From Bryan Hoch:
It was a rare pitchers’ duel that lived up to the hype, advertising both the present and the future for two American League East rivals. Once the skies cleared over Yankee Stadium, Cam Schlittler and Trey Yesavage provided a window into what the next decade could look like.
They are hard-throwing, dominant and already playoff-tested: the kind of talent you build around. After trading zeros with Yesavage for six innings, Schlittler stalked off the mound stone-faced in the seventh, fuming after he’d blinked first in their stud-vs.-stud showdown.
“Just unacceptable. I walked two guys,” Schlittler said after the Yankees’ 2-1 loss to the Blue Jays. “They’re a team that’s going to BABIP the [heck] out of you, so some unlucky stuff, but you can’t walk the bottom of the order. Just unfortunate I couldn’t close that one out.”
I know the simplest way to look at this game is that Cam Schlittler was very good, and Trey Yesavage was just better, but I think it is worth pointing out that they both pitched six strong innings. Schlittler tried to pitch a seventh, and fell apart, but we don’t know whether Yesavage would have kept going had HE tried to pitch seven, ya know?
So while yes, Yesavage clearly had the MUCH better game, I think it’s a bit unfair to Schlittler when he pitched into the seventh and clearly ran out of gas while Yesavage did not.
Anyhow, even with that seventh inning collapse (which involved Goldchmidt and Wells FUCKING FIGHTING FOR A BUNT WITH EACH OTHER, which is the featured image today), Jake Bird did pretty well to only give up a single run while entering with the bases loaded and no out, and Yovanny Cruz was fucking OUTSTANDING.
We talk a lot about how shitty Austin Wells is, and Ryan McMahon, as well, but the simple fact of the matter is that if Aaron Judge is hot, the team still scores plenty of runs. Judge, though, is in the middle of one of those awful slumps he gets where you wonder how he ever works as a hitter, as he just swings and misses at EVERYTHING.
With Rodon pitching tonight (lord, do I dread his starts), the Yankees really need Judge to get out of this slump.
About the Author
Yeah it’s pretty hard to tag the pitching which only gave up two runs.
And as Schlittler noted (which is going a bit viral), a lot of THAT was BABIP luck.
That looks like Goldy fighting for the bunt.
Good call. It WAS Goldy. Talk about aggressively playing a bunt, huh?
My money’d be on Goldy in that fight!
In fact, I’d say was a lock. A Gol… oh, you get the point.