From Bryan Hoch:
Beaming and thumping his chest, J.C. Escarra turned to find almost the entire Yankees roster chasing him, a deserved celebration after his first game-ending swing in the big leagues. The rookie first saw Austin Wells about to tackle him, then felt Anthony Volpe trying to tear his pinstriped jersey off, the buttons barely holding together.
“Those are the moments that I’ll never forget,” Escarra said. “These are things you dream about as a kid, and it’s all unfolding in real time in front of my eyes.”
Escarra lifted the deciding sacrifice fly, and several of his teammates delivered memorable performances in arguably the club’s best win of the season thus far. Trent Grisham came off the bench to crack a game-tying homer and Devin Williams pinned the bases loaded in a crucial spot, setting up the Yankees’ 4-3, 10-inning victory over the Padres on Wednesday evening at Yankee Stadium.
Well, that was quite the twist, huh?
After being no-hit for six and a third innings, the Yankees tie the game on a home run. Then, after falling behind 3-1 in the 8th, which seemed like a total death knell for the game, they tie the game AGAIN on a home run. Then Devin Williams somehow doesn’t allow a run against the heart of the Padres order despite having the go-ahead run on third base with one out, striking out the side (while, to be fair, also walking one guy and hitting one guy, and he also went to 3-2 on the last batter with the bases loaded). And then, of course, Waldo finally got a bunt down, and JC Escarra won the game with a sac fly (Boone after the game was insistent that Escarra was a really good hitter, we just haven’t seen it yet due to his lack of reps).
So, yeah, they somehow won the series despite looking like it was going to be a terrible sweep at a number of times. Max Fried was excellent, as always. He’s so good that he gave up one run in seven innings and RAISED HIS ERA from 1.01 to 1.05. Insanity!
Featured image is Fried and Goldy saluting each other with a cute glove tip after Fried made an excellent defensive play (he had to pick up the ball with his glove, and flip it to first with the glove in order to get there in time) to nab a runner on a possible infield single (they’re both former Gold Glovers).
Goldy and fried have been season saving playing better than we Thought possible. And Grisham obviously. 10 HRs in 101 ABs?
The big correction is coming for Grisham.
it looms
Fried has now passed Jimmy Key’s ERA through seven games in 1993, and is just slightly behind Phil Niekro’s 1984 (1.03 for Phil, 1.05 for Fried) through seven.
That’s because he gave up a run yesterday. Loser! 🙂
I remember Neikro. So many chances to win his 300th during a penant race in 1985 but kept losing. And we missed winning the pennant by 2 games. Great offensive team – Mattingly, Rickey, Winfield, Baylor…
Carrasco stays in organization.
Boone seemed VERY confident that he was staying when he announced the DFA. I expect a David Hale special.
Slim Love
https://bsky.app/profile/codifybaseball.bsky.social/post/3loomvcqrt22u
Better than no love, right?
Congratulations to the Colorado Rockies, first team to 30 losses in 2025, then they lost another just because they can.
Have they circled the Yankees series? Will the Yankees play down to their opponent?
Yankees 2024 top pick
Tom Kosensky
@mryclept.bsky.social
Ben Hess (Hudson Valley):
6.2 IP, 1 H, 1 R (0 ER), 1 BB, 9 K
Lost the no-hitter with zero outs in the 7th. Generated a GB double play shortly thereafter. He was pulled after the double play (88 pitches)
Brilliant effort.
Wow, nice to hear.
What you want to see from a college guy in his first full season, excelling in high A. I imagine, if he stays healthy, he will see AA in June.
Jazz revealed that he has THREE SEPARATE tears in his oblique. So, well, I don’t think we will be seeing Jazz Chisholm in the Bronx any day soon.
I saw a silly clickbait lede today, “The Yankees will have to make a roster move if they activate DJ LeMahieu.” Oh, really? You mean they might have to DFA the utility infielder that they never play at all?! WOW, that’s CRAZY!
I wonder if he was already playing hurt and then aggravated it
And did he need that last AB when it looked like there was a problem?
He was hurt pre-game and insisted on playing. Duh! Then ran out a triple.
Who will return first? Jazz or Gil?
Sporting News: “DJ LeMahieu was bumped from Double-A Somerset to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, but his rehab assignment took a day off because SWB’s game was rained out,” per Mark W. Sanchez and Andrew Crane of the New York Post. “Before the weather interruption, Boone said the plan had been for LeMahieu to play Tuesday and Wednesday before deciding whether he would be ready for a call”
Rafael Devers is such a colossal asshole. Very good but not a superstar, overpaid, whiny little baby
Yankees will trade for him soon. Because he once beat them with a HR.
This was the cashman method in the early 2000s. Gotta get Tony Womack because he got the big hit off Rivera in Game 7 in 2001. Gotta get Jaret Wright bevause ge beat us twice in the 1997 playoffs. Gotta get Randy Johnson (3 wins in 2001 WS).
I dunno, the Yankees obviously desperately needed pitching after 2004, and the 2005 free agency options were terrrrrrible. So I think Johnson and Wright made sense at the time, it just went horribly wrong.
Jeter wasn’t interested in moving to third in 2004 and he didn’t get raked over the coals like this.
Had they asked him to move to DH before his age 30 season when they picked up a clearly better defensive shortstop, he might have talked about his HOF chances as a DH being diminished vs being an infielder.
a perfect fit for the franchise
BF I thought the “get the guy who beat us” thing was more George than Cashman
Slick, the difference is that there wasn’t a public fight between Jeter and the FO. If Devers doesn’t want to move fine, but keep it behind closed doors. He didn’t have to say publicly that he refused to move to first! He’s the one making it a story!
Makes sense, it’s not really on my Sox friend’s radar either.
I just don’t get to dust off my Jeter should move saddle too often any more.
I think the important thing to keep in mind in all this is that it’s very funny that it’s happening to the Red Sox.
The funny thing is that the translator also totally cut out some of the anger in Devers’ reply. He was clearly REALLY pissed off at Breslow asking him to play first.
No Austin Wells after a day off?
T Grisham (L) CF
A Judge (R) RF
B Rice (L) DH
P Goldschmidt (R) 1B
J Domínguez (S) LF
A Volpe (R) SS
J Escarra (L) C
O Cabrera (S) 3B
J Vivas (L) 2B
Escarra lucked into an RBI you see
Boone doesn’t play catchers in back-to-back night/day games, so Escarra was going to play today or tomorrow, and I guess he likes Wells against the tougher pitcher, Sears.
Oh that makes sense Brian, I didn’t even think about that
I love that they’ve just given Vivas the job. His results aren’t there yet, but you watch the guy at the plate, and he clearly REALLY knows how to hit.
They wanted DJ to get ABs so they sent him to Scranton which got rained out yesterday and today.
When you’ve built a truly top farm system, you can’t also expect Cashman to predict the weather. How could he possibly know? ⛈🌧️