From Bryan Hoch:
It had all the warning signs of a lost night for the Yankees north of the border, another addition in the making for their growing collection this year. An early lead had slipped away with defense having opened the door again, seemingly certain to be a focal point in the outcome.
Then Ben Rice saw a fastball up in the strike zone, swung hard, and changed the narrative. Rice’s go-ahead ninth-inning home run came on the first pitch he saw from Blue Jays closer Jeff Hoffman, powering the Yankees to a 5-4 victory on Tuesday evening at Rogers Centre.
I like when someone like Hoch even acknowledges the importance of the narrative in these things, as you KNOW it gets in the players’ heads when it seems like they’re choking away the game in the same way as they always do. So to win this one was huge.
Not only did it bring them within three games of the Blue Jays with the Yankees’ best pitcher going on Wednesday (although a “best pitcher” who has been prone to choking in big games, and who is also dealing with blisters on his hands), but it also put them three games up on the Red Sox and three and a half games up on the Rays.
Cam Schlittler proved that he can get outs against a good offense, and honestly, so many of his mistakes in this one were mental, and he’s so young that I think you could easily work on this shit. As Boone noted in the postgame, the issue wasn’t even so much the walks (although the walks sucked), but it was how many strikes he threw in those walks. If you’re going to walk dudes, you can’t ALSO throw a bunch of pitches before you do so. We’ve seen it with Schmidt. It’s those seven, eight, nine pitch walks that CRUSH you as a pitcher, since they eat up your pitch count without helping you at all. But, I mean, Schlittler also responded in a big way to some clutch situations. I am pumped about him going forward. He looks like he is already smarter than Will Warren (one of those two will likely become a top-level high-leverage reliever when Luis Gil returns, and I’m starting to lean towards it being Warren who goes to the pen. But obviously, Schlittler’s stuff would play up REALLY nicely in the pen, as well).
Speaking of the pen, holy shit, dudes, Luke Weaver and Devin Williams can’t do everything! Tim Hill was fucked by an error, but he still gave up a hard hit ball (that a taller third baseman probably keeps from going into the outfield, but the Yankees are stuck with tiny Vivas because he can at least theoretically get a hit), so that was annoying. Then Boone went to Lo for some dumb reason, and Lo gave up an RBI, and then Boone STUCK with him the next inning, and he gave up a leadoff double. Weaver, though, worked out of the jam like a gangster. He got two more outs in the eighth, but he was at 30 pitches, and the dangerous George Springer was up, so Boone went to Hamilton. It was the right call, but I hated it. Boone later noted he made a point to tell Weaver, “This is because of how many pitches you’ve thrown, and because you’re starting to lose command. It’s not because Springer hit a home run off of you the last time you faced him.” I thought that that was nice.
Holy shit, does this team need a new third baseman and a couple of relievers BADLY.
Featured image is Ben Rice’s amazing home run in the ninth (Toronto, as much as they’re flying high, has to feel worried about how shitty their closer is, right?).
A win tonight and the narrative of the season might change.
I hope tonight’s Max does better than last nights Max.
Too bad he didn’t pitch last night. You can see the headline and the stat (first time since 1880 that two guys named Max faced each other other…)
lol
They could use a 99mph guy in the pen. OTOH I don’t trust Warren to start or pitch high leverage innings in the pen.
I think Warren out of the pen would be a very different experience. We’ve routinely seen guys pitch MUCH differently when they’re suddenly pitching just one inning. Look at how good Schmidt was as a reliever (he was a good starter, too, but he was a REALLY effective reliever).
But yes, so would Schlittler.
Been a long time since the Yankees have had a guy who can throw 99 in the pen. It’s too early to really evaluate him. He did give up 7 hits and 3 walks in only 5 innings. That said for now he looks like the better pitcher. The playoffs might be a different situation if we accidentally make it and Gil is healthy and effective. Schlittler could be a big weapon out of the pen.
I don’t think there’s any reason to think Schlittler would go to the pen over Warren, except that the Yankees don’t know what they’re doing
Volpe’s throws have looked pretty bad and I wonder whether it’s from his shoulder injury, which was early in the the 8th inning on May 3 (batter: Morel).
He had 3 errors in 124 chances before the injury (.975)
He has 10 errors in 217 chances since the injury (.953)
The charitable interpretation right now is that he is hurt, and also too stubborn to admit it.
The less charitable interpretation is that he’s too stupid to realize it.
Either way, he’s hurting the team, and Boone/Cashman are too stupid or ineffectual to do anything about it.
To my totally untrained eye it looks like he’s letting the ball play him and he catches it awkwardly. I think it’s in his head.
I was impressed how Schlittler fought, unlike many young Yankees pitchers of the past. Keep him in the rotation is my 10¢.
If you can escape messes, why not avoid them in the first? Ten baserunners in 5 innings won’t cut it. Was he lucky or that good?
He’s got how many innings in MLB?
All Im saying is the jury’s out. Unlike Warren, I’m optimistic about Schlittler but I remember Sam Militello and Brandon Claussen.
Bassit has a big LR split, Vivas is less bad than Peraza who just goes up there hacking, so Peraza gets the start of course. I’d like to see Rice as the backup catcher over Escarra.
Who’s available for Kate inning relief, I assume not Devin or Weaver.
T Grisham (L) CF
C Bellinger (L) RF
A Judge (R) DH
B Rice (L) 1B
J Chisholm Jr. (L) 2B
J Domínguez (S) LF
A Volpe (R) SS
J Escarra (L) C
O Peraza (R) 3B
Justin Verlander?
Prince William has been working out