From Bryan Hoch:
This American League Division Series was only a few days away, and Alex Verdugo still couldn’t speak with any authority about his role on the Yankees’ roster, responding with a verbal shrug. He had lost playing time in the final month of the regular season, and no certain answers seemed available to be found.
As it turned out, Verdugo would not only be starting in the playoffs, but he would be starring. Verdugo delivered the final blow in a back-and-forth opener, stroking a go-ahead single in the seventh inning that lifted the Yankees to a 6-5 victory over the Royals in ALDS Game 1 on Saturday evening at Yankee Stadium.
Verdugo’s hit off Michael Lorenzen, his second of the game, chased home Jazz Chisholm Jr. with a run that represented the fifth lead change of the game — the most ever in a postseason contest, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
Wow, what a win!
Gerrit Cole clearly didn’t have it tonight. I think he really is a guy who does NOT like having time off. He wasn’t sharp at ALL. But hey, honestly, he gave up three earned runs in five innings, that’s not insane. But that was with some REALLY good BABIP luck, and with the Royals moronically trying to have Salvy Perez score from second on a hard hit single. It was SUCH a bad call.
Tim Hill had a hard luck inning with a terrible error by Anthony Volpe, and then a groundball through a drawn-in infield leading to two runs scored.
Then Clay Holmes came in and, because the save was already blown, pitched well. They should just keep using him in non-save situations. That’s the secret! Clay Holmes got the win, and then Alex Verdugo had the game-winning hit. Hilarious (by the way, KC fans are undoubtedly pissed about Jazz Chisholm being ruled safe on review when it looked like a terrible slide MIGHT have missed second, but I don’t think it was nearly obvious enough to overturn, despite Ron Darling thinking so).
Big hit by Verdugo, and he made a couple of nice defensive plays.
Luke Weaver was dominant in the 8th and 9th innings. It’s so nice to have a closer we don’t have to worry about again.
I wonder if there aren’t a lot of situations, even relatively early in a close game, where they should use The Martian to pinch run for Stanton. Even let’s say Stanton on first, 1 out in the 5th, 1 run game?
Fascinating question. I would imagine that if you WERE going to get aggressive in situations like that, it would be to pinch run ELLIS, right? He’s an almost automatic stolen base. There is a clear reason why they DFA’d Marinaccio over Ellis, and it was because Cashman felt like it made sense to keep him around for his game-changing late game speed. So you pinch run Ellis for Stanton, and then bring in the Martian to hit next time his lineup spot is due. And you even keep Grisham available for an emergency.
That might work but you might need Ellis for late in the game when you absolutely need a stolen base. I’m just thinking get Stanton off the bases.
Updated series prices at FanDuel:
NYY -420 (~79% when you take the juice out)
KCR +330
NYY 3-0: +195
NYY 3-1: +220
NYY 3-2: +410
KCR 3-1: +1000
KCR 3-2: +500
I have fair prices at:
NYY -292 (~75%)
KCR +292
NYY 3-0: +244
NYY 3-1: +300
NYY 3-2: +393
KCR 3-1: +871
KCR 3-2: +536
That game was a miserable watch. I can’t imagine how shitty it was for Royals fans.
This was the best Yankee game I’ve seen in about 2-3 months.
I was thinking when the game kept going back and forth, “They better not try to act like this was some classic game years from now.”
It really was. A contest of who would outfail who.
(Does that mean… they couldn’t even win at failing?)
I commented a little while back that it will suck to see Boone lose a game due to using Holmes in a close game in the postseason. I was half-joking, but now I see we’re actually going to see that transpire at some point since he is still being treated as a high-leverage reliever.
I think Holmes legitimately IS one of their better relievers. He just isn’t the guy you go to with a lead late. I don’t mind him in a tie game or trailing in the 7th.
Oh, man. You genuinely don’t mind that?
I mind it. I mind it a ton. Doesn’t matter if in the long run, past and future, he’s one of their best relievers – this year he’s stuck in a world of blow.
Any speculative good feeling of him coming around is nothing compared to the all-too-real risk of him punting their entire postseason.
Yeah … the problem is he has not been one of their better relievers if you only consider the relievers currently on their postseason roster. A pretty good case can be made that he’s actually the worst available reliever. I’m not too interested in whether he CAN be a good reliever at this point in the season. With the amount of games he’s cost the Yankees this year I don’t want to see him in a close postseason game at all.
I really really hope I’m proven wrong, but I have a bad feeling the misplaced trust in Holmes is going to cost them in a very big way at some point.
Hoch: “We are the students. He is Mr. Miyagi.” – Oswaldo Cabrera, on Anthony Rizzo’s influence at first base
Yeah, the video of him giving them all pointers at first was adorable.
I’d go with O over Ben at 1b. So far so good.
Vertugo in LF is less likely to choke than almost anyone else. (Ok, not Soto I hope). He’s not very good but he won’t choke. Maybe it’s a Red Sox thing? Seems to be when they have a chance to win they do. And when they don’t they finish in last place.
Like he didn’t choke in LF the last game before the ASB, you mean?
Severino shutting down the Phillies.
Fantastic.
(Sorry: Phantastic.)
The last time the Mets and yanks both won a playoff game the same day was Oct 11 2000. Until yesterday.
I’ll take a repeat of the 2000 post season.
We’ll need a lot of bases loaded walks, this team has no such vibes as that team did.
Or talent. Can you imagine this team hitting against the 96 Braves?
Not sure I want to get to the World Series just to lose to the inevitable mutts. Better signing
Player A 19 per for 2 years who doesn’t make the playoff roster or player B for 13 and 1 year throwing 6 innings of 3 hit, 6 k shutout innings?
Subtle.
But the answer is B. Along with the inherent value of retaining your own players for longer.
Vientos with his 2nd 2-run HR as the Mets tie it at 6-6 in the top of the ninth.
I did my job.
Randomly came across a movie on YouTube AlphaGo about DeepMind beating the Go champion. I played a little Go years ago and the game is so abstract I never thought a computer could beat the top pro.
Phillies win, an RBI single driving in Turner from second.
My best reverse jinx.
fuck you Mets, go, uh, widespread national League failure
And there’s a drive into deep left field by Castellanos.
Dodgers seem to have some starting pitcher woes.
Betts is worse than Judge.
that’s debatable
Tatis is 9/14 in the playoffs? If LA loses again in their first round does Roberts lose his job?
I’m rooting for the Padres to win if only because I’d like to see Higgy and King win a ‘ship. Mostly Higgy.
Really? Would never have imagined anybody’d be that attached to either of them, especially Higgy.
we need a monster (of the reiwa era)
somewhat off-topic:
Farhan Zaidi is now a free agent. I haven’t got a really clear opinion of whether he’s a boy-genius or not, but hesbeen i vilved in some smart and successful FOs and the Yankees badly need something new and fresh. I would love for them to bring him in, maybe as one of Cashman’s many special assistants but maybe in a more impactful role.
I don’t have any strong opinions about Zaidi but there was a good article about him in the Athletic a few years agp by Andy McCullough. Zaidi and some other front office people and players were in a fantasy football league. Every year he destroyed the field with very little effort. Kershaw was really mad about it, not because he lost, but because he thought it proved Zaidi was right about analytics and he hates numbers.
But Cashman is a top 5 GM.
It’s me and Clayton Kershaw always say: stats are numbers, numbers are nerds, nerds are losers, therefore stats are losers.
“But Cashman is a top 5 GM.”
He’d be snapped up in an instant!
(By Houston or LA, with any luck.)
As John Sterling said do you think Babe Roth cared what is exit velo was?
Babe Ruth famously altered the course of baseball by being one of the first hitters to swing hard instead of trying to manage contact and deflect. I think he absolutely cared about hitting the ball hard and would have loved to see his league leading exit velo.
It’s a fascinating question. If cashman and Boone were fired, would someone else hire them? Who would be hired first?
I think we all knew Girardi would be snapped up. I wasn’t sure about Torre. Boone? I hope another AL East team would take him as it would make the Yankee road that much easier. I think he needs to be replaced by a bit of a hard ass. Is Dallas Green still alive?
I believe Cashman would sign a huge contract with a big market team almost immediately. Boone… I can’t imagine but yes, if there were managerial openings he’d probably get a shot.
Ragans 2024 LHBs 723 OPS against, RHBs 594 so our idiot manager starts starts Jon Berti with NO, ZERO MLB innings at 1B after Waldo has a fine game defensively at 1b
G Torres (R) 2B
J Soto (L) RF
A Judge (R) CF
A Wells (L) C
G Stanton (R) DH
J Chisholm Jr. (L) 3B
A Volpe (R) SS
A Verdugo (L) LF
J Berti (R) 1B
Cashman is 57 years old. It won’t be hard to find an owner who thinks that his best years might be in front of him.
Girardi wasn’t snapped up, he didn’t manage for two years after the Yankees chose not to renew his contract. The Phillies hired him for the 2020 season, only to realize that Girardi is burned out and fired him 51 games into the 2022 season.
He turned down jobs, since he knew he could be picky. He waited until a good gig opened up.
Cashman is 57 years old. It won’t be hard to find an owner who thinks that his best years might be in front of him.
Jerry Reinsdorf
I think RAB has it exactly right. “Berti has three career innings at 1B, all in Spring Training in 2021. Cole Ragans is a reverse split lefty too. Might’ve been better to just play Cabrera at 1B and let him hit left-on-left (which he’s done a bunch this year)? As long as it works, who cares.”
Damn they could’ve given the Martian 3 innings at first.
Ragans has a reverse split, why not Rice or Waldo who in a very limited sample is hitting 313/688 left on left?
Schmidt to start game 3
I think that was probably the right call with Gil’s late season struggles. Gil was REALLY getting knocked around late in the year.
Isn’t it just a matter of who goes first? I presume one will piggyback on the other either way.
Did they swap the start times? I thought the Yanks were the early game
Scoreless in the 8th in Cleveland. Skubal looks like a good pitcher.
Best bullpen in baseball, huh?
The Tigers even their series at 1-1. Can the Yankees be the first, and only team, to a 2-0 series lead? Stay tuned.
How could Boone not want to get a 34 year old with a career 92 OPS+ who never played 1B into the lineup against a pitcher with a reverse split. Berti was one of Cashman’s hidden gems.