From David Adler:
The Yankees have never hit Justin Verlander like this.
The Bronx Bombers pounded Verlander for seven runs in Tuesday night’s 10-3 demolition of the Astros in the series opener at Yankee Stadium — the most they’ve scored in a game against the Astros’ ace since he first arrived in Houston in 2017.
Verlander has been the Yankees’ nemesis ever since, and one of the central figures in the Yankees-Astros rivalry that’s become one of the game’s most intense over the last decade, as the two clubs have clashed three times in the postseason, with Houston winning all three series.
Throughout that run, Verlander has always seemed to have the Yankees’ number, especially in October, when Houston has beaten the Yankees in four of Verlander’s five starts against them. In 12 total starts as an Astro against the Yankees, Verlander had a 2.59 ERA. But on Tuesday, New York finally turned the tables.
“Look, I think we’re capable of this,” manager Aaron Boone said. “Obviously you’re not going to run out offensive nights like this every night — especially against a guy like Justin. But they are capable of that.”
It’s so weird celebrating kicking the ass of a dude now that he’s 41 years old.
But, that being said, celebrating kicking the Astros’ ass OVERALL makes perfect sense, and they should be very proud of this game.
Luis Gil making it through six innings with just one run allowed was excellent. He still needs to work on his walks, and the amount of pitches he throws, but really, back-to-back outstanding performances by Gil. I’d say that Schmidt should be worried about his rotation spot, but that would require Gerrit Cole to actually return, and who knows when or if that actually happens.
In any event, great win, and Verdugo was excellent, as well. The featured image is a nice diving catch he made in the sixth. I think it’s worth noting that Verdugo missed two of the worst losses of this young season, the first two games in Baltimore. If he plays, maybe those games wouldn’t have been so pathetic.
I’ve decided to rank the 5 best current Yankees based on how likeable they are. This list is correct and I will not be taking comments.
1. Nestor Cortes
2. Marcus Stroman
3. Aaron Judge
4. Juan Soto
5. Luis Gil
very good
Now do the five biggest dicks.
I haven’t seen them, so I wouldn’t know. I’m gonna guess Aaron Judge is in first?
Brian, I’m curious about the sheerly verbal “featured image” feature.
They show up on the main page, but sure, if you want them on the individual posts, I just made that edit, so they’ll show up on the individual posts, as well.
Ah, I thought it was a kind of avantgarde move on your part!
How would we rank Schmidt, Gil, Stroman and Rodon thus far this year? Who inspires the most confidence, and who the least?
Not consider who’s being paid so much they will feel they have to play them.
Gil’s been the best, but he’s doing it in a pretty volatile way. He’s following the Blake Snell path of being unhittable but inefficient and giving up plenty of walks. A start where he is a little bit hittable or can’t throw strikes at all does seem inevitable.
Stroman is pretty much doing what Stroman has always done, outside of durability concerns, I am most confident in him to continue what he’s done so far.
I think Rodon is still adjusting. His fastball seems to be OK, even if it’s no longer a super elite pitch, but his other pitches are not. He has been a bit lucky so far, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see him slide backwards a bit.
Schmidt has seemed like he’s close to figuring it out for a full year now, Is he? Or is he just going to be perpetually frustrating?
Makes sense. So what ranking does that give us? Gil, Stroman, Schmidt, Rodon?
Watching the performance, I’m convinced by what Schmidt’s able to do already. I’d be loath to send him down. But I can’t imagine Gil going down, and Stroman and Rodon are locked in for other reasons.
I think you send gil to the pen as a multi inning reliever. He’s under some sort of load limit as a young pitcher coming back from TJ anyway.
Seems mostly real good, what is Breaking Run Value?
https://x.com/riveraveblues/status/1788011537954754825?s=61&t=fhOaqwtc8q2TMSXUDRjPeg
The circled number at the end of the strip is… a percentile number?
I think it is breaking ball run value
yes, the number on the chart is the percentile.
A high whiff and K % but a low chase % seems weird.
Yeah, I REALLY don’t get that chase percentage. Perhaps people just know if it’s not obviously a strike, it’s a ball, so don’t swing at it?
Gil has mostly missed bad out of the zone. His slider isn’t good enough to fool many people and his changeup move more horizontally than vertically, so it’s less of a swing and miss pitch and more of a weak contact pitch.
And of course, he’s just throwing his fastball by people in the zone.
If you can’t celebrate beating up an old man, what can you even celebrate any more?
Makes sense to me. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go kick Lee Majors’ ass.
Shoulda saved $5,999,999 for this beatdown, Majors.
Sic, you banking on… metal fatigue?
Baseball Reference has the Yankees’ playoff odds all the way up to 64%, a 30-day improvement of 49.2%. 😀
Their SEVEN-DAY improvement was 31.8%! Lordy lord, what a POS prediction system.