From Bill Ladson:
Yankees manager Aaron Boone usually inserts third baseman Ryan McMahon in the starting lineup against right-handed pitching. But McMahon is currently riding a 2-for-23 slump, and Boone had a feeling that Amed Rosario was the right guy to get the start against Athletics righty Aaron Civale on Tuesday night at Yankee Stadium.
Boone’s gut feeling paid off — big time. Rosario hit two homers, including the go-ahead three-run blast in the eighth inning as New York defeated the A’s, 5-3.
Boone knew Rosario would be ready to start even though the last game he played was April 1 in Seattle. Boone always talks about Rosario’s work ethic and the high energy he brings on the field and in the clubhouse.
“The one thing that [stuck with me] about him last year was how good he was staying ready and being prepared,” the skipper said. “He went on the IL a quick 10 days after he ran into the fence in right field. He came back and didn’t need a rehab assignment. He sure was ready. He is really good at doing what he needs to do to be ready every single day.”
It seems so weird to call this a “hunch” by Boone. I think that’s almost dismissive of what Boone did here. It was just a pretty normal, logical move. McMahon is in a slump, and the Yankees aren’t facing a lot of lefties, so Rosario hadn’t gotten into a game for a WEEK. So it just made complete sense to give Rosario the start tonight. It wasn’t some weird idea Boone had that paid off. It was a logical move that paid off.
Okay, on to the game. As you might have heard, the game was very, very cold. And very, very windy. Those are bad conditions for pitching in a baseball game. EVERY SINGLE YANKEE PITCHER saw velocity reductions on EVERY SINGLE type of pitch in this game. That is obviously a fluky situation. In other words, I’m not too concerned about Schlittler having one rough inning in said conditions, especially as one of the four hits was a fluky hit. Three runs in five innings isn’t even all that terrible.
Bird and Cruz bounced back, showing that you really can’t freak out too much about one game or be too happy about one game when it comes to relievers. Brent Headrick continues his fine form. The bad thing, of course, is that they used up all of their pitchers.
We were debating the offense during the game, and I was noting that I am not even slightly concerned about Trent Grisham, and if you look at the Baseball Savant page for Grisham, you’ll see why.
He’s seeing a lot of pitches, he’s not chasing, he’s working the count, he’s hitting the ball hard. It just hasn’t led to a lot of hits yet. The batting ball data is all very much positive for Grisham, and very much the same as last year.
Now, as to the OTHER three guys, you’ll see why there ARE worrying signs for McMahon…
slightly less worrying signs for Wells…
very bad signs for Jazz (but Jazz is historically a streaky hitter, so I’m not as concerned about him)…
and holy shit, what the fuck is even going on with this disaster with Caballero…
Volpe is going to get his job back without even a peep, huh?
Savant stats with ten games don’t mean a ton going forward, but it just notes that Grisham’s hitting profile is almost identical to his previous season. The balls just haven’t been going for hits so far. With a profile like that, they will.
Boone emptied the bullpen in a game the Yankees were trailing, which was surprising, so because of that, Will Warren really needs to give them some depth, as it’s basically just Hill, Doval and the long men tonight (plus Bednar for a theoretical save, of course).
The featured image is Rosario pimping the shit out of his home run. He MUST have been able to see from his angle that the ball was definitely going fair, because from TV, I wasn’t sure, and I was so confused as to why he was pimping a ball that might be a foul ball.
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He turned that hit out and made it work the streets