs rest before he pitches next. And frankly, I think removing him due to an “injury” was just some gamesmanship to let Boone bring in a lefty to face Cal Raleigh. So that’s very good news. Cousins probably needs to miss a couple of games, but nothing more than that.
This was a shitty loss, but eh, whatever, the Mariners are a bunch of really good starting pitchers, and the Yankees actually DID kick the ass of one of the three studs they faced, ya know? They just need to hit the Athletics pitchers better.
Boone… gamesmanship…
[head explodes]
PA:
“Clayton Beeter 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K — nasty with fastball/slider combo; don’t know if the Yankees would actually be bold enough to try Beeter out at this point, but you never know”
The angels won the 2002 WS by bringing up a kid late in September, remember that Yankee fans?
Krod threw 5 innings in September and and then won 5 post season games (2 against the Yankees) throwing 18.2 innings with 28 Ks.
PS he never won another post season game going 0-3 with 3 saves in 18 innings from 2004-2011.
437 saves and a career era+ of 148, 189 with Halos. Rays did the same thing with David Price in 2008.
Ohtani’s game last night…
How long ago did Judge have his third-to-last home run? More home runs in one night than Judge has had in the better part of a month. Judge probably won’t even lead the majors, let alone set a record. What happened?
No one is feeding him [Judge] pitches as the Marlins were on Thursday, culminating in them allowing a position player to pitch to Ohtani.
No one was feeding him pitches before he stopped hitting HRs, either.
And it’s not like they’re not pitching to him – look at all the strikeouts.
My point is that the Marlins were feeding Ohtani pitches all game Thursday, ending in them allowing a position player to pitch to him [Ohtani]. No team does that to Judge, even when they are playing teams out of it, they often piss around with Judge. Judge 20 IBB, Ohtani 10 IBB 2024.
Judge continues to suffer from bad called strikes below the zone, more than any player. And this has been a constant since 2017. From June 29, 2022: … 433 outside of the zone since his historic rookie season in 2017 are also the most in the majors over that span, according to the YES Network. https://www.audacy.com/wfan/sports/yankees/yankees-aaron-judge-strikes-calls-out-of-zone-umpire-low
And it hasn’t changed since then.
But do you think that really explains his sudden extended dry spell?
Inquiring minds want to know:
Would they even have pitched to judge in the 7th inning with a base open? Would Boone have let judge bat in the 9th inning with a 10 run lead?
But yeah the judge power outage is disturbing.
Marinaccio DFA
Sad, but at the same time, come on, the dude has sucked every time he’s been given a shot.
Can you guys argue about something? It’s deathly silent here…
It’s not quiet here, you don’t know what you’re fucking talking about!
Thanks, much better now
Soto playing tonight, Stanton back, phenom 214/454 last 28 days, 125/268 last 14 of course.
On second thought: Juan Soto scratched from Yankees lineup due to soreness and swelling, Aaron Boone said. X-rays were negative. No additional testing scheduled.
I don’t know HOW the fuck they thought it made ANY sense to play him tonight. This is 100% a “take the day off” day.