From Bryan Hoch:
Carlos Rodón leapt in the visitors’ dugout, an instinctual reaction to the cannon-fire echo from a baseball meeting the barrel of Giancarlo Stanton’s bat. Up and down the bench, the Yankees all knew it would be a home run. Still, they watched in stunned fascination, just to see where it would land.
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Stanton’s mammoth three-run drive, a Statcast-projected 441-foot blast, broke open the contest on a night when the Bombers lived up to that musclebound nickname. Aaron Judge hit his Major League-leading 54th homer and Anthony Volpe also went deep, powering a 10-0 victory over the Athletics at the Oakland Coliseum.
Carlos Rodon threw six scoreless innings, but I dunno, man, he was GOOD, but he wasn’t GREAT, and that Giancarlo Stanton home run was GREAT, so I’m making it the featured image. Just look at that fucking swing, dude! It looks like he barely does anything to the ball, and it goes on FOREVER. Stanton is so fucking strong. That’s why you put up with all of his bullshit, because he really can just fucking blast the ball out of nowhere off of pretty much ANYone. Having that sort of bat in the middle of the lineup is quite nice, but even nicer when you have even better hitters around him who are more reliable.
Rodon, though, DID pitch well tonight. Mark Leiter finally didn’t suck, and Tim Mayza pitched well. Mayza is clearly their “offseason project” guy, like Luke Weaver was last year, as Mayza has obviously always had some interesting stuff, so they want to see if Blake can do something with him.
Look at the Yankee bullpen. Their best reliever is Luke Weaver, a Matt Blake reclamation project. Their second best reliever is Ian Hamilton, a Matt Blake reclamation project. Their third best reliever is either Tommy Kahnle (nothing to do with Matt Blake) or Jake Cousins, a Matt Blake reclamation project. Their fifth best reliever is Clay Holmes, a former Matt Blake reclamation project. Their sixth best reliever is Tim Hill, a Matt Blake reclamation project. Imagine if the Yankees gave Matt Blake actual GOOD pitchers to start with!
After the Orioles had a weird comeback against Detroit (tying the game with two in the ninth, but stranding the winning run on third with no outs, and then losing in the tenth), and this win, the Yankees’ magic number to win the AL East is just three, meaning that if Baltimore loses on Sunday or if the Yankees win, then the Yankees will only need to win a single game of their upcoming series against Baltimore at the Stadium to clinch the division. How about they just win the next two games anyways and just make it all academic?
Gotta ask how stupid is Yankee management. Yeah SSS but Volpe starts off great, then slumps but the play him every day. ASB gives him a chance to rest and he comes back hitting strong. Then slumps and they play him every day. Then they finally sit him and he comes back hitting strong.
Judge too needed some days off especially playing CF all the time.
They seem to let other guys rest all the time – especially after a great game – but not those two.
Stanton has the ugliest swing. Judge has the nicest to watch on slow mo. Funny that the two musclebound tall dudes could represent opposite poles of the aesthetic spectrum
The fact that some of Judge’s stats are still better than Ohtani’s can remind us of how surreal, how magnificent that 100-game span really was.
Both Judge and Soto have a better wRC+ than Ohtani. Even after the Marlins fed Ohtani pitch after pitch on Thursday, ending with a position player being allowed to pitch to him.
Prior to today’s game, the Yankees made the following roster moves:
•Placed RHP Jake Cousins on the 15-day injured list (retroactive to 9/20) with a right pec strain.
•Recalled RHP Clayton Beeter (#85) from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barr
Beeter over Effross?
Cousins is still playoff eligible.
Wow, that is shocking. Good for them. Beeter was on the 40-man already?
Gary Phillips Clayton Beeter has 12 K, 0 BB, 2 H and a 0.00 ERA over 7 innings between AA and AAA since coming off the IL. #Yankees
https://x.com/dbitlefty/status/1837910646395941347?s=61&t=fhOaqwtc8q2TMSXUDRjPeg
I am legit stunned that he not only is pitching this season, but pitching like THIS.
It’s astounding that a team can have this good a record and inspire this little confidence. (I hear the same thing from Phillies fans, by the way, but they’re so traumatized they’d never have confidence in that team.)
It’s astounding the Judge could have these numbers and inspire so little certainty he’ll have an impact in the post-season.
I’m really thinking they should have offered an insane amount, an extra $100 million, for Ohtani. Ohtani, Judge and Soto… instead of being a semi-also-ran consistent-underperformer with memories of sometime glory, they’d be – right now – the most popular sports team on the planet, possibly in history. They’d have made that money back in a month.
Ohtani specifically wanted to be a Dodger. Same with Yammamoto.
Ohtani always wanted the West Coast, particularly the LA area. Why else did he sign with the Angels after giving his phony BS that he would sign anywhere? The Cubs and Yankees were willing to be very generous, and he blew them off when the Angels got serious back when.
“Ohtani specifically wanted to be a Dodger. Same with Yammamoto.”
Okay, 200 mill more.
Yeah, Ohtani was the one who suggested deferring all that money to make it work for the Dodgers. He was never going to play anywhere else.
The Soto deal never happens if they signed Ohtani. They most certainly wouldn’t pay all three.
We’re supposed to believe that Ohtani was naif when it came to his translator and $17 million, yet we are to believe he suddenly morphed into a financial wizard, and he suggested the deferred money.
Verdugo sitting 2md day in a row.
Thanks for putting a smile on my face
Ben Rice has 9 homers and 23 RBI in 19 September games. He also has more walks (17) than strikeouts (16)
https://x.com/mryclept/status/1837923923561685292
Last year wasn’t he more BA than power? We’ll see if he has a future or he’s strictly 4A.