From Bryan Hoch:
The Yankees offered a simple piece of advice to Elmer Rodríguez ahead of his fifth Major League start: Find the swagger that has carried him to this level, and believe that his stuff is good enough to be here.
Rodríguez did that over a career-best six-plus innings, turning in what he called “one of my best starts.” Cody Bellinger delivered a go-ahead double with the bases loaded as the Yankees rallied for a 9-3 victory over the Astros on Wednesday evening at Yankee Stadium.
I think we can’t underestimate the psychology of making the move to the big leagues, as Elmer Rodriguez looked COMPLETELY different in his first few starts than he did in Spring Training. This start, though, was the first time he looked the same. I think he just needed an adjustment period. This time he looked like a guy who wasn’t scared shitless the whole time.
Sadly, he still got tagged for three runs, with only one of them a “real” run. Trent Grisham really should have been called for an error for a misplayed ball in the first inning that turned into an RBI double, and then Paul Blackburn gave up Rodriguez’s final run after Rodriguez left with a man on first base and no outs in the 7th.
Blackburn did an amazing job AFTER allowing a double to his first batter, though, holding the Astros to just one run.
Oddly enough, Boone was going to give Michael Fulmer the 8th inning no matter what, despite him, you know, just getting here, and only pitching three innings in the Majors this season, but he looked quite good (he was good in those previous three innings, as well). Good on the Angels for DFAing this guy, giving him a chance to latch on to a good team before the playoffs. What did the Angels need with a 33-year-old setup guy who is a free agent at the end of the year?
Fulmer really did look good, and that is important for the Yankees, as we learned that the reason Cruz has been sucking recently is because he has a tear in his UCL, and he’s probably headed for TJS and missing next season. That’s a shame. But, again, the guy had become terrible recently, so he was effectively useless already, so at least they have an explanation for his poor pitching now. I believe he’s under team control for two more years, so they’ll get a chance to see him in 2028 if he can recover. He’ll be pretty fucking old then, though.
Anyhow, great win. Featured image is Rodriguez fooling the shit out of a batter on a K.
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“Trent Grisham really should have been called for an error for a misplayed ball in the first inning that turned into an RBI double”
I presume you mean that Trent Grisham really should have caught that ball.
But it was worse than “he should have caught it.” We see plenty of “he should have caught that.” This one was just plainly an error, and so ERC should have only allowed two earned runs, not three.
Yes, that’s true.
But if he had caught it, we wouldn’t be talking about an error, and the run ALSO wouldn’t have scored, and he’d have thrown significantly fewer pitches, and he probably would have been feeling even more confident, and might well not have given up the SECOND run, and might well have gone even further into the game.
Only a 99% catch probability.
How dumb do the Giants look for not calling up Fulmer sooner to see if they could get SOMEthing for him in a trade?
Is there any chance that the Reds might try to put Stephenson through outright waivers? Of course, if they DID, then someone else would claim him before the Yankees, but still…
Aaron Judge said he hopes to return without a Minor League rehab stint.
“I didn’t rehab in ‘23 when I missed probably the same amount of time. Why waste at-bats? Why waste anything down in a Minor League game? I’ve been doing this for a while now, and I’ve got a sense of what I need to do on the field and how to manage it.”
Aaron Judge has hit overhand BP once; today could be the second time. He said he doesn’t know when he’ll be cleared to face velocity, but he’ll see a mix of Trajekt, machine work and maybe facing rehabbing pitchers like Clarke Schmidt.
“I’m not really expecting it to take me too long to get the timing back.”
2023 no rehab 5/16 8 walks 1hr 542 OBP
July 28 (@ Orioles): 0-for-1, 3 BBJuly 29 (@ Orioles): 3-for-5, 1 HR, 2 RBI, 2 RJuly 30 (@ Orioles): Did not play (scheduled rest)July 31 (vs. Rays): 0-for-1, 3 BBAugust 1 (vs. Rays): 1-for-3, 1 RAugust 2 (vs. Rays): 1-for-3, 1 RAugust 3 (vs. Astros): 0-for-3, 1 R, 1 BB
The first pitch is at approximately 7:15.
Trent Grisham (L) CF
Ben Rice (L) DH
Luis García Jr. (L) 1B
Cody Bellinger (L) LF
George Lombard Jr. (R) SS
Spencer Jones (L) RF
Jazz Chisholm Jr. (L) 2B
Austin Wells (L) C
José Caballero (R) 3B