From Bryan Hoch:
One word came to mind when describing Cam Schlittler’s season thus far: “Phenomenal.”
That was manager Aaron Boone’s take ahead of Friday’s start against the Red Sox, when the young right-hander gave his team another solid performance in a potential postseason preview, reaching the 200-strikeout plateau for the first time in his career in the Yankees’ 1-0 victory over the Red Sox at Yankee Stadium.
Facing Boston for the fourth time this season, the American League Cy Young Award candidate continued to deal against the franchise he once rooted for as a child growing up in Massachusetts, permitting just two hits while striking out eight over 5 2/3 innings.
Cody Bellinger preserved the lead with a terrific throw to end the top of the seventh inning, with Ceddanne Rafaela tagged out at home plate on the back end of the double play.
Bellinger’s 99.7 mph throw was the Yankees’ third-fastest-tracked outfield assist under Statcast (2015), behind Aaron Hicks (105.5 mph, 2016) and Aaron Judge (100.5 mph, 2018).
I am probably a bit too hard on Cam Schlittler because I expect better from him, but holy shit, dude, there is NO world in which it is REMOTELY reasonable for him to be walking FIVE guys in a single game. He couldn’t even go six innings.
However, to be fair, he didn’t allow a single run, and he struck out 8, which was very nice.
Brent Headrick confounded me a bit, but he came through in the end. Paul Blackburn almost blew the game, but Cody Bellinger, who made one of the weakest throws you can possible imagine in the first game against the Astros (in a game where that one run ended up being very important), corked an INSANELY fast throw to nab the speedy Raffaela at the plate to preserve the 1-0 lead after Blackburn gave up two one-out hits (the second hit, an automatic double, could have tied the game itself had it not bounced into the seats. I thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiink Raffaela was probably not going to push the issue with one out, but I could be wrong).
Bednar was nails.
But boy, the Red Sox used their worst starter, and none of their good relievers, and they still stymied the Yankee lineup. That’s, how you say, berry berry bad. Heliot Ramos started in place of Spencer Jones in this one. I imagine he’ll probably split between Grisham and Jones in this series (you know, play in place of Grisham in Game 1 and in place of Jones in Game 2, and then in place of Grisham in the final game of the series), but maybe they’ll do Ramos for Jones in three of the four games. You could also just say “Fuck it” in the Bello game (which will open with a lefty opener) and start a righthanded lineup.
Big win. The Yankees are now assured of ending this series at WORST tied for the top Wild Card spot. If they win this series, they’ll also win the SEASON series, while if they split the series, the Red Sox will get the possibly very important tiebreaker (just look to last season when the lost tiebreaker was the difference between the Yankees having the best record in the American League and a first round bye and a tie for the best record in the American League and having to play the Wild Card series).
After Sandoval and a bunch of loser relievers kicked their asses, I doubt the Yankees are winning this series, but hey, it’s at least theoretically POSSIBLE.
What a fucking throw by Belli.
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“How about just getting the call right the first time instead of constant ABS overturns?”
What nobody discusses is that one of the big wins of this process is the theatricality. You watch the pitch swerve in and wait and then ooh!, ahh! and get the result.
It’s like the myth that the killer calls the cops to laugh at them, and knows he can wait as the first 9 digits come up and they won’t know where he is until the final number comes up (it’s not true, the whole number comes up at once). Here, too, they know the result before the graphic comes on the screen. It IS fast enough, they could just have ABS *INSTEAD* of the ump calling balls and strikes.
The best thing isn’t the theatricality – it’s that now I finally believe they WILL, sooner or later, have the ABS and get the calls right.
Also, Veggie’s idea bout having Fried relieve Rodon is intriguing.
In fact, I’m totally on board with that idea – tweak it to say that they go with this strategy if and only if the Yankees are winning when Rodon comes out.
Almost guarantee yourself at least a split of this series.
Do it, guys!
But there is zero chance they go that way, right?
“uncorked”?