From Steve Schaeffer (absolutely no offense to Steve Schaeffer, but why is such an important series being covered by someone new to the Yankees this season? Is he a Houston-based writer, maybe?):
Trent Grisham is hot, and so are the Yankees.
Grisham continued a torrid stretch at the plate on Tuesday night, hitting his second grand slam in five days as the Yankees blitzed the Astros, 7-1, in the opener of a three-game series at Daikin Park.
Max Fried earned his 15th victory as the Yankees won for the eighth time in nine games to remain 2 1/2 games behind Toronto in the American League East. In joining teammate Carlos Rodón as the AL’s only 15-game winners, Fried (15-5) struck out five in seven innings, allowing a run on four hits and three walks and one hit-by-pitch.
Grisham, who hit a slam against the White Sox on Friday, went the other way with Framber Valdez’s fifth-inning sinker, depositing it in the Crawford Boxes in left field. It gave the Yankees eight grand slams this season, including three by Grisham, who in his last nine games has reached base in 19 of his last 39 plate appearances.
Jazz Chisholm Jr. plated the Yankees’ other three runs with a pair of homers, giving him 28 for the season. Chisholm also stole his 26th base, moving him closer to becoming only the third Yankee to produce a 30/30 season. He would join Bobby Bonds (1975) and Alfonso Soriano (2002, 2003).
That was a hell of a game. We’ve written a lot about whether Max Fried’s struggles the previous month were due to him having to change his grip because of his blisters, and that his recent success was due to him finally getting used to the new grip, and that position seems to be a bit supported by this performance, which was both A. excellent and B. clearly seeing him using a relatively new grip, because he flat out LOST his grip a few times during the game, and the ball was just flying out of his hand. In other words, he wasn’t just failing to locate pitches, he just outright was not gripping the ball correctly, as it was going FLYING in the wrong direction.
In any event, he was outstanding, and the offense was excellent, as well. Great win.
Featured image is Max Fried’s excellent play on a bunt-like ground ball early in the game, nailing the lead runner at third base, and thus saving himself a run when the next batter also hit a ground ball (that was hit too slowly to be a double play). There is only a single member of the Yankees starting rotation who could make this play, and that’s Max Fried. He later made an even showier play, where he caught a popped up bunt and threw to first for a double play, but…
A. That was more on the Astros, for 1. Bunting down 6-1 with two men on and no outs, 2. Popping a bunt out, and 3. Getting caught off of first base
B. That, I think, WHILE GREAT, was SLIGHTLY easier for someone to pull off. I’ve seen Rodon make diving plays on popped up bunts, for instance.
The other big story of the game was that the Houston catcher called for a curveball to Trent Grisham. Framber Valdez wanted a slider. The catcher tried to get Framber to step off, so they could talk about it, Framber ignored him, and the slider was hit for a grand slam. Then Framber was supposed to throw a curve to the next batter, and instead threw a slider, which hit the catcher in the chest. Salazar was clearly A. shocked, and B. pissed, but after the game, they both lied, and pretended that Framber didn’t do it on purpose like a fucking lunatic.
Last week there wasnt there talk about Houston playing around with their rotation so that Framber should face the Yankees? If so, ha!
Grisham has been the real star of the season because it was so unexpected. I still would not sign him long term since he reminds me of Hicks.
I don’t think he’s anything like Hicks, but that’s still the gamble isn’t it? Grisham has clearly been having a career year but is it sustainable or just baseball, Suzyn? His barrel % has been pretty consistent the last few years and he hits the ball hard, has good command of the strike zone, plays excellent defense and stays healthy.
Really depends on what his market is. I wouldn’t go crazy but 5 for $100m wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility. The interesting thing is whether they spend money on Grisham and Belli OR only go after Tucker.
Yeah, the allure of just bringing both guys back instead is spending similar money on just Tucker has to be high.
The problem is that Belli won’t be cheap, and with Dominguez and Jones, does it really make sense to lock up two outfield spots with big money contracts?
A wild card would be if they think they can teach Dominguez how to play first base. He’s been taking grounders there. That would be interesting…
As for Framber, Monday would have been his normal spot in the rotation, but they wouldn’t announce their starter for a long time, not until Sunday, when they announced that they were activating Luis Garcia for Monday, pushing Framber to Tuesday.
Garcia is a good enough pitcher that i don’t think it was shenanigans.
Gianni’s strikeout in the fifth, on a fastball down the middle with the bases loaded, was the loudest end of a hot streak imaginable.
Grisham silenced the concern a moment later, but I want to make sure this gets noticed a third time.
I don’t know what Kyle Freeland was thinking, but now, for the first time I’m thinking that he doesn’t belong in the bigs and the Rockies probably don’t either.
I don’t know what relegation would look like in baseball, but there should be some consequence for how ridiculous the Rockies are.