Yankees 1 Jays 4
We should play the Yankees more often.
Kevin Gausman was fantastic tonight. Seven innings, four hits, two walks and eight strikeouts. The one run was a Giancarlo Stanton home run. Kevin was so good on every pitch. It wasn’t an easy night, even though he allowed just the four hits; there were a lot of high-leverage moments. He came out at 86 pitches, and I was glad they didn’t try to push it.
Offensively, we didn’t do much, other than our four-run fifth, which was helped along by some crappy Yankee defense.
In the fifth:
- George Springer led off with a walk, it took five balls (a pitch out of the zone was called a strike),
- Vladimir Guerrero sent a hard grounder through the infield (114 mph).
- Bo Bichette hit a double down the left field line, both runners scored (Vlad hustling all the way from first, with a superman slide at the end).
- Alejandro Kirk flied out.
- Davis Schneider had the at-bat of the game. 14 pitches before he popped out. 14. Carlos Rodon tipped his hat at the end of it. Nine foul balls in that at-bat. He might not have reached base, but he tired Rodon out.
- Myles Straw grounded one to third, but Oswald Peraza didn’t rush, until he saw how fast Straw went down the line—ruled a single, plus an error to get Straw to second. I hated Straw’s first at-bat of the game, but he earned his pay there.
- Leo Jiménez grounded a ball to short, and Anthony Volpe threw wide to first, and we got our fourth run. Good baserunning by Straw to go home on that.
We likely should have scored more. We had the bases loaded in the second. And loaded them again in the fourth (started by a Kirk double). Kirk was on second when Joey Loperfido singled to left, but Kirk (or likely any base runner) couldn’t score on it, as it was hit hard and straight at Aaron Judge.
We had just six hits. Kirk had two doubles off the outfield wall, but also had six walks
Our bullpen did a great job too:
- Brendon Little started the eighth, giving up a walk, getting Aaron Judge to strikeout and then giving up a single.
- Yariel Rodríguez took over and got a Giancarlo Stanton lineup and a Jasson Domínguez ground out.
- Jeff Hoffman got save #24, striking out the side on 16 pitches. Just dominated the batters.
Jays of the Day: Gausman (.219 WPA), Bo (.167), Jiménez (.115), Vlad (.091), Rodríguez (.091). Let’s give an honourable mention to Davis Schneider for that long at bat, tiring Rodon.
Other Award: Ernie Clement had a bad day. 0 for 5 and a -.154 WPA. He’s in a deep slump.
Tomorrow it is Cam Schlittler (1-0, 5.06) vs. Max Scherzer (1-0, 4.70).
Let’s keep beating the Evil Empire.