From Matthew Ritchie:
After the Yankees were swept by the Rays for the first time since April 2021, Aaron Judge preached a simple message to New York’s lineup following their fifth straight loss: “We need to simplify.”
And in his very first at-bat back in the Bronx on Monday, Judge set the tone with a loud two-run blast off Angels starter Yusei Kikuchi, sending a hanging changeup a Statcast-projected 456 feet into the left-field bleachers at Yankee Stadium. Judge’s fifth homer of the year left the bat with an exit velocity of 116.2 mph — the hardest-hit home run across the Majors so far — and was the fourth-longest in MLB, as well.
He didn’t stop there. After three-time MVP Mike Trout launched a game-tying three-run homer in the top of the sixth inning, Judge one-upped him in the bottom half with his second blast of the game to quickly put the Yanks ahead again. Another no-doubter punctuated by a casual bat flip, this one went a mere 398 feet and was hit with an exit velocity of 111.4 mph.
Judge wasn’t alone in his heroics. Trent Grisham broke out of his own slump: First with a go-ahead three-run pinch-hit blast in the fifth inning, and then a second, game-tying two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth off Angels closer Jordan Romano. Grisham, who hadn’t notched an extra-base hit since March 31, set the stage for José Caballero to scamper home on a walk-off wild pitch, clawing an 11-10 Yankees win from the depths. The club snapped its five-game losing streak and notched its first positive result in a one-run game this season.
This was quite the game. Honestly, this sort of speaks to the vagaries of one-run games, as the Yankees just lost five in a row, FOUR of which were one-run losses. They EASILY could have won two or more of those games. Even the two-run loss, they had the tying runs in scoring position with one out in the ninth inning. They were in all of these games. They lost all of them, and now they won a game they really should have lost.
The good, of course, is that they scored 11 runs (and could have scored more had they needed more, as they scored their 11th run with no outs, where they were about to have first and third), and that both Aaron Judge and Trent Grisham hit two home runs.
Grisham tying the game in the ninth inning with a two-run home run was a shocking turn of events, as seen by the header image, which is Jordan Romano freaking the fuck out by Grisham’s home run. Cool stuff.
The bad stuff, though, was that Will Warren fucking IMPLODED after a leadoff error by Cabby in the fourth inning. Warren hadn’t allowed a single HIT before that point, but once things went sour, he just fell apart. Then Fernando Cruz came in. Cruz is a weird guy, in that his problems aren’t quite as annoying as the other guys, as it is simply a matter of “If he has his command, he’s good, if he doesn’t, he is awful.” Most of the times, he has his command, but when he doesn’t have it, like this game, he’s awful. Clay Holmes was like this, as well. You could tell instantly which Holmes you were getting in any given game. It doesn’t make you a BAD reliever, it just means that you can’t ever rely on a guy like that for a save situation.
Tim Hill came in and was great, but then Boone pulled him after he cruised through one and a third innings, and went to Jake Bird, who promptly ruined his own Major League career.
This is a tale as old as time. A guy with great stuff gets to the Yankees, Matt Blake and Preston Claiborne work with them over the offseason, and then the season begins. The lessons work early on, and then it is a question of whether the pitcher is a fucking moron or not. If they’re not, the lessons follow through, and if they ARE, they start well and eventually revert to their shitty ways.
We saw the platonic ideal of Jake Bird early in the season. The guy has great stuff, and when he’s throwing strikes, he looks amazing. But the motherfucker cannot throw strikes! It isn’t a case of Cruz, where he just loses the strike zone. No, it is just an UNWILLINGNESS to throw strikes. He gets ahead and then dicks around until he has to throw a 3-2 pitch to Mike Trout that HAS to be a strike because there are two guys on base already, and Trout CRUSHES it for a three-run home run.
Then, because the bullpen had been used a lot the previous game, and there was no off day, Boone felt he needed to stick with Bird, and Bird sucked the NEXT inning, as well. Then an overworked Camilo Doval had to come in, and he was clearly overly tired, and HE sucked, too.
Doval sucked in a similar way to Bird, but Doval at least had the excuse of being overworked (third game in four days) and Boone sticking with him probably too long. So Doval had SOME excuse. Bird had NO excuse. And the Yankees rightly sent him down to the Minors after the game.
You can have all the talent in the world, but if you’re a fucking headcase, you’re useless. Doval is enough of a headcase himself that I ALSO don’t see how they can trust him in big spots, but, well, they sort of HAVE to, at least until they try out some of their current starters (some in the rotation, some in the minors) as short men later in the season. Maybe Cashman acquires another ACTUALLY good reliever, instead of these cheap guys with upside (the Yankees gave up VERY little to get Bird and Doval. The only reliever they gave up real prospects for was Bednar).
People knocked the Yankees not signing a proven reliever this offseason, but I think it was fair to note that the market sucked. Seranthony Domínguez got paid to be a closer, and he has a WHIP of 1.41. Luke Weaver has been TERRIBLE. Devin Williams was paid to be a closer. Edwin Diaz got huge money. Ryan Helsley was paid to be a closer. Robert Suarez is 35 years old, and was paid closer money (Suarez has been quite good). Pete Fairbanks has been bad.
The only guy who I think you could argue they realistically should have signed was Tyler Rogers, but even he got 3 years/$39 million. They went out and got seemingly the second or third best closer last year, and he came here and sucked. I can understand why they don’t trust the idea of paying $13 million to a 34-year-old coming off of an okay season for the Giants/Mets.
But whatever the logic at the time, Jake Bird and Camilo Doval have been ruining shit by being fucking morons. Bird is gone, and let’s hope they have better luck with whoever they call up to replace him. Yerry would be the most boring guy, while Chivelli would be the most interesting, I think (of the realistic call-ups, that is. Lagrange ain’t getting called up yet, and his control hasn’t been great, either. Chivelli has been excellent to start the season).
Anyhow, long story short, better to win than to lose, Jake Bird is garbage (and Camilo Doval is not much less of a garbage player), and trust that good underlying batting ball data will eventually result in a player getting hits.
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It’s the boring Yerry call.
I don’t hate it, honestly, as while Chivelli has been excellent, it’s still early. I can see the argument for wanting to see if Chivelli can keep it up longterm, while with Yerry, we all know he’ll be OKAY right now.
I wonder whether Paul Blackburn will slowly but surely get some more high leverage outings. He’s a dude who clearly has taken Blake’s teachings to heart. Because he’s not a fucking moron. He just doesn’t have the same stuff as Bird or Doval or your typical high leverage reliever.
Tim Hill doesn’t have great stuff, he just throws strikes, and Blake has helped him with location advice and, shock of all shocks, Hill has LISTENED and FOLLOWED the advice. How can that even BE?!