Luis Gil (#81, 27, RHP, 4-1, 3.32) vs. Kevin Gausman (#34, 34, RHP, 10-11, 3.59)
YANKEES
CF T. Grisham L
RF Aaron Judge R
LF C. Bellinger L
1B Ben Rice L
DH G. Stanton R
2B J. Chisholm L
3B Ryan McMahon L
SS A. Volpe R
C Austin Wells L
BLUE JAYS
DH G. Springer R
RF Nathan Lukes L
1B V. Guerrero R
3B A. Barger L
C A. Kirk R
CF D. Varsho L
LF A. Santander S
SS A. Gimenez L
2B E. Clement R
Luis Gil started once against Toronto earlier in the year, and had a good start. Kevin Gausman, meanwhile, has OWNED the Yankees in his last two starts, but in his first two starts, he had one mediocre start, and one terrible start where he threw 55 pitches in a single inning (and didn’t even finish said inning).
I assume he will dominate them, and Gil will be killed by the Blue Jays’ ability to make contact (and not swing at the balls we all know Gil will throw), but after that, the pitching matchups are a bit more in the Yankees’ favor. Like the Red Sox series, Game 1 is a case where the Yankees are in REALLY good shape if they win it, but not terribly awful if they lose it (but, of course, you always want to win every game).
It is kind of annoying how well Gausman pitches against the Yankees most of the time.
Blue Jays appear to be going with an interesting rotation of Gausman, rookie Trey Yesavage (in his, like, fifth start ever), Shane Bieber, and then maybe a bullpen game for Game 4 if there is a Game 4? The Yankees have a way to make every pitcher look like Cy Young, so I’m sure they’ll all do well, and I’m sure the Blue Jays will drive up the Yankee pitchers’ pitch count, and keep on getting two strike hits to drive me insane.
Cubs get a leadoff home run against the Brewers, the Brew Crew respond with six runs and counting in the bottom of the first. DANG.
Oof, Jackson Chourio’s hamstring. Tough to have that happen when you’re already up 8-1 in the second inning.
That’s why I don’t fault Stanton for not running hard.
The amount of things that you can’t challenge is moronic.
Maybe we could knock off the first pitch swinging shit?
2 outs on two pitches would have sucked.
Can’t tell about the Grisham one.
This ridiculous first pitch swinging philosophy. Is that Boone or Rowson? It’s not like the offense was good against Boston doing that.
Nice to have Luis Arraez batting second.
With that throwing arm, maybe he should be at first base?
Smart pitchers seem to know how to eat Ben Rice alive.
Really? I haven’t had that impression over the season.
In fact, I remember a couple of games where he had most of the offense when everyone else was being shut down.
Rice has been doing a shocking amount of flailing in these playoffs.
Maybe choose Judge rather than Belli as his model?
McMahon is so fucking smooth at third.
Yankees scored 9 runs in 3 games vs Boston, some thanks to Boston defense, and they think they’re the Big Red Machine.
I knew it was coming from that fucking reverse jinx about him not having hit a home run in a month.
Rice is being exposed last 2 games.
And yeah, that was a terrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrible pitch by Gil.
Just when it was looking like a great bottom of the first.
There’s no way Gil calls his own pitches or locations, right?
So maybe that was (a) not entirely on him, and (b) just a hiccup?
Judge hasn’t hit a home run in the playoffs this season. Or Jazz. Or Trent.
Or Stanton, or Bellinger.
Just Rice and Volpe, right?
Or McMahon.
McMahon often looks so lost out there, like he doesn’t even see the ball.
Why isn’t Jazz running?
Yeah, one of those games, eh.
Pretty much.
That’s why you fucking steal second, Jazz. Why the fuck DIDN’T Jazz steal?
Hahaha that WAS a very nice play.
Oh. Cool.
McMahon had a good AB.
Jazz started to steal more regularly in the final part of the year. Previously he stole shockingly rarely given his speed. No idea why, and why no one talked about it.
Is LAD PHI the real World Series?
LAD’s bullpen is brutal. They might be able to hit their way past it but I couldn’t pass up Philly as a +120 dog in that series.
I can’t even say that Warren would have had been any better, ya know?
So it really is one of those games.
Chrissakes, Gil.
That was another terrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrible pitch.
There’s a reason Toronto was like 15-1 against us In the regular season.
If it was ANY team except Toronto, I think Will Warren would have started. They just kicked his ass SO MUCH that how could you possibly start him against them?
Oh, stop. There IS a reason Toronto won the season series – they didn’t play the Yankees when they were unstoppable, but mainly when they decided to be the worst team in baseball for 2 full months.
Are the doll-house pink shoes an assertion of confidence in masculinity?
Not digging them.
Once Gil had him 0-2, I know we were all expecting a ton of balls, right?
That seems to be the team-wide strategy, unfortunately.
At least Santander swung through Ball 3.
That was another terrible pitch, Gimenez luckily just can’t hit for shit, so he could only make a flyout with it.
Gil looks like he’d rather be dangling from the top of the CN Tower than on the mound right now.
Boone thinks Warren sucks so much against Toronto that he wouldn’t even be the guy he will go to if he has to pull Gil early. Fascinating. Blackburn ahead of him in that regard.
0-2, so here comes the ugly waste pitches.
Honestly, besides the two batting practice-esque pitches he threw to Vlad and Kirk, Gil has actually looked pretty good. It’s just that, you know, you can’t get PAST those terrible pitches.
He’s found upstairs heat they can’t hit. That’s not bad.
Hopefully it’ll calm him down.
F.
Stop making this guy look like Jim Palmer.
That was a pretty shitty 1-2-3 inning.
Again, though, this was the game the Blue Jays had the clear advantage in. Just need to win the other ones.
Yes, but why not use it to get your goddamned offense going?
I don’t get it, it’s a bad matchup BECAUSE Gausman is so hard on them. Why would this one be the one they would “use to get the offense going”? The reason why they were unlikely to win this one is because Gausman is HARD to hit against.
Gausman is going to have 86 pitches in the bottom of the 15th
UnbeLIEvable.
That inning ended before it started.
I honestly think G *LOST* pitches on his pitch count that inning.
Gotta take some pitches. Sheesh.
What the fuck is wrong with our idiot manager and hitting coach? This is like a Central Park beer league softball game.
It seem I’ve seen more of this in the last few weeks than I have in years. It worked against Bello but overall it’s for chumps.
Pulling Gil here is DUMB. It’s not like Vladdy just hit a fucking double. He hit a two-out single.
I’m mystified.
Down by 2, a hit to their best hitter with 2 outs… what?
Right. And now they have to cobble together the ENTIRE game out of the bullpen.
WHY?
Why not let Gil eat some innings here?
My bet is that they plan on Blackburn eating the innings. I think they just don’t feel comfortable with Gil. I think it’s dumb, but it’s not like they’re going to be burning their main guys today.
Fucking soft contact, man.
But I’m super glad that Hill gets to pitch to a righty now. Soooo glad they pulled Gil after a fucking two-out SINGLE.
We scored 9 vs Boston in 3 games facing a lot of third string pitchers.
This offense is offensive. They just have no clue in so many situations.
they had the best offense in baseball by a clear margin. but let’s use the last 3 games to judge them.
You start a guy and you’re not willing to let him get down two runs and allow a two-out single?
What’s the point? It’s insane.
Gil giving off bad vibes?
I think it’s dumb, as well, but I suppose it just speaks to how little they think of Gil at the moment. They just knew that Warren would be worse. I suspect Warren will get the ball in a theoretical ALCS Game 4 if they somehow win this series.
Agree. For Tim Hill?
Goodbye, Gil.
I do not understand bringing in Hill with a RHP on deck.
Who can plumb the depths of Aaron Boone? Perhaps Roto-Rooter can?
My guess was to just retire Barger, then give Blackburn a clean inning in the fourth, and have Blackburn go as long as he could.
But yes, agreed, it was dumb.
But Brian – then start Blackburn. What was the point of starting Gil and taking him out now?
They thought LITTLE of Gil, but not NOTHING. In other words, had he pitched better, he’d still be in there. He gave up two home runs, so they pulled him. They were willing to give him a chance, and he just flunked the opportunity.
I think it is dumb of them, as well.
Just keep swinging first pitch. It’ll eventually work, I bet.
Boy, this is some pathetic shit right here. 3-0 to 3-1 to a pathetic groundball. Oooph.
Rice has nooooooooooooooooooo shot in this at-bat.
He got sonned SO big time in that at-bat.
They’re making Gausman look like vintage Clemens.
Gausman has pitched this well against them a number of times in recent history. Today’s game was always going to be a tough matchup.
Almost every good to very good pitcher has done this all season. Remember Miami? Or Seattle? Or Texas? Or Crochet? They underachieve expectations against top pitchers and beat up on palookas. The good Yankee teams went 14-14 against Pedro.
How can such a good-hitting team be such a bad-hitting team?
Rice is overmatched and exposed.
Oh, come on, you can’t be that down on EVERYONE as soon as they have a bad stretch.
Rice isn’t a bad hitter, but Gausman has been clearly overmatching him. It’s just embarrassing to watch.
Just more pathetic by the hitters. Maybe they’re waiting for an error and a wild pitch?
“Yankees stay aggressive.” It’s not working but they’re sticking with the plan.
Okay, it’s just one of THOSE games. I mean, come the fuck on that that hung up there JUST too long. You could tell as soon as he hit it that it was hanging up a little bit too long.
Oh, 2-outs already. Go, Yankees.
Come on, those last two outs were just terrible luck. Jazz and McMahon both hit them well, they simply hung in the air too long.
Gausman: 5 IP, 50 pitches. Great plan by the Yankees batters.
Rice is an actively GOOD hitter. He’s been flailing for a little while now. It’s not all Gausman. Rice is struggling. We’ve seen Judge take over a month off. It happens. It doesn’t mean he’s been exposed and this is the end and it was all a illusion. Sheesh.
I think it’s Gausman. Rice was on a roll coming 8th the playoff.
Agreed. I think it was just Gausman abusing Rice.
I imagine that this is an audition for Doval for higher leverage work.
Also, this doesn’t even look like Blackburn eating innings, it looks like gratuitously destroying your bullpen in the first game of this series.
These are the lower leverage guys. They have a day off after Game 2. This isn’t a huge deal.
Just need to get at least ONE of the next three guys on base for Judge. Give him a chance to tie it with one swing of the bat.
Right, they need to stumble into one or scrape a couple of runs and hope they can hold them until Gausman gets tired around the 17th inning or so.
That’s what the good Yankee teams could do, stay close scrape out a few runs. I remember one game where Paul hit an oppo double against Pedro.
Gausman has had a pretty big reverse split this season. RHBs 238/664/ LHBs 193/586
RISP Challenge!
“Greatest execution I’ve ever seen in a playoff start.” What the fuck are you talking about, Smoltz?!
That it preceded two hits is even funnier, but even before that. What the fuck, dude?!
Reverse jinx.
SOMETHING!
RISP Challenge has a winner, but no run. So, RISP Challenge renewed.
3-0 to 3-2. I don’t like it.
Ooph, Judge, how did you take that shit.
I guess they did what we wanted, Brian.
All we were saying is give Judge a chance!
Great take. Wow!
It was.
That second strike was a BEAUTY.
ON BALL FOUR.
We praised the guy for the way he stopped expanding the zone, and he strikes out with the bases loaded by expanding the zone.
INSANELY BAD.
And THAT you swing at?
Greta job, Judge.
That pitch was NEVER a strike out of his hand.
That’s not gonna help the postseason rep
We have a run without a hit. Oh, joy!
Cheap runs is runs.
I
WILL
TAKE
IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Annoyingly, he owns Rice.
Holy….. I just saw the pitch Judge K’d on. Aaron, really? Adding to his post season blahs.
It wasn’t QUITE as pathetic as it looked (it was pathetic, though), as Gausman had set him up well in the at-bat by busting him inside repeatedly before then going outside for the K.
So it was more great pitching than a terrible Judge swing.
But yes, it’s TERRIBLE for his rep.
PGold?
HOW ARE YOU TAKING HIM OUT?!
Another miserable AB by Rice.
MISERABLE at-bat.
Get ’em on, get ’em over, leave ’em there.
Oh, please.
Huh. They’re taking him out.
I’m not too upset about that. Down one in the 5th and Gausman out? I’ll take THAT, too!
It’s the sixth.
But yes, I think this is a bad decision, as well. I’m thrilled to have Gausman out of the game.
Is Schneider trying to out-Boone Boone?
He must know that’s beyond his abilities.
But let him try, I say, let him try!
That pitch to Judge was NEVER a strike. It started outside then went further outside.
Yes, it was awful.
Come on Lug!
Shit.
Bases loaded no outs and your 2-3-4-5 hitters coming up, and you get a K, walk, popup, K.
Not very clutch baseball there.
What a very British way to put it.
Again, the Judge at-bat really wasn’t that pathetic. Gausman just did a great job setting Judge up for that last pitch. It was a great piece of pitching. The Rice at-bat was much worse.
Similarly, Stanton just got overpowered by Varland, which is a terrible look for him.
I don’t agree. The superstar is not supposed to do that. Gausman had already walked two.
He had only walked one at the time.
So predicatable. But Judge ruined that inning.
I don’t think Judge ruined the inning any more than Rice did. And after all that, they had Giancarlo Stanton up with the bases loaded, ya know? Dude was just overpowered by Varland, who he had hit a home run against in his career.
Some of the at-bat was great, that’s what made the last pitch so depressing. The last pitch was awful.
Awful.
Judge’s AB was inexcusable. Considering how Rice looked against Gausman, and Gausman’s reverse split, I would seriously have considered using PGold to hit.
I think you’re seeing the work they’ve been doing with Doval paying off. I think he’ll come back next year even better. Just pounding it into the guy’s head to not fuck around. Your pitches are so good, just go after guys.
I agree with the majority for once. If Judge had taken that pitch, it’s a run and more pressure. He’d taken tough pitches that same at-bat.
The pressure was on the pitcher – bases loaded, no outs.
Take the walk.
I don’t think it was a tough pitch.
Third PLAYER to have a 30/30 season, Davis, not the third 30/30 season in Yankee history. Soriano did it twice.
And now their own graphic demonstrates the point.
Blue Jays have lost the fewest games in the Majors this season in games where they blew a lead, despite having a terrible bullpen. Make THAT make sense.
McMahon’s had some good ABs
Yeah, two VERY hard luck outs before that single.
Are they bringing in a pitcher for VOLPE? That seems dumb.
Postseason Volpe!
Pinch running for McMahon here mid at-bat is BIZARRE.
AND THEN HE DIDN’T EVEN FUCKING RUN!!!
What are they doing?!!?
And now we get “Might as well be Jeff” Weaver.
Wells has had one of his two hits for the series.
I just can’t wrap my head around pinch-running Caballero for McMahon, and then NOT RUNNING!
Only running once there were two outs, and not even on the first pitch to the NEXT batter. Obviously, Volpe K’ed and Wells grounded out, so it wouldn’t have mattered, but it’s still just mind-boggling in its stupidity.
Now Boones gonna burn some high leverage arms because why not?
I imagine Doval has proven that he can be trusted for higher leverage innings in Game 3.
Omigod, Weaver, what the fuck are you doing?
I really hate Smoltz in the booth.
Does ANYone like John Smoltz in the booth?
I mean, is Weaver just broken? I can’t wait until a broken Weaver pitches to Santander with a runner on from a walk.
White flag Weaver.
It’s beyond awful managing.
If Boone STILL uses Weaver after this, then we know he just has no brains at all.
If Cruz is going to have to come in for Weaver when Weaver sucks, then why not just fucking use Cruz?!
Weaver in September opposing players 350/400/625. I’m surprised the analytics guys never told Boone.
When you have to overcome your own manager’s stupidity, it’s hard to win games.
Weaver has faced six batters this playoffs, and ALL SIX have reached.
But sure, Boone, keep throwing him out there!
That’s enough Luke Weaver for 2025.
Can you imagine being the dude who’s, like, “Okay, one-run game, gotta use Luke Weaver here”?
YOU HAD CRUZ READY! What is going on here? How can Boone be THIS stupid?
Boone may be a reverse Flowers for Algernon case. He’s getting dumber as time goes on.
How did Weaver go from utterly untouchable – even at the beginning of THIS YEAR!!!!!!!!!! – to utterly unusable?
Relief pitchers are fluky if their name is not Mariano Rivera.
what relief pitcher doesn’t do this?
Weaver post season 2025 WHIP INFINITY
Cruz used to be a shortstop, and boy does it show!
Weaver better not get into another game this post season.
I could see using him in a low leverage spot. But yeah, this better be it for him in any high-leverage situation.
While that was a bad throw by Caballero, there was no way a GREAT throw would have nailed the runner at first, so no harm, no foul.
Too big a hill to climb.
2-1 was too big of a hill to climb.
Cruz, you don’t have to throw a strike, but it has to at least look like it MIGHT be a strike.
Boone loves to say everybody was down on Holmes last year. But last Spet/Oct batters hit 265/866 not 350/1025
Yankee relievers, snatching walks from the clutches of strikeouts.
JUST THROW FUCKING STRIKES, CRUZ!
Cruz just imploding out there after the awesome play on the bunt.
This motherfucker is seriously going to walk in a run on four pitches.
Okay, five pitches. And then face Vlad with the bases loaded.
POS Pen.
For months now.
That’s why you don’t fall behind in the count 3-0, you moron. They can just sit on a strike 3-1. Cruz did this same thing in that Detroit implosion, remember?
Game.
It was game at 2-1, so 3-1 was already more than they needed.
One problem with taking Gil out so early it guaranteed Boone would use Weaver.
Yep.
He better have Blackburn pitch the last inning.
They really depend on the kindness of the other team to score all too often.
If Williams or Bednar get into this game I’m going to throw my shoe through the television.
Don’t worry about that. Somebody should’ve thrown a shoe at Boone when he called for Weaver. I miss Mark Leiter. I even miss Ian Hamilton. And I almost miss Jake Bird.
Make Cruz throw strikes and he’s in trouble. But at least it’s not throwing in the towel like using Weaver. And who knows with a clean slate Cruz might’ve had room to maneuver.
Yeah, I’m definitely less irked at Cruz than Weaver, but I’m still irked at Cruz.
I’m irked at Boone.
Watch Judge hit a home run with the game out of reach.
His AB wrecked an inning.
Not a home run but BFD Aaron.
I think it’s still a good thing for him to drive the ball. Hopefully it means he’ll do well in Game 2.
Followed by more RISP Fail.
I’m pretty sure Ryan Yarbrough could do this.
This bullpen will be the end of the 2025 season. At least the beat the bean eaters.
Boone saw good things from Blackburn despite having an over 5 era each of the last 4 years.and never having an era+ 100 since his rookie season 2018.
Blackburn and Weaver better than Leiter or Yarbrough.
I can believe that they had a bad game – an epochally bad game even. Happens.
But that Boone managed to completely avoidably gut his bullpen – THAT is truly incredible. What a dick.
And the bullpen – they were down 2-0 before the inexplicable bullpen abuse even began.
If you’re going to blame anybody for this loss, it’s the offense.
I’d blame Judge except Boone would’ve used Weaver anyway. Gil didn’t pitch that bad and our bullpen is not deep. When you pull Gil you need to go to to Warren or Weaver becomes inevitable.
Yeah, I REALLY didn’t like pulling Gil so quickly.
Best offense in baseball ten runs in 4 games.
Boone on Weaver “Not a stuff issue. Couple of changeups that were flat. It can click like that because the stuff is there, we just got to get him locked in on his delivery.”
And that’s not a “stuff” issue, flat change ups? Hoo-boy.
Kay on Boone’s late pinch running decision, “he wasted 3 pitches where Cabby could’ve stolen?” Boone didn’t see it and probably somebody had to tell him to pinch run.
It was a BAFFLING move. And then HE DIDN’T EVEN FUCKING RUN!
Nothing compares with pulling Gil THAT EARLY. It’s nuts. You can’t demand perfection – and if you don’t get it, you burn your entire bullpen. In what world is that a better solution?
If you won’t let him pitch at any level worse than perfect, then you can’t have him start, because you don’t have an infinite bullpen to back that unreasonable strategy up.
Weaver with a ton of denial.
Boone the bigger denier.
Yeah, it’s so bizarre to see them just deny that he CANNOT be used.
If Zack Wheeler were healthy, the Phillies would be a great choice.
Basically, the Yankees “just” need to win the next three games, and avoid having to face Gausman again.
And having their starters go 7 and actually scoring some runs.
We don’t care if we lose, we have to fix Luke. Very unserious people at work.
https://x.com/TalkinYanks/status/1974601550623600668
It’s not fun to watch everything break the Dodgers’ way…AGAIN.
💯
Both Yesavage and Bieber have sub 4 eras, and under 4 era pitchers have be a problem for us. Ródon is you know Rodon who can fall apart in a hurry and will probably at best go 5 or 6 which means we’ll need some shaky relievers to come through.
Send lawyers, errors, and wild pitches. With apologies to the late Warren Zevon.
“ The results haven’t been good. There’s been a lot of internal factors. I don’t want to get too crazy into it, but there’s been adjustments that I’ve had to make based on things people are seeing. It just hasn’t lined up,” Weaver explained after the game.
“It’s pretty late in the adjustment period. It’s just not lining up out there. I don’t feel like myself. I don’t feel like my mind is completely clear to go out there and attack. I do feel physically strong, I do feel mentally strong overall. There are just some factors that are building up and I’m just not executing at the clip I want to.”
MLB.com: Could adjustments to combat tipping be the source of Weaver’s struggles?
He doesn’t feel like himself but he feels mentally strong?
Yankees 6/36 RISP this post season.
Tigers get a run in the top of the 11th.
Tigers win game 1, 3-2.
Yanks now +130 in the series. If they win tomorrow they’ll swing back hard to -150 to -170.
Yesavage 3.21 era,20 bases runners in 14 inning a FIP of 2.35 but an xERA of 4.16. Seems like FIP is too low or xERA too high.
What a wretched day of baseball.
“I don’t really feel like myself,” Weaver said after the 10-1, Game 1 ALDS loss to the Blue Jays at Rogers Centre. “I don’t feel like my mind is completely clear to go out there and attack. I do feel physically strong. I do feel mentally strong overall.
“I just think there’s some factors that are building up.”
Well by all means let’s keep running him out there.
Absolutely. An admitted and unsolved problem expressing itself as a previously stellar pitcher’s inability to get even a single opposing batter out is, apparently, no problem at all.
Also annoying are the headlines – Ohtani pitched poorly enough and was in line for the loss when the actual hero, Teoscar, saved his bacon.
To complete his two-way line, Ohtani struck out at least his first four times to the plate (I went to bed after that).
And yet the number one headline MLB.com is “Ohtani’s playoff pitching debut was worth the wait,” talking about history being made.
Ohtani did everything possible to single-handedly lose that game for the Dodgers, but MLB.com just can’t accept that.
And I know that there’s supposedly no such thing as clutch, but… it’s hard to look at the REPEATED heroics of players like Teoscar, Leyritz and Gibson and really believe that.
And judge on the other side
Clutch is overrated but not non existent. I think anti clutch is more prevalent. Nick Swisher career 249/799, post season 165/575 over 185 PAs.
MLB is so all-in over-the-top for Ohtani. One wonders if he [Ohtani] failed a drug test, if they’d bury it. Yeah, they would. I wonder if anyone can find the distance of every MLB HR Ohtani has hit.