From Bryan Hoch:
Especially as they grind through this critical gauntlet of a dozen straight games against winning clubs, the Yankees know every contest matters, each day another chance to firm up their October position.
This one felt a little bigger.
Ben Rice cracked an early three-run homer, Max Fried steadied himself over seven innings and Cody Bellinger banged a go-ahead double, setting up a 4-3 victory over the Blue Jays on Sunday afternoon at Yankee Stadium.
“It’s huge,” Rice said. “And with that being said, we’ve got more work to do, so we’re going to keep going.”
Devin Williams worked around a hit and walk in the eighth before David Bednar locked down his second save in as many days. With 19 games remaining, the Yankees have trimmed their American League East deficit to two games. Toronto holds a tiebreaker between the clubs.
Well, THAT was nice.
The Blue Jays seem like a terrible matchup for Max Fried, as he gets outs by allowing contact, and the Blue Jays are really good at making GOOD contact. So when it was tied 3-3 after a double left runners on second and third with no outs, it looked bad. But then Fried used some pitching wizardry to strand both runners, and the Yankees reclaimed the lead in the next inning, scoring their fourth run off of Max Scherzer, who was heroic in how well he battled with a bad back.
The much-maligned Devin Williams pitched out of trouble in the eighth, and David Bednar did well in the ninth (aided greatly by an amazing throw by Austin Wells to nail Nathan Lukes trying to get into scoring position with one out). That George Springer never got a chance to get up in the ninth was huge.
Anyhow, great win. Featured image is Max Fried congratulating Aaron Judge for making a great catch that prevented the Blue Jays from tying the game in the following inning. Fried pitched seven innings of three-run ball, so he “deserves” the featured image, but he also almost blew the game right there, so his featured image is him thanking another player for bailing him out of trouble.
Skubal is slated to pitch Friday so we might dodge him.
I don’t buy it. I know they have constantly said he’s not pitching Thursday, but I’m still assuming he’s pitching Thursday. 😀
My brother has Skubal in Fantasy, and he thinks the Tigers are just trying to help him win the Cy Young by having him skip playing the Yankees.
It’s not like we’re competing with Detroit for anything. It makes no sense not to keep him on schedule.
Agreed, it would make no sense. But that hasn’t kept teams from doing this nonsense with the Yankees just for the lulz.
phenom last 7 days (5 games) 111/278, last 28 days 152/472. Thank God his slump is over.
It’s insane how obstinate the manager and GM are being. Do they really think they are smarter than everyone else? That we don’t see what’s going on? And they may be ruining his career all because if their arrogance. It’s mind blowing.
And from Cashman’s perspective, he just acquired a perfect fill-in for Volpe in Caballero for just Everson Pereira! Caballero is controlled for LONGER than Volpe! Cashman could be celebrated for his great pickup of Caballero, but nooooooo….
The reasonable enough counter, though, is that Caballero sucks as a hitter, TOO.
At least Caballero can play shortstop. If the argument for Volpe is that Volpe used to be able to play shortstop – well, he can’t now. And he never could really hit either, even if he wasn’t *this* bad.
Or, as Mitch Hedberg might put it –
Volpe used to suck as a hitter. He still does, but he used to, too.
They have about the same OPS+ but Caballero can get on base 330 OBP, phenom can’t 269. And if Caballero gets on he can and will steal. That makes him more valuable.
They are unserious.
Hey everyone, I have an announcement. With my longtime writing partner Karen Duffy, I’ve launched a Substack called The Centiday. A centiday is 1/100 of a day, or 14 minutes and 24 seconds, and the idea is that each post will make your life better in 15 minutes or less.
As you all know, I do a lot of writing related to Stoicism, and the Centiday is rooted in that, but it’s also entertaining and not too serious. Or serious at all.
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Thank you all, and thanks to Brian who approved this post.
Headline should have read: Fried, Rice.