Michael Wacha (#52, 32, RHP, 13-8, 3.35) vs. Gerrit Cole (#45, 33, RHP, 8-5, 3.41)
ROYALS
2B M. Massey L
SS Bobby Witt R
DH V. Pasquantino L
C S. Perez R
1B Yuli Gurriel R
LF MJ Melendez L
RF Tommy Pham R
CF Kyle Isbel L
3B M. Garcia R
YANKEES
2B G. Torres R
RF Juan Soto L
CF Aaron Judge R
C Austin Wells L
DH G. Stanton R
3B J. Chisholm L
SS A. Volpe R
1B O. Cabrera S
LF Alex Verdugo L
I don’t mind Waldo over Rice, but I suspect that that decision was mostly based on some stupid lefty-righty thing more than anything else, which annoys me. It’s also kind of hilarious that the Yankees are starting their backup shortstop at first base in a playoff game, and it’s a defensible move.
double jinx
Boy, they sure are making some good contact this inning.
Gleyber the OBP machine. Gonna miss him.
That was an absurd Strike 1 call to Soto.
That was a strike? Would it be so radical to only use the umps who are best at calling balls and strikes in the playoffs?
Even his excuse me hits are really well hit, honestly. Do you walk Judge here?
I’d walk him.
1/18 is the explanation
Judge taking some bad swings here.
I honestly don’t get why Cash never tried to get Wacha over the years. He’s always owned the Yankees.
Fucking Wells with his choking.
This is Yankee baseball at its archetypical.
Stanton at 0-2. Just throw the ball ANYwhere and he’ll swing at it.
That was an embarrassment.
I cannot express my hatred of the contact play
Austin Wells last September 111/217/194 and 0/20 to close out the season. Do you consider Trevi against Ragans?
Cole does not look good.
Four straight 100 mph against Cole to start the game and a walk. Can I bet the dog?
Mets jump all over the Phillies bullpen after 7 excellent innings from Wheeler and score 5-runs. Will the Yankees score 5-runs this series?
Why in the WORLD would you try to score there if you’re Perez?!
And with Cole shitting the bed.
Cole looks like shit
I was really annoyed when the Royals got Pham just because St. Louis were cheap fucks.
Just seems like under Boone young players like Volpe and phenom usually regress. And too many hitters seem tight in big situations.
Sadly, 1-0 was a great result all things considered.
I think Cole will buckle down, but the problem is that Wacha doesn’t even have to exert any effort against the Yankees.
Maybe Chisholm should hit 4th. Wells is lost.
Wacha is throwing way too many pitches against shitty hitters.
What a play by Volpe!
Cole sure isn’t pitching well.
Okay, he definitely bucked down against Witt and Pasquantino. So he should hopefully be better the rest of the game. He was ESPECIALLY good against Pasquantino.
That was encouraging
Judge hitting 135 with only 2 walks in his last 39 post season PAs and 181 in his last 105 ABs. At what point do you draw a conclusion?
GLEYBER!!!
MVP
Gleyber!
Yes
You have to give Costas this much. He noted earlier in the game, “Whenever a ball gets near right field, you think maybe,” and that’s exactly what happened.
What I don’t get is why is Wells is being so aggressive while he is struggling so much. Just take some pitches, try to see a better ball to hit.
Wells 2 ABs, 2 swings, weak results. Do you go Trevi against Ragans?
They’ve been limiting Wells against lefties all year, so I think it’s likely
Yeah, it’ll probably be:
Torres
Soto
Judge
Stanton
Chisholm
Volpe
Verdugo
Trevino
Waldo
Give Gleyber the QO?
Absolutely
Oh, definitely give him the QO, but he’s going to be gone no matter what.
They were saying that Gurriel idolized Jeter growing up.
Obviously, his English wasn’t that good, and he heard “cheater.”
I cannot believe he walked that dude on his 12th fucking pitch. That was not good at all.
Holy crap, what a shitty game by Cole.
Cole is not good tonight.
Also this announcing is terrible.
The announcing is hilariously bad, because it’s not, like, OFFENSIVE, it’s just STUPID and BORING.
They called that homer like a ground out.
Ugh.
Not finishing Gurriel up 0-2 says a lot.
Yeah, that was a pathetic at-bat. Melendez sometimes hits home runs, I’m not even that irked at that, it’s the Gurriel at-bat that was pathetic.
How long do they let Cole go like this? 11 pitchers now seems like a poor (er) decision
“Gerrit Cole trying to think what he needs to do to retire Tommy Pham. Well, he got him his first at-bat, but it was a sacrifice fly.” You have to work to be that dumb as an announcer.
Yankees Wells plus 6-9 are hopeless and Stanton is not much better.
The answer is not Clay Holmes
Holmes? Not say Schmidt.
Boone is the worst. Holmes shouldn’t be anywhere near this game right now.
That’s why I don’t mind Verdugo over Dominguez.
Agree. Jasson didn’t hit at all the last few games.
Yeah, but Verdugo almost dropped it!! He got lucky, it bounced off his glove.
Imagine if 2 runs scored b/c Verdugo botched it. Would have been classic.
Verdugo has been ragged in LF most of the season.
Volpe has made some good contact.
Anyone in the world but Stanton scores there. FUCK.
And, of course, Verdugo strands the runner, which we all knew would happen once Stanton didn’t score. FUCK.
A quick 0/4 RISP
taking a break
Yankees are lucky it’s close.
Thank goodness for Vance Wilson! Wilson didn’t even SLIGHTLY hesitate in sending Salvy, it was BAFFLING.
And BABIP luck.
The schedule is a cable/television and now even streaming abomination.
Gleyber was struck out, got lucky.
I wouldn’t pull Wacha at all. That missed strike three might be huge for the Yankees.
How the fuck is this dude not even going to be eligible for a win?!
against soto?
But Judge is right after Soto, and it’s only the fifth inning!
Can’t believe they’re taking Wacha out.
Ump blew strike 3 to Gleyber.
That check swing was on a ball, too. Argh.
Boy, Judge sure does seem to get in his head in the playoffs, right?
Sometimes I think Judge takes a strike just to lure the pitcher back into the AB.
I’m so glad that Boone has Wells batting cleanup so that he can come up in moments like these to choke.
Damn. I don’t want him to walk. What good does that do?
triple jinx
Just take three strikes, buddy!
I’d have green-lighted Wells there.
Borderline strike
The timeout NEVER WORKS. Why do they do it?
Best at-bat of Wells’ career!
Clutch bases loaded walk. Now a Stanton triple play upcoming.
Wells reading the thread!
Good screen name.
Ump has been good to the Yankees
shit, you may kmow me as Oscar Gamble’s Afro….been lurking most of the year, Christ knows why
Why have the Met announcer announce the Yankees and the Yankee announcer announce some third team?
No double play please
Christ, Stanton. I guess at least it wasn’t a double play, amiright?
Well, no DP or TP from Stanton, just a pop-up.
Stanton is……….,
Dammit, si può de stoparlo!
God, this team loves to fucking choke.
How not to take advantage of the situation.
Fucking pathetic ABs.
Please get more than that. Please. Please.
Great explanation by Darling. He fell on his cup so they’re giving him a blow.
I mean, whatever, I’m honestly impressed they even got the one.
I think MLB should eliminate intra division series if at all possible.
Another clutch bases loaded walk.
Volpe, good eye
A walk from VOLPE!?
I guess we shouldn’t complain, I guess.
Right? It was such a weird inning. I think we have to happy, but it was SO FUCKING WEIRD.
Not a good at-bat by Waldo, but honestly, Schreiber pitched him well there.
The more they get to the plate, the greater the chance someone clicks… maybe?
Yankees 0/7 with RISP but gifted two runs thanks to walks. Of the 0/7 no one made even halfway decent contact.
Truly pathetic inning. Jazz swinging at the first pitch for reasons I cannot fathom. And then Cabrera with a rookie league AB
Should Cole have started the inning?
I guess you have to pull him but I kinda hate it
I hate it, too, but I also hate him giving up a leadoff hit in front of the guy who was 2-2 with a home run against him, so on balance, it was okay by me.
Don’t turn Tommy Pham into a thing, you jerks.
Stop that now.
Holy crap, Volpe, WHAT THE FUCK?!!?
Shit.
Just stop this now.
phenom
And Hill gets an easy groundball…right in the wrong spot.
I didn’t know I disliked Ron Darling.
Now I know.
Why do you even take Hill out? What did he do wrong, exactly?
Dfa volpe
It’s OK guys, Holmes can no longer blow the save.
All this because Cole was awful. And now the bullpen implodes. Aided by Volpe.
But Hill didn’t even implode! Volpe’s brain imploded.
An out and two playable groundballs that went for a pathetic error, and a bad luck hit, and he gets pulled?
KC 2/3 RISP, Yankees 0/7. Yankees one big error, Royals none. Yankees with 5 hits, Royals with 8, Yankees with no hard hit outs,Royals with several.
There were some hard hit outs. Volpe had one that I recall.
Talk about some awful fucking luck.
As my brother just said, in what world is Clay Holmes pitching to Bobby Witt in a 1-run game?
Jazz was, like, “Nuh uh, Volpe, you’re not fucking THIS up.”
Take three pitches, Dugie!
Great. Swing at the ball over your head.
What was that?
Heh.
What the fuck gleyber
Let’s go, Judge.
Lorenzen is a good matchup for Judge. He just needs to, you know, come through.
This is literally the first time that I learned who the Yankees first base coach was. Who is Travis Chapman?
Soto. Amazing. They just all sneak through. Supernatural.
Would be nice to have one with RISP, for Pete’s sake!
FFS, Judge.
RISP!
I am STUNNED that Wells came through there. But pleased!
Wellsey
Girardey’s no longer managing.
whenever I walk the dog things go south–my man Wells!
95% K, 5% hr Stanton
Only player in the Majors who doesn’t reach on that is Stanton. FUCK.
Cost us two runs already this game.
It looked almost like Stanton stopped to let the defense make that play and get him out.
Wells, nice. Stanton, yeah.
WHY IS HOLMES PITCHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The trick, I suppose, is to not have it be a save situation for Holmes.
The Yankees are going to have to have disproportionate luck in the postseason to overcome Boone’s inept managing. So far so good.
When do Judge’s post season numbers become a problem?
That would’ve been nice with the bases loaded.
What a fucking terrible slide!!!
What is Darling on about? He was safe.
Side of his foot touching the base.
awwww, fuck
This is bullshit, by the way. You shouldn’t be calling guys out on stuff that no one could ever see live.
Yes, they should. They should get the calls right. Couldn’t care less what the umps think. Or whether you could see it or not.
phenom with a nice AB on ball 4 to compensate for the error and Jazz for some reason doesn’t know how to slide.
More Yankee fundamentals,
Wow I thought he was out live and on replay.
They were lucky as fuck that you couldn’t conclusively overturn that.
Waldo seems like he has no plan up there.
phenom strikes out on ball 4, Waldo strikes out on a ball in the dirt.
Verdugo, RISP!
I guess Verdugo can continue to play left.
And that’s why Cash wisely got Verdugo.
You gotta use Weaver for two, right?
RAB Verdugo and Holmes carrying the Yankees tonight. The postseason is a clean slate.
Darling Gleyber swinging 3-0? With Soto up next?
The Royals get Erceg, Cashman picks on the scrap heap. Hey look, Hal! A 10¢ bottle.
We got De Los Santos and Leiter.
I don’t like Kahnle here. There’s a day off. Just use Weaver for two!
I don’t mind. I don’t know. Kahnle’s been pretty good.
Ohtani with a 3 run homer. Take note Aaron.
The Padres are in on the conspiracy to pitch to Ohtanti to allow him to hit home runs.
Ohtani ties the game at 3 with a 3-run HR.
Stupid walk, Kahnle!
How can you be unable to NOT DO THAT, Kahnle?
This game is not fun
How have The Weavers fared historically for the Yankees in the playoffs?
Hopefully, Goodnight, Irene.
Cleansing the family name.
What kind of a call was that first pitch to Soto?
Stop with the “oh, look, live umps getting it wrong – isn’t that great?!”
Yeah, that was a CRAZY bad call. The pitch that struck him out was fair enough, but that first pitch – HOLY SHIT, it was bad.
Absolutely. The last one was a strike.
But you don’t know you’d have gotten the last one if the first one had been called right.
Yamamoto shitting the bed.
One home run would loosen Judge up.
Judge’s postseason struggles are so weird. I mean, Erceg is VERY good, so this particular inning wasn’t a big deal, but seriously.
Judge getting pitched really well tonight
At what point do we start really wondering if Judge is an Arod-like head case?
Apparently you already are.
Arod had a few big playoff series.
This team has enough zeros without Judge being another
Costas repeats himself SO MUCH.
Man, I really can’t stand Darling. Who knew?
Possibly because he clearly dislikes one team.
Darling works well when he’s paired with a more energetic play-by-play guy. Not so much with Costas.
Isn’t Costas like 98, and tied to intravenous?
How Soto’s first pitch a strike, and not that one?
Boone was SO PISSED at that call.
I mean it’s bullshit but Weaver just feels like a closer to me
It was bullshit, but hey, the first strike was bullshit, too, so it’s all good!
Heckuva job Luke
Wow, is this what it is like when the closer doesn’t suck?
Well, thank God they won this one. Not the WAY I’d have had them win, but losing it would have been very, very bad.
Quietly Waldo played a pretty good 1B
Yeah, he made some really nice stretches.
Extremely unlikely win, but I’ll take it!
Yay, win. Yay (we haven’t seen many of them) 1,2,3 save.
Yay win. Yay Gleyber, Soto, and Verdugo.
But really, yay walks. Even this Yankees offense can score if you walk them 8 times.