From Henry Palattella:
The 10th inning on Sunday started with pure jubilation for the Yankees.
After Anthony Volpe tied the game in the ninth inning with an RBI double off Emmanuel Clase, the Yankees gained the lead in the 10th on a two-run single from Anthony Rizzo that put them in the driver’s seat to pick up a series sweep over the Guardians.
But then that jubilation turned to misery, as the Guardians rallied to score three runs in the bottom of the inning off Caleb Ferguson to secure an 8-7 walk-off win at Progressive Field.
“Tough one,” manager Aaron Boone said. “We just didn’t make a few plays we needed to make. When you grind through and get a lead there, it’s always tough [to lose].”
The header image for this piece is Alex Verdugo inexplicably LOOKING BACK AT THE PLAY AT THE PLATE instead of just busting to first base in the top of the 10th inning, leading to him barely being thrown out on a ridiculous double play, which followed the Yankees going from first and second and no outs to three outs following Gleyber bunting the runners over (Giancarlo Stanton should have been at third already) and then Verdugo’s inexplicable double play.
Then Volpe boots a double play in the bottom half of the 10th, and then Gleyber double clutches on a ground ball that would have cut off the tying run. Just so much awful, awful baseball from two dudes, Gleyber and Verdugo, who have never seemed like the two sharpest tools in the shed.
Volpe fucks stuff up, too, but he at least is still a young guy, and he’s actually HITTING, which Gleyber is not (or else he wouldn’t have been BUNTING in the 10th inning).
Caleb Ferguson got fucked by his fielders, but it’s not like he didn’t pitch poorly himself. This team really needs another reliever, as you can’t have Luke Weaver pitching the 8th inning of a tie ball game. It’s just ludicrous.
Still, it was a series win, which is nice.
A series win is nice, you can live with losing the third game – if you just get outplayed, which occasionally happens.
When you just crap it away like this, it’s… disappointing, let’s leave it at that. Should have been a sweep.
Really, I suspect they’re going to need every win they’re getting in the early part of the season.
And yes, Verdugo is largely responsible for this loss.
gil day!