From Courtney Hollmon:
For five innings on Tuesday night, Gerrit Cole looked every bit like the rotation anchor the Yankees needed to kick off a critical late-season road swing, setting the stage for a 7-3 victory over the Angels.
Then, with one sharp swing of Christian Moore’s bat, a comfortable four-run cushion evaporated, Cole’s night ended abruptly, and the Yankees’ veteran ace walked off the mound at Angel Stadium visibly frustrated — his final line failing to tell the full story of his outing.
Cole’s numbers — 5 1/3 innings, eight hits, three earned runs, one walk and five strikeouts on 90 pitches — looked like a typical mid-rotation battle on paper. But for a Yankees team currently 4 1/2 games behind the Rays in the American League East race, Cole’s 18th start since returning from Tommy John surgery was a continuous grind — a constant battle through traffic and deep counts before his night unraveled in the sixth.
One day after she made that weird (and incorrect) statement about the Yankees clinching home field over the Red Sox, the same writer used the phrase, “looked like a typical mid-rotation battle on paper,” and I have NO idea what she means by that.
In any event, great win.
Brent Headrick gets the featured image for a HUGE strikeout with the tying run on third base and one out in the sixth inning. It still is kind of crazy how many of the Yankees wins have been, “Please bail us out of the shit, Brent Headrick and Paul Blackburn!” But hell, they keep DOING so, so that’s nice (and Headrick has been getting a lot more rest lately, and I think that’ll make him much sharper as they head to the playoffs).
Boone moved Spencer Jones up to cleanup, and it worked well. I imagine Boone’s plan is to go:
Rice
Bellinger
Judge
Jones
Garcia Jr.
Jazz
Lombard
McMahon
Wells
when Judge returns. The issue is who gets cut? I guess it has to be Rosario, right? Goldy is there to pinch hit against lefties, and Grisham will be there to pinch hit against righties, so there really is no role for Rosario on the team. You COULD just run one man shy in the bullpen, but with Schmidt returning, I legit don’t think there’s room even if you were to remove someone, right? Or IS there?
ERC goes down when Schmidt returns. So then your 14-man bullpen is…
14 Schlittler
13 Cole
12 Fried
11 Rodon
10 Warren
9 Gil
8 Bednar
7 Blackburn
6 Headrick
5 Hill
4 Schmidt
3 Schreiber
2 Fulmer
1 Yarbs
Hmmm…I guess you really COULD afford to just send Gil down and have “only” thirteen pitchers for the last weeks of the season. You could then afford to carry Rosario for a five-man bench in the playoffs, as you don’t need more than 11 guys in the Wild Card round.
Your 11 guys:
11 Schlittler
10 Cole
9 Fried
8 Rodon
7 Bednar
6 Blackburn
5 Headrick
4 Hill
3 Schmidt
2 Schreiber
1 Fulmer
With Gil or Warren MAYBE making it, in which case you would just sit Fulmer or Hill.
About the Author
By the way, I think I hate that lineup. I think it might be what Boone wants, but I don’t want Judge batting third just to fucking split up the lefties. How about instead…
Rice
Judge
Jones
Garcia Jr.
Bellinger
Jazz
McMahon
Lombard
Wells
A. It gives Rice protection from Judge, B. It gives Judge more at-bats, and C. It keeps Judge/Jones back-to-back, I want to really fuck with other teams in the playoffs with those two dudes coming up back-to-back, D. Belli hits lefties really well, so he’s basically breaking up the lefties by putting him between Garcia and Jazz anyways, and E. I don’t like Lombard hitting too high up in the lineup just yet.
I like that lineup, but against a RHP starter I wouldn’t care so much about the lefty lane. I’d bat Lombard 9 as a second leadoff guy to set the table for Rice, and I’d bat Bellinger ahead of Judge. Goldschmidt and maybe even Ramos can always PH for if needed, with Caballero running if he gets on, or Goldy staying in for defense if the Yankees go ahead.
vs RHP:
Rice
Bellinger
Judge
Jones
Garcia Jr
Chisholm Jr
McMahon
Wells
Lombard Jr
vs LHP:
Goldschmidt 1B
Rice DH
Judge RF
Jones CF
Bellinger LF
Lombard SS
Chisholm Jr 2B or McMahon 3B
Wells C
Caballero 3B or 2B
I still wish Judge could DH but hopefully he will just play it safe like Bobby Abreu.
Heliot vs LHP for the season 853, career 850. Rice for the season 773. Maybe Heliot should DH vs LHPs or better play RF with Judge as DH
A scout’s opinion on some AAAA RailRiders. Sees a MLB future for all of them. Says Beck is a 5th starter if he gets a curve instead of a sweeper. Compares Waldo to Mariano Duncan. Says Earthling should just focus on batting lefty and learning defense. Says Volpe could be a valuable second baseman if he stopped believing he was a home run hitter.
https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/scout-sizes-anthony-volpe-oswaldo-104217489.html
thanks for that, interesting
UJD, thinking of you. Hope your mom is doing okay and hope you are too.
Thanks Veggie, that’s kind of you. The short story is that mom has been in decline for years and recently fell and broke her pelvis. She’s home now but will never walk without a walker again and maybe not even with that. It’s rough on my dad who like many old men stubbornly thinks he can do it all.
hoping things turn out better than expected!
Oof, that’s tough. Pelvic fractures are awful. Hope she’s at least not feeling much pain anymore, and hope the two of them both get the help they need…
i don’t think rosario gives you anything oswaldo wouldn’t provide at this point.
Rosario can at least theoretically get a hit.
maybe. i’d be surprised if oswaldo couldn’t put up a 95. and rosario gives so much back on defense these days.
Can’t believe that we’ve reached the point where what Rice looked like in the first half seems almost certainly an abberation never to return.
He was SO good, and so convincingly good, and for long enough it seemed they’d finally hit gold (by which I mean a player they failed to ruin.)
My bad. F**ing Sanchez all over again. So depressing!
I already feel sorry for Spence, and it hasn’t even happened yet!
eh, it happened to pca last year
If you’re saying it’ll turn out the same way in a year’s time – well, from your mouth to God’s ear!
lol, well I am optimistic rice will adjust appropriately, not unlike how he improved from 24 to 25. I also think he’s been playing too much and is adjusting to the schedule
I agree with Jeff, I’m optimistic that Rice can learn to pace himself and re-adjust to the league and the grind. I also wish they’d play him at catcher. He could be a lot more valuable there as Judge should DH and Garcia should really only play 1B.
If Jones stays in regular touch with Schenck the way Judge has, I actually think he could stick too.
I’d much rather you guys be right
I’m less optimistic about Spencer due to contact issues, but I see rice as (hopefully) a longer peak matt carpenter
sanchez wasn’t ruined, just mishandled.
God damn, you see what happened to kawhi leonard and the clippers???
general akbar, the rays and the sox lost
I thought the Rays were playing tonight, so you threw me. If the Rays win this game, that’ll really have fucked with my emotions! 🙂
Paul Goldschmidt (R) 1B
Cody Bellinger (L) LF
Heliot Ramos (R) RF
Ben Rice (L) DH
Amed Rosario (R) 3B
Spencer Jones (L) CF
José Caballero (R) SS
Jazz Chisholm Jr. (L) 2B
Ali Sánchez (R) C
The Sox have given up a load of runs the last 5 games to two pretty bad offenses.
The Rays were down 6-0, now down 6-4 after 4 innings.
Skenes had a bad game yesterday. Misiorowski has had a tough first two innings tonight with 5 ER and 55 pitches. Hopefully, Cam won’t be part of that.
Mets tack on three against the Rays, lead 9-4 in the seventh.
I love it when the game plan is to swing early and often.