From Bill Ladson:
Yankees manager Aaron Boone calls Trent Grisham “The Big Sleep” because nothing seems to bother the center fielder. Grisham is calm and confident whenever he is in the game, the skipper said.
The nickname should stick because Grisham was relaxed at the plate in the bottom of the eighth inning. His home run helped the Yankees edge the Astros, 5-4, at Yankee Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
Asked if he liked the nickname, Grisham didn’t seem to care.
“I think the guys are trying to get it going,” Grisham said.
With the score tied at 4 and left-hander Bryan King on the mound, Grisham worked the count to 3-1 and hit the ball into the second deck in right-center field to give New York the one-run lead. Grisham now has a career-high 21 home runs, and 16 have either tied the game (five) or given the Yankees the lead (11).
You can’t really afford to bring Grisham back next season, but boy, will I miss the dude.
This was almost a great game, with a good offensive response against a strong pitcher in Framber Valdez (and also showing how lefties now no longer look quite as scary with the ability to use guys like Rosario and Caballero), and a VERY nice outing from Luis Gil.
The Yankee rotation could be quite good. Their worst pitcher just matched Hunter Brown’s performance, and their two best pitchers have been pitching like shit recently, so they SHOULD be better than total pieces of shit, so Fried and Rodon SHOULD improve. That leaves you with Warren and Gil, who are both pretty darn good pitchers.
This rotation should not be bad. This offense should not be bad (as an aside, they simply HAVE to get Stanton in right field as much as they possibly can. You can’t just lose his hot bat. Look at what today would have looked like had they not had Stanton out there. He drove in two out of the five runs! He’s also a true PRESENCE. The other teams obviously FEAR him. You can play him in left field in stadiums that have weird right fields).
And even the bullpen, once Boone gets his head out of his ass, he’ll realize that Camilo Doval can help you, but only pitching middle innings. Doval in the 7th against the bottom of the order? Yes, please! Doval against the top of the lineup in the 8th? Are you a fucking moron? Just use Luke Weaver in the 8th, dipshit! Or Tim Hill if lefties are up. And even there, Doval should have done okay but he made a terrible error on a double play ground ball. So it wasn’t like Doval pitched like total shit.
So David Bednar was the hero once again, and amusingly, he did so all while actually blowing the save, as he entered with the Yankees up 4-3 and the bases loaded and one out (shockingly, Boone actually took Doval out), and got ahead of Christian Walker 0-2, and then lost the plate. He actually threw a really nice curve ball on 3-2, but it was just a BIT too high, and so a run was walked in. So, we should give the guy some shit, I guess, but, I mean, come the fuck on, right? You walk into a bases loaded situation with a good hitter at the plate, you can’t shit on the guy TOO much for allowing a walk when he then struck out the next two batters with the bases loaded to keep it a tie game.
He then had a 1-2-3 ninth. I’m feeling pretty fucking positive about Bednar, even if he technically blew the save. For instance, Garrett Whitlock took the loss in San Diego tonight because he allowed a walkoff hit, but it was in the 10th with the Manfred man on second. You can’t give a guy shit for allowing a single hit, ya know? Similarly, you can’t give a guy shit for allowing a single walk. Even if it was bases loaded. Now, if it was Tim Hill, okay, I’d be pissed, because when you have Tim Hill-level stuff, you can’t get to a three-ball count with the bases loaded.
In any event, it was a nice win.
Featured image is Trent Grisham watching the ball go out. There doesn’t seem to be a camera angle showing Grisham’s reaction. You see, he felt that the Astro pitcher had been quick-pitching him earlier in the at-bat (an Astros player cheating? How could that be?!), and so he was PARTICULARLY pumped when he then hit a home run off of him. So he celebrated more than he ever normally celebrates.