From Bryan Hoch:
The Yankees have spent the season’s first week highlighting aggressiveness and athleticism as their defining traits. On Saturday, they added a new one to the list: resilience.
Giancarlo Stanton caught the Marlins napping on the basepaths, then delivered a tiebreaking two-run single as the Yankees rallied for a 9-7 victory on a raw, rainy night at Yankee Stadium.
“If there’s outs on the board, we’ve got a chance,” Stanton said. “We’ve got a lot of capable guys, one through nine, and even off the bench. It took more than one through nine today, so that shows our resilience.”
The Yankees are a Major League-best 7-1, matching the best start through eight decisions in franchise history and marking their first time winning seven of their first eight in a full season since 2003.
It’s weird. There was a lot to be annoyed about about this game, but there was also a LOT to like.
Things to like:
Coming back from down 4-0, coming back to win after being tied 6-6 in the 8th inning. Winning a game that I don’t feel like they would have won last season. Strong bullpen work from Tim Hill and Blake Headrick. Giancarlo Stanton stealing second, moving to third on a groundout, and then scoring on a passed ball. Stanton creating runs with his “speed”! Never thought I’d see it! Judge looks good. And, of course, being 7-1.
Things not to like
Jazz, Cabby, Wells, and McMahon continue to be unable to hit. Ryan Weathers being a huge nutjob. Camilo Doval being unreliable. David Bednar needing tons of pitches just to get through an inning. Ben Rice being unable to understand when to challenge pitches.
I’ll be frank, I’m not too worried about Bednar. He’s annoying as fuck, but he clearly can get outs when he needs them. And, of course, it wasn’t like he was being hit hard. The only thing that REALLY annoyed me from him was walking Liam Hicks up three. If he hits a two-run home run, it’s still a one-run game. Don’t fucking walk people in the ninth inning, dude! Otherwise, it was soft contact, and Jazz fucking him on a play that could have led to the inning ending MUCH sooner.
Doval, I’m more concerned about. He’s clearly a headcase. When he’s under control, he’s great. When he loses control, he implodes. Fernando Cruz is like that, too, but Cruz implodes less frequently than Doval. At this point, Doval has got to be moved into lower leverage situations until he proves he can go back to being the 8th inning guy. He obviously CAN do it. He just needs to get his head right.
The same goes for Weathers, who rotated from dominating to being a dummy with his pitches. He was hurt by a weak popup that just happened to land where no one could get to it. But he also walked a dude, so that was why the one solid hit he gave up in the first ended up being a two-run triple. He and Doval have similar issues. When they lose command, they lose focus, and end up missing their spots, and their pitches are hit hard.
Both guys are clearly extremely talented, but talent doesn’t help if you’re too stupid to use it.
Max Fried needs to give them length on Sunday.
But hey, they’re seven and fucking one, ya know? That’s pretty fucking cool.
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