Gerrit Cole (#45, 33, RHP, 8-5, 3.41) vs. Michael Wacha (#52, 32, RHP, 13-8, 3.35)
YANKEES
2B G. Torres R
RF Juan Soto L
CF Aaron Judge R
C Austin Wells L
DH G. Stanton R
3B J. Chisholm L
SS A. Volpe R
LF Alex Verdugo L
1B Jon Berti R
ROYALS
2B M. Massey L
SS Bobby Witt R
DH V. Pasquantino L
C S. Perez R
1B Yuli Gurriel R
LF MJ Melendez L
RF Tommy Pham R
CF Kyle Isbel L
3B M. Garcia R
Gotta get that Berti bat in there.
Nice start to the game, Gleyber!
You, too, Soto!
“We hate to belabor it,” then why do you bring it up every fucking at-bat, you dick?!
Gonna miss Gleyber and Soto.
If you hate to belabor it, don’t belabor it.
Never mind let’s belabor.
Jesus fucking christ, Judge.
Can’t hit an HR by banging the ball on the ground. Nice way to wreck the inning, Judge.
When MJ fucking Melendez is making great defensive plays against you….
It’s belabor day.
Great, let’s start off wild, Cole.
I don’t think Costas understands the meaning of “sample size.”
The only thing he does seem to understand is how slow Stanton is.
Cole looks bad again
I don’t think he looks sharp, agreed, but he looks MUCH better than Game 1.
Sure, but still not good.
“The difference between Witt and Judge is sample size. It’s a small sample size for Witt, while for Judge, it’s much larger.” And their sample size for Judge is…the 2022 ALDS and ALCS, plus this series. HUGE sample size.
The 2017 playoffs aren’t included? Judge was 1-20 in the ALDS, and 6-24 in the ALCS (with 3 HRs).
Basically, they’re trying to skip over the series he was good in. He was great in the 2017 WIld Card game. He had an excellent 2018 Wild Card and ALDS series. Then he was good in 2019, and okay in 2020.
He was terrible in 2022, though, so they’re choosing to go from then.
Career post season 203 BA, 748 OPS. He hasn’t had a good post season series since the 2019 ALDS with an 872 OPS. This is seven series in a row he’s been bad in.
How do you think Rodon’s gonna do in game 5?
What an INSANE swing by Jazz on that 3-1 pitch. How do you swing over that same pitch two pitches in a row?!
He is who he is, career OPS 757.
Umpiring strikes again. Chisholm CLEARLY walked… but instead struck out.
Why get it right when you can have umpiring?
That was a close pitch. Jazz then swung at two pitches way out of the zone.
Wasn’t close per the visualization.
But yes, the next two swings were bad. They shouldn’t have happened, though. Bad calls affect batters, too. You could see it last night.
Or let me ask: how many baseball-widths out of the zone counts as “close”? Serious question, subjective though it is.
Man, Volpe hit that well, too.
Got to give Verdugo credit – he saw he was grounding out to second time after time, so he changed his approach.
Now he’s grounding out more weakly, and to first.
Ah, Verdugo grounding out softly.
Incredible how fast I went back to hating Ver2go (cause of the groundouts to second GET IT!?!?)
Hey, he hit a weak grounder to FIRST this time!
The great ones see when they’re doing something wrong and make adjustments.
Verdugo being Verdugo and all’s well in the world.
A bit better from Cole
Gleyber, Soto and Stanton all over 900 for the series. Volpe 684, everyone else 600 or less except Waldo 900 who’s sitting.
I wonder if Berti is out there because Cole picked him.
Boone said Wacha has a reverse split which is somewhat true for his career but not for this season where he’s dead even.
Berti is 34 and has a career OPS+ of 92, this year it’s 90.
Sure seems like Cole needs to make 1 run stand up
Waldo has a 500 OBP for the series, Berti is 0.
Yankees were 24th in the MLB in runs scored for September. The ineptitude is carrying over.
Only CashBoone would sit a guy a game after he had 3 BB and replace him with Berti. They are unserious.
Poorly executed, should’ve been an easy DP.
That was some shitty defense by Cole, but hey, at least he got the lead out (I’m sure Isbel will steal second, though).
Brutal to not turn 2 there.
Costas gets excited by the weirdest shit.
There is NO way we need to hear a second time about how Matt Quatraro is humble and confident. Quataro is great and all, but who in the world thought that that needed to be repeated?
That was an OUTSTANDING pitch by Cole to strike out Massey. There’s nothing he could do with that.
This is where Judge breaks out.
Cole a bit better again, despite biffing it on defense
Glad that it looks like Skubal will have to pitch Game 5. That should help the Royals next series.
Looks like they also may have lost carpenter
This fucking team!
I just love that they’re, like, “Yeah, let’s just make sure we stick with Wells sucking in the cleanup spot. Cannot move him, no sir.”
Stick with the slump. Sit the success.
This offense is absolutely abysmal.
FFS Drop Wells in the line-up already. This is one unserious organization. He’s been in a slump for ~6 weeks now.
And Stanton is, like, RIGHT THERE. But god forbid they have a righty bat after a righty!
I don’t get this BMW commercial. Are the couple dating or not? If they’re not dating, the guy is a lunatic to go in for a kiss there, but if they ARE dating, why is she so disgusted when he goes in for a kiss?
Why think about it when you could buy a bmw instead?
That’s why I don’t mind Verdugo in left. He made that Witt play look easy, while I don’t know that Dominguez even catches it.
Now, the critique of the organization here is, why the fuck was he playing center field in the minors if he was going to be a left fielder in the Majors? He didn’t seem ready to field the position.
Maybe the org expected judge to move to LF without talking to him?
Seems on brand.
“The Yankees led by one. Two batters in, they STILL lead by one.” Obviously, Costas meant for the period to go after “Two batters in,” but that’s not what he said. He’s so hilariously bad right now.
“There’s only one man in this stadium struggling more than judge or Witt and that is Bob Costas. And Bob Costas, folks, is me. I are Costas.”
Volpe’s one of the few guys with a pulse after Gleyber, Soto, Stanton and Waldo.
Alex pretend it’s Boston
Almost Alex
Soft ground ball to the bag is a nice spin on it
Massey made a good play there, but what was special about what Witt did? They seem to be highlighting a pretty ordinary play.
There is a 99.999% chance that Gleyber makes an out here. The Yankees don’t do hits with two outs and runners in scoring position.
Planning to go to Erceg early is a WEIRD ass choice by Quataro.
Gleyber with a RISP hit.
The WB Mason guy with a hit.
Gleyber!!! That 0.001 chance came through! Give him the QO! Let him go after giving him the QO, but give him the QO!
I do NOT like using Erceg here.
Yes!
The offense has been pretty okay this game. 6 hits in the 5th (not over), scoring in 2 innings so far. We’ve seen SO much worse!
Also, to be fair: the ball and strike calls, for the most part, so much less bad than in the previous games
Soto, not so much.
Gleyber OPSing 982.
Cleveland up one run ran a squeeze play to get an insurance run in the top of the 9th. They gave up a run in the bottom of the 9th but held on.
Man, what the fuck kind of swing was that by Soto?!
Bring gleyber back?
QO, if he takes it, fair enough, but otherwise, nope.
This is the scary inning for Cole, with Melendez and Pham due up.
I was so expecting a K, but this is Post Stanton.
Be nice to have actually seen a big inning, like Soto going yard.
It was SUCH a weak swing. One thing I’ll say, though, is that burning Erceg here will hopefully mean that they’ll be able to face some shittier relievers later.
MJ Melendez reminds me of Ricky Ledee. He LOOKS like he woukd be a great ballplayer.
Ball went farther than I thought, still didn’t make the warning track, the announcers got excited.
Cole is the type of pitcher who clearly pitches to dudes differently depending on the moment in the game. He pitched Pham MUCH differently with two outs and no one on than he would have with runners on. It’s smart baseball.
Judge.
That looked good!
You’d hope that Wells can’t ground into a double play here.
Yay judge
Finally. Now he’ll cook.
Wells was, all, “Fuck, I tried to ground into a double play, but it just didn’t work.”
You gotta walk Stanton, no?
Have to plate Judge here.
Wells is so cooked
The Big Lug, red-hot.
No stopparlo!
Too bad they don’t give out LDS MVP
Mitt Romney won that.
I wish we could have playoff Stanton all year, but I’ll take it in just the playoffs.
Husk delivers!
How did you pitch to Stanton?!
Think I’d run for Stanton now
Would you pinch run here?
Can’t see why you wouldn’t. Run Ellis. Have Jasson hit later.
Ugh.
Wow, that was some awful luck. Volpe has been tattooing the ball, and has not a whole lot to show for it.
It also keeps Erceg in the game, which sucks. I was hoping they could drive him out of the game.
Based on that inning, no issue with him coming out for the next inning after sitting around for a few minutes
That was bad luck. Volpe’s hitting in bad luck this series.
Ugh, Cole, come on, dude, a leadoff hit to the #9 hitter?!
Cole crazy efficient so far.
61 going into the 6th!
What a double play! WOW!
What the fuck was Garcia’s problem there?
What the fuck?
What are these fucking babies chirping about?
What’s the problem?
WTH???
That was so wimpy by Garcia to get THAT upset over that.
Can you get thrown out of a game for excessive bitchiness?
Back in the 19th Century.
Heh
I think Cole really eased off of the gas on Witt with two strikes. I don’t dig it with the #3 and 4 hitters coming up.
Don’t like those 0-2 ABs becoming a hit.
EDIT: As I said
He’s thinking of bringing Holmes in?!
That was BIZARRE pitch placement by Cole there to Pasquatino.
show Garcia the McRae-Randolph video for Chrissake
Cole really has not been as aggressive this inning as he should have been. It’s baffling to me.
Fucking two strike hits.
Fuck fuck fuck
I hate hate hate this guy being up here in this spot.
HOLY SHIT, WELLS, HOW DO YOU NOT MAKE THAT PLAY?!
Cole let them back in after that BS Garcia pulled.
EDIT: Okay, pop up for the third out.
That was pathetic.
Fuck
Jfc Wells.
Not fuck
Okay, that was a big, big out by Cole.
Also keep Cole in.
I will be flabbergasted if Boone didn’t pull him.
You have to keep Cole in.
Verdugo trying out different ground ball options tonight, firts base, pitcher.
Verdugo grounding out to first is the new Verdugo grounding out to second!
Good, good, have a nice quick inning to get the Royals right back out there.
That wasn’t a strike.
It’s always pathetic when the umpire gets into the crowd.
If Boone pulls Cole to then use Holmes with a lead, then he will certify himself as the dumbest manager of a good team that I’ve ever seen.
Again, you mean.
How was that NOT an easy play? Slow baserunner, plenty of time to make the play, right?
Maybe try a pitch where Melendez CAN’T turn around on, Cole.
See? That was a pitch he couldn’t get around on. Well done!
This Tommy Pham shit is getting tiresome.
Wow. Thank goodness for the wind.
Whew!!!
Oh, man
Wow. Halloween scare.
You go to the pen now right?
Definitely gone in August. Who’s going out for the 8th?
If Gil had literally any control, I’d honestly fire him up for the 8th
Wind!!
Honestly, with two outs, I would have been cool with using Kahnle for Pham. Then split the 8th and 9th between Kahnle and Weaver.
I’m good with non-Holmes relief now
Yeah, Kahnle and Weaver now makes perfect sense.
How about Soto, Judge, and Stanton get them some insurance runs!
Boone is apparently just sticking with Cole?! Oh, wait, okay, guys are getting up. Phew.
Costas has done this a couple of times in the series. Seems to think dudes need 15 minutes to get warm. Maybe they did when Bob started in 1964
Can Weaver go tonight?
Definitely. But they probably want to just have him go one.
That WAS probably a ball, but I don’t like that the umpire gave it to Soto BECAUSE he’s Soto.
EDITED TO ADD: Same with that second ball.
So, of course, Boone will keep Cole in too long. Because Boone.
Can’t the Royals just be cool and use McCarthur? He was their closer for the first half of the season!
This ump is all over the place in this Judge at-bat.
GIDP incoming. But we have to keep Wells in there. Have to.
You HAVE to walk Stanton here, right?
Can’t believe they are pitching to him after the steal
How long do you go thinking Wells is just going to snap out of this?
it’s a shame Mop With Bucket can’t play catcher since he blew out his knees. could really use his bat over Wells.
Did Stanton actually put the hold signal out there on the obvious wild pitch?
Re-watched. No, he motioned him over to 3rd.
Aaron Judge. SPEED KILLS!
And it doesn’t slump!
I hate that you don’t have to actually execute the IBB.
Oh, okay, this makes a lot more sense. Chisholm has been an automatic out since he talked all that shit, which is, like, INCREDIBLY pathetic, right?
Wells 125/347 for the series after hitting 111/411 in September yet he’s batting cleanup.
No serious organization would do this.
I do NOT like pinch-running for Stanton here. It’s a two-run game! They very well might need him to bat later! Why do you need him to run from first?!
What a stupid fucking call by Boone.
Agree.
And – agree.
This strike zone has gotten very ragged as the game has progressed
Yeah, it’s all over the place now.
Yes, markedly so.
And still light years better than the previous two games.
Thank goodness they pulled Stanton for that. Just a fucking IDIOTIC move.
And agree.
They do what they do, which often isn’t the smart thing.
Chisholm with the ‘Verdugo Memorial Ground out to Second’.
Big mouth hitting 125/521.
I am so fucking pissed that Boone did that shit. What a fucking infuriating decision. What an absolute idiot he is.
Here’s where Holmes blows the season for the Yankees. Boone never learns.
It’s a TWO RUN GAME. There are TWO INNINGS LEFT. The chances of Stanton’s lineup spot coming up in a key spot in this game is still high. This is so fucking infuriating.
2 outs and judge is on 3rd pinch running makes no sense
With Judge at third and 2 out up two I don’t know about the pinch run. Is Ellis really going to steal? Maybe with no outs or one.
OH MY GOD, HE’S ACTUALLY USING HOLMES. THIS IS INSANE.
For.
Crying.
Out loud.
I can’t. I just can’t. I can’t possibly imagine a manager this stupid. What a fucking fool.
You fucking asshole, Boone. You fucking ASSHOLE.
Say it again.
If they win, they’ve earned it like no other team.
They had to overcome BOTH the other team, and Boone!
Yay Holmes…
At least that’s one batter down for them to pull Holmes.
Right inside the box…a ball?
That was SUCH a bad call. Thankfully it didn’t matter.
Okay, two batters down before they pull him.
Holy fuck this ump
1 more accidental out
Boone will now think that he made the right call.
YOU DID NOT, BOONE. YOU MADE A TERRIBLE, TERRIBLE CALL.
Alright, Holmes!
Holmes is nails, obviously
That said, I’ll give him this much, hey, at least he got the fucking outs, thank god.
So, all in favor of a 6 out save?
Don’t you speak that evil into this world, Ricky Bobby!
Good show Clayton
Ok. Good job Holmes.
Fuck you Boone.
good time for … lots o’ runs
Royals hitters are really baffled
Amazing. Another clean inning for Holmes!
…as the announcers talk about how impeccable Holmes has been since being taken out of the closer’s role, ignoring the way he STILL managed to blow saves in the 6th and 7th innings!
When Holmes is good he’s very good. Most of his Yankee career he’s been good. Hes not Farnsy.
I LIKE Holmes. Just not in the 8th inning with a two-run lead.
Holmes in the 9th. What happens to Cronin? I fear for Brian, I fear for Brian.
I would have run for Giancarlo. But I’d have done it earlier. The run probability of hitting with Jasson can’t be much lower despite Giancarlo’s resurrection
Man, Volpe has had some terrible luck this game.
Someone up there dislikes Volpe.
We’ve – ok me for sure – that Boone’s idiotic managing will cost them a game in the playoffs and because of that possibly a series which is why the yanks will never win a WS with this idiot managing them. He has done everything he can to cost them this game – from his batting order, PR Stanton from 1b with a guy in 3rd and 2 outs, to using Berti and Vertugo.,,I can’t care more about this team than the owner and GM and yet it seems I do. Because if they cared as much as I do Boone would have been gone years ago. Sheesh.
Wow, not a groundball!
No ground ball out for Verdugo, no sir. Soft line drive out instead.
Bob Costas’ toupee is only one degree of separation from every other bad hairpiece in America
Still, Verdugo made a great play in left in the 8th that who knows if Dominguez catches.
Anyone heard anything about Rizzo? If they somehow make it to the ALCS, will he be able to play?
Why? He can’t hit anymore.
He’s got to be able to hit better than Jon Berti.
you can NOT under any circumstance give Berti something close to hit. smart pitching.
I don’t get why Berti wasn’t stealing.
He’s not used to being on first?
That was near the pitch they called Gleyber out on earlier in the game.
Here comes Holmes for the 9th. đŸ™‚
Okay, it’s actually Weaver for the 9th.
REALLY don’t want Perez up as the tying run, so retiring Pasquantino is extremely important.
And Weaver did that. Excellent. Okay, like I said, REALLY don’t want Gurriel up as the tying run, so retiring Perez is extremely important.
And Weaver did that. Excellent. Okay, like I said, REALLY don’t want Melendez up as the tying run, so retiring Gurriel is extremely important.
Good morning, good afternoon, and – good night!
What did that second strike by Weaver look like to Perez, I wonder.
Weaver fucked that pitch up, but so badly that it still got pasquantino
WEAVAH!
Hooray!
Yankees 1, Boone 0!
Yay, ALDS win.
Luke’s real skinny. mo was rral skinny.
close enough for me.
Yay win!
ALCS!
Not facing the Astros!
Yay Mo.
Yay Win.
Yay spirit of Graeme Lloyd with a bullpen emptying.
Where’s Mahomes now?
They never showed his buddy, Gehrig, later in the game. They should have!
Weaver is transformative.
Yay win!!’ It’s nice to have a closer tho can close. Better than Chapman who I hated – who gave up the game losing HR two years in a row in the playoffs. I hated Chappy. I like Weaver but I think Boone is going to overuse him.
Like Mo, he is a failed starter, so he should be able to pitch a lot.
Let him use him a lot. Better him than anyone else!
Do you want the Indians or the Tigers?
Tribe is the better team but Detroit has that swag right now and Skubal would be unfun.
Now that Skubal won’t go until Game 3, I really don’t have a preference.
But, they [Tigers] will use Skubal Saturday.
Judge and Weaver make a good pair.
I can’t believe they won that series.
Imagine if they started, you know – playing well!
Except for Rodon the pitching was great, the hitting not so much. The pen my favorite running shoes The HoKa Weave.
I was sad the feed cut out, I hadn’t had my fill of taking in the vibes. Hopefully the hitting starts to improve.
One thing they could do (I don’t care about the results at 1b as much as some here) is get rid of Alex Verdugo. I have been saying this for months now. The guy brings nothing. Here are his final stats from the series.
.214 .267 .214 .481
Can’t stand him and he can’t hit. Jasson made some boneheaded plays, and although the ball has a way of finding you I just refuse to believe that is who he is. Plus, he would hit.
Did you try the YES postgame?
They had a full post game just had to go by time not description.
I can never get that. I hit “watch live” and get a blank screen.
Fun series, even as this lineup is not yet fully operational. Nice to see Judge today making solid contact and getting an XBH. Hope the three-day layoff doesn’t cost him momentum.
Agree that Verdugo’s bat is dead weight. Was it on this forum that someone suggested playing Dominguez in CF this Fall so he doesn’t have to re-learn how the ball moves; and meanwhile moving Judge to LF since he’s, you know, a good defender?
If you really don’t want to play Dominguez, and you insist on starting Berti at 1B, then you could start Waldo in LF…
Jazz standing there with his shirt off, wet from champagne and beer, and The Yankees are booing him in jest.
Kahnle wearing a sleeveless leather vest with a skull showing off his arms.
It’s too bad that Kahnle is a free agent. Holmes, obviously, you let go, but I think I’d like them to bring Kahnle back. They also should be able to bring Hill back cheap, right?
Their bullpen is set up nicely for next season with Weaver, Hamilton, Cousins, and Mayza all under contract. Plus a full offseason to get Effross and Leiter turned around (Trivino is also under contract, but who knows what that guy’s deal is). Plus they should be able to sign SOMEone new to replace Holmes (Perhaps bring Lo back?).