Jared Jones (#37, 22, RHP, 6-8, 4.14) vs. Carlos Rodón (#55, 31, LHP, 16-9, 3.98)
PIRATES
SS N. Gonzales R
LF B. Reynolds S
C Joey Bart R
DH A. McCutchen R
RF B. De La Cruz R
3B I. Kiner-Falefa R
1B Connor Joe R
2B Nick Yorke R
CF Billy Cook R
YANKEES
2B G. Torres R
DH Juan Soto L
3B J. Chisholm L
LF J. Dominguez S
RF Alex Verdugo L
SS A. Volpe R
CF T. Grisham L
C Jose Trevino R
1B O. Cabrera S
Judge better not pinch hit in this game…unless he hits a pinch hit home run, of course. That is allowed. It sure would be nice to get a win without Judge to help wrap HFA up. It’s also funny that they waited until the final series of the season to play the Pirates.
I legit don’t hate Rodon or anything, but boy, I don’t get why he’s being penciled in as the automatic Game 2 starter.
Wow Grisham did make that look easy.
Why would I watch a game with this line up?
Screw them. Good night, all!
Jazz Chisholm’s disruptive speed is something we haven’t seen with the Yankees in YEARS. Maybe not since early Ellsbury.
Verdugo about to have the classic bases loaded GIDP.
It’s rare I yearn for a negative outcome for a Yankee but I was doing it in that during that Verdugo at bat. The thought of Boone talking about how “We finally got him going,” next weekend is terrifying.
Wow, that ball hung in the air a BIZARRELY long time. Volpe really hit that hard! That sucked.
Fuck, Kahnle!
At least the Guardians are losing.
It would have been nice had the Pirates agreed to trade Bryan Reynolds here.
Martian not helping his cause.
Guardians making a move on the Astros.
Rockies pitching to Ohtani, surprise (not), three hits including an HR. Oh, and on the HR, first base was open, and they pitched to him.
Why WOULDN’T the Rockies pitch to Ohtani?
Ohtani has a shot at the triple crown, and the Rockies are sure treating him kindly in his attempt.
I’m not closely following this, but what do you want teams to do when they are getting blown out by the Dodgers? walk Ohtani, but no one else? While at the same time complaining about teams walking Judge?
The bigger question is why no one is holding a not particularly fast, but good base stealer on.
When was the last time a team pitched to Judge with two on and first base open? Or most other top sluggers over the years? That is the point, teams keep pitching to Ohtani in spots that other top guys don’t get pitched to. I did mention the base stealing issue a while back.
But if this were some MLB pressure/conspiracy, surely it would apply to Judge too, who is as nearly an electric talent and also playing for a massive market and internationally popular team.
But they are being treated differently nonetheless.
At least the Guardians lost. So the Yankees’ magic number for HFA is down to one. Split these remaining two games against the Pirates or have the Astros split the remaining two games with the Guardians.
“what do you want teams to do when they are getting blown out by the Dodgers? walk Ohtani, but no one else? While at the same time complaining about teams walking Judge?”
Clay, Brian… but Don is actually making perfect sense. Either it’s surprising that they’re NOT walking Ohtani in those situations, or it’s surprising that they ARE walking Judge in those situations. How can you argue that “OF COURSE they walk Judge, that’s only natural!”, but at the same time “WHY ON EARTH would they walk Ohtani, it makes no sense!” It can’t be both.
The only real answer I can see is that there’s a pretty stark difference in the batters coming up BEHIND Judge and Ohtani. That’s at least some kind of answer, I guess.
In other words:
If he’s “complaining about teams walking Judge”, Ohtani being treated differently might reasonably annoy him.
And if he’s complaining that they ARE giving Ohtani pitches to hit, he can reasonably be annoyed that they’re NOT giving Judge pitches to hit in those same situations.
It’s PRECISELY that Ohtani bats in front of Betts, Freeman, and Smith, and Judge bats in front of Wells, Stanton and Jazz that it isn’t weird that they keep pitching to Ohtani.
The Yankees have decided that protecting Soto is more important than protecting Judge, and since they lead the league in runs scored AND have seemingly kept Soto happy when they’re trying to get him to re-sign here, I think it makes sense.
Yeah, that’s the argument, I think it’ll look much clearer to everyone that way.
“and since they lead the league in runs scored AND have seemingly kept Soto happy when they’re trying to get him to re-sign here”<–and add the fact that Judge seems to have handled batting without protection… pretty… darned… well!