Yariel Rodríguez (#29, 27, RHP, 1-4, 4.31) vs. Gerrit Cole (#45, 33, RHP, 3-2, 5.40)
BLUE JAYS
SS E. Clement R
LF J. Loperfido L
DH V. Guerrero R
1B S. Horwitz L
CF D. Varsho L
C A. Kirk R
RF A. Barger L
2B D. Schneider R
3B L. De Los Santos R
YANKEES
2B G. Torres R
RF Juan Soto L
LF Aaron Judge R
C Austin Wells L
DH G. Stanton R
3B J. Chisholm L
SS A. Volpe R
CF T. Grisham L
1B DJ LeMahieu R
Gerrit Cole has bad starts occasionally, just like how Zack Wheeler has been creamed by the Yankees and the Orioles this season. So Cole’s last start against the Mets didn’t necessarily concern me. A bad start today, though, would make two in a row, and I’d be a little bit worried about his health.
So hopefully he does well today.
Verdugo finally getting benched! Although, of course, since it threw the L/R pattern out of whack, Boone was FORCED to use DJ over Rice today. He just HAD to.
He’s on a major hot streak, so I shouldn’t criticize him, but boy, I would not have been swinging first pitch there against Cole if I was Vladdy.
That sucked for Judge, thought he walked, and instead struck out on the next pitch.
Would Gleyber have been thrown out on that? I think he probably WOULD have, so I think that that was a good stop there.
Stanton here is a bit worrisome.
At least it wasn’t a DP, I guess.
I was kind of hoping Jazz or Volpe were up there.
Agreed. You’d think they’d just ease Stanton in a bit more.
Jazz hit that well, but it was an “at ’em” ball.
Might be time to be concerned about Cole.
Ernie fucking Clement can’t own you, Cole.
He’s trying for, like, the perfect pitch, against fucking LOPERFIDO.
No shame in losing 2/3 to the fearsome Jays.
Okay, two was MUCH worse than the one it could have easily been had Clement not been Cole’s daddy, but it also could have easily been four with a single from Loperfido, so I guess I’ll accept it overall.
But seriously, Cole, get your shit together.
It’s tough to win games at home. There’s a lot of pressure. The Yankees have always played better on the road.
So many of the balls and strikes calls are just awful. Not only in the Judge at-bat. Calls a foot outside the zone being called strikes, balls in the zone being called balls.
It seems like they’ve been worse over the past month or so than was usually the case, although I have no idea why that would be.
Tanaka was never the same after his injury. He was still good but he was no longer unhittable.
Really irritating for Gleyber to get on to lead off the inning TWICE and nothing to show for it.
Ah, it’s one of THOSE games.
Sure feels like it.
Goddamn, Stanton hit that well…just Horwitz had him fielded perfectly. And right after De Los Santos made a great play at third to get Wells (to be fair, had Wells reached, the Stanton ball probably would have been a double play to end the inning either way, but still).
He didn’t hit that Stantonian hard.
True.
1/6 RISP, and the one didn’t drive anyone in, 5 LOB.
Chisholm falling back to earth.
This is the Rodriguez the Jays were hoping they’d get. I think we sort of figured he’d put it all together against the Yankees.
Good thing the schedule has gotten easy.
Not letting Rodriguez get a win is SUPER douchey.
Five pitches – the difference between life and death.
Soto has had some surprisingly bad at-bats today.
Wow, Wells, you really have to respond to this, dude.
The walk was nice.
Can you pinch hit Rice here?
This is such a predictable bottom of the inning.
The old “how many can you do on offense without actually scoring” game.
Jesus christ, that second swing, Stanton. He fucking threw it in the dirt and Stanton still swung at it, but a half-assed swing.
That was an embarrassing strikeout by Stanton. Holy shit. The idea that they were, like, “Okay, Stanton obviously is not going to come back from his injury ready right away, but let’s throw him into the #5 spot anyways” is just so frustratingly dumb.
Also, good job locking in more playing time for Verdugo with your own shitty at-bats today, Grisham.
That was such a predictable bottom of the inning.
About to lose 2 of 3 to a bad Jays team, and at home (where they have been a mediocre 28-24).
And Stanton?
A 2-run single for Jasson Dominguez.
Great to have Stanton back. 8 LOB all by his lonesome.
It kills me that Schneider managed that inning so poorly. Pulls his starter an out shy of a win, then ends up using TWO relievers to get that last out. But he got it. Grrrr….
Another manager pulling his starter with two outs and no one on to make sure they can’t get a win. Fucking weird.
If you don’t think Gerrit Cole can get Alejandro Kirk out, what are we even DOING here?
The Jays’ bullpen has Little, Pop, and a few other guys.
Also with little pop: the Yankees’ offense.
Should Jazz try to steal here?
Yes. Double-steal.
I heard that Zach Pop is the Canadian cousin of Phil Coke.
Do you bunt Grisham here?
And if you DO bunt Grisham, do you then pinch hit Rice for LeMahieu? DJ got two flyballs in his first two outs, so you know he’s due for a groundball.
Who’s on the bench?
This ump has no strike zone, just calls them whatever he feels like.
I love that double steal.
THREE flyballs by LeMahieu?! What year is this?
I’ll take it
Man, Volpe really has some special speed to be able to run on contact, stop, run back to third to tag, then run home and score EASILY.
If only he got on base consistently.
What a play by Volpe. Kind of ridiculous how hard Weaver needed to work to get Barger, but hey, at least Volpe made a great play to get him.
It’s just hilarious watching Soto hit versus Stanton.
And I said that BEFORE he hit a home run!
My point was that you only expect Soto to swing at either A. a strike or B. a ball that was thrown so well that it LOOKED like a strike.
Stanton will swing at a ball rolled on the ground to him.
Soto!
Will he IBB Judge?
Ay-yep.
If they score a couple more runs, would that affect the umpires’ willingness to call the game?
I dunno, they haven’t been calling this one.
I’m SHOCKED that Schneider didn’t try to just get Judge at second (and probably get the double play, too, honestly).
What the fuck is Jazz BUNTING for?!
It’s funny, I never thought of Brad Ausmus as a smart guy when he was a player. I didn’t know he graduated from Dartmouth.
When Trent Grisham is making errors in center, it might not be your day.
Don’t get me wrong, Judge has a lot of responsibility for that error, too, but Grisham STILL should have caught it.
That was one of the worst walks I’ve seen from a Yankee reliever this year, and Holmes has had some DOOZIES.
I mean, holy shit, you had to WORK to have a worse attempt there by Kahnle, turning 0-2 into a walk.
The Bad News Bears pen.
To be fair, he had a leadoff two-base error from his Gold Glover center fielder.
Kahnle essentially created that run.
When Clay is giving up long fly balls he’s dun.
Gonna end badly.
I imagine we’re in for a two hour rain delay in a little bit.
Just in the last few minutes, I called a “two-base error” a “Two run error,” and a “Two hour rain delay” a “two-run rain delay.”
Funny.
Just another frustrating game at home where they have been mediocre.
Per NOAA, this could last ~2 hours.
Yeah, easy. But it WILL clear up, so they’ll eventually get the game in.
O’s and Bosox both won.
Maybe switch Judge and Soto in the line-up?
Wells has done WELL, which is why it’s particularly crazy.
LeMahieu has hit the ball well today and…nothing.
Fuck, is Soto hurt?! And of course he had to hit that so hard that Grisham couldn’t score.
Oh, he can’t be that hurt, right? He just banged it against the base.
Come on, Wells, you have to come through. Don’t make this move pay off.
God fucking dammit, Wells.
No sense in going to second
Agreed. They would have walked Judge anyways, though, but yes, if he had seriously hurt himself…ooph.
Takes the bat out of Judge’s hands.
(If Toronto was even going to let it into his hands.)
Judge was getting walked with him on first, as well.
But yes, Soto didn’t know that, so it was still a dimwitted plan.
That said, it’s hard to get on a guy for running hard out of the box, ya know?
1/10 RISP, 13LOB Nice
What a goddamn frustrating (and loooooooooooong, due to the rain delay) inning. First the two-base error on a pretty easy flyball, then the 0-2 pitch turned into a walk, which led to the sac fly to tie the game, then Soto hitting the ball SO hard that Grisham had no chance to score from first, and then Wells making an out with the bases loaded. Fuck.
Green vs De Los Santos mismatch
Why is De Los Santos pitching here? Wouldn’t you think Cousins, Leiter or Tonkin would be better here?
Fucking Ernie Banks Clement out here. How can they not get this fucking guy out?!
Why not let Leiter start the inning?
While I agree, I guess the idea is to try to avoid using Cousins and Tonkin, who have been used a lot, so this way, Leiter pitches the tenth.
Not saying it’s smart, but I guess I see SOME logic there. Basically try to steal some outs against the bottom of the lineup with De Los Santos.
They need to win this shit now, and not let Vladdy bat in the tenth.
They’ll walk him. Manfred Mann.
100% strikeout here.
I forgot about weak groundout.
Jesus fucking christ, Jazz, this shit is pathetic. And now they’ll have Grisham and DJ in the bottom of the 10th. Awesome.
Has there been any reason not to bat Rice for either Stanton or LeMahieu against any of these various RHPs?
They were never pinch hitting for Stanton, he’s a former MVP.
I mean, whatever, Green IS a good pitcher. When they suck in the 10th inning, now THAT will be REALLY embarrassing.
If Leiter was a true Yankee, Vladdy would be getting nothing but nibbling garbage from here on out, down 0-2.
And he decided to swing at the nibbling garbage, so it worked out okay.
I don’t like this.
You’d have to be a masochist to like this.
Got away with it. I would’ve 100% walked him.
He goes right at Vladdy and Springer, and fucks around with Varsho? What the fuck?
There should be a disincentive to repeated intentional walks. Maybe the second time a batter is intentionally walked, he takes two bases?
Sure, you could argue that there shouldn’t have to be that disincentive, because you’re putting a runner on, and it’s the next guy’s job to drive Judge in. But it just seems bad for baseball to keep the best player from swinging the bat.
At the very least they should have to throw four balls.
What was that Mark?
Interesting challenge here.
Can’t believe he fucked around with Varsho to face Kirk, who is the much better hitter.
I like the out, but boy, do I hate when guys like Leiter just fuck around instead of going after guys. He could do that to Kirk, why not just do that to Varsho?
I hope Judge bats in the 10th, because then they won’t be able to walk him.
I’ll be okay with them winning before then.
That would be nice too.
DJ hits flyballs three times, so weak groundball now, right?
I’m down for a passed ball/wild pitch.
DJ Mr RBI?
I love that no one knows what the rule is here.
Yay, win.
I always knew DJ would come through.
Found a hole! DJRBI.
Could they have gone with 6 infielders? With 1 out why not?
Excellent question, I’ll look it up!
Wow, it’s surprisingly hard to find the answer, but I THINK the answer is yes, you could have six infielders.
The new rule pretty clearly allows it, yes.
The value of not-completely-automatic-out-DJLM really highlights just how awful completely-automatic-out-DJLM was.
That was such a good bunt by Grisham, it just highlights how oddly bad his attempt was against the Dodgers.
So was that also just bad luck for Holmes?
No, that was GOOD luck that it wasn’t a homer. That was a really bad pitch.
He DID come back and get the big K, though.
The White Sox, losers of 20 in a row, and are now 27-87.
Switch Soto and Judge in the line-up.