From Bryan Hoch:
This has been a blockbuster series in the Bronx, where Aaron Judge and Mike Trout have traded MVP-caliber blows, drawing awe from their teammates and even each other.
And in the biggest moments, José Caballero has found his way into the spotlight.
Two days after scoring the deciding run in an unforgettable comeback, Caballero delivered another walk-off, lacing a two-run double off Jordan Romano as the Yankees capitalized on a defensive miscue to defeat the Angels, 5-4, on Wednesday evening at Yankee Stadium.
“Those are the at-bats that I want,” Caballero said. “I’m living for those at-bats. I want those at-bats every time I step in the box. I like the pressure. I like the big moments.”
It’s hard to give the Yankees too much grief about winning games they “should” have lost when they have also lost SIX one-run games already during this short season, so it now being 2-6 in one-run games doesn’t really suggest that they’re being particularly lucky, ya know?
Now, that’s the MACRO perspective. The micro perspective, of course, is that they were EXTREMELY lucky to have won this one, as Jazz Chisholm reached in the bottom of the ninth inning in one of the most embarrassing cases of miscommunication that I’ve ever seen. I’ve seen plenty of pop ups where it was unclear which fielder should go for it (this typically occurs when the popup is around the mound, as the fielders don’t want to get into the pitcher’s space), and I’ve seen things where two outfielders were wary of hitting into each other (sometimes with infielders going into the outfield for the attempted catch, as well), but I’ve very rarely seen a case where the shortstop and the third baseman just didn’t communicate with each other at ALL, and the ball just dropped between them. That’s what happened here, and it got Jazz on base. He stole second (honestly, he should have been on second to begin with, but you gotta give some slack to guys not running all out on pop ups).
After a big walk by Austin Wells, Jose Caballero got his second double in an as many at-bats against Angels closer, Jordan Romano, and drove in the winning run, with the runners doing a double steal at the time, which is how Wells was able to score from first. I decided to go with Austin Wells popping up into the sky to call himself safe as the header image.
Great win.
The bullpen was excellent. Hill was excellent, as always, and Headrick is becoming a bit reliable, and it was nice to get Bednar a win, but it was particularly nice to see Cruz have a good outing. Cruz, like I said, is not a bad reliever, but he’s a guy where you never know what kind of command he’ll have. If he has good command, he’s good, but if he doesn’t have his command, he’ll be terrible.
The Yankees called up Angel Chivelli, who has had a great start in the minors, but we shall see if he can do it in the Majors. I imagine Yerry getting called up over Chivelli was likely more to do with Chivelli probably pitching recently, and thus not being ready to pitch on Tuesday night.
Luis Gil wasn’t BAD, but he sure wasn’t GOOD, either. I legit believe they should just give Ryan Yarbrough the fifth starter job, and call up another reliever, like a Yerry. The bullpen will make sense, as it would only have ONE long man in it, and Gil can work on shit in the minors. I know Weathers techmically had a worse start, but come on, the two starts were like night and day.
It would be really nice if the Yankees’ two stud starters actually ACTED like it, and for Fried and Schlittler to put together some strong outings again.
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