Batting Cleanup: Sweet Baby Rays

Batting Cleanup
Written By Will Harris
gerrit cole trop.jpeg

Game 1: Yankees Win 3-1

Here Comes the Judge

I know we were all freaking out about the Trop being a house of horrors, but Aaron Judge did his best to do away with that notion early. He saw one pitch from Luis Patiño in the first inning, and sent it off the back wall in center field at 106.4 MPH. Not a bad start!

419 feet later, the Yankees were up 1-0.

This Headline is Going to be ‘The Full Monty’ Every Time He Pitches

How can you not love Jordan Montgomery?

He was perfect through 2 innings. The first blemish on his line came when he allowed a home run to Mike Zunino to lead off the third inning, but he struck out the side after that. He gave up a double to Manny Margot to lead off the fourth, and walked Yandy Diaz later in the inning, but worked out of the spot of bother without allowing a run thanks to two strikeouts and a Kevin Padlo groundout.

Monty tied his career high in strikeouts with 9, and his final line was 6.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 9 K, 1 BB. He only threw 85 pitches before turning things over to Jonathan Loaisiga in the seventh. That’s a HUGE start against a team that has given the Yankees fits in a stadium where they’ve played horribly. Great job Monty.

There Was Some Bad Defensive Catching Going On…

…And not from Gary Sanchez, you jerks! With runners on first and second in the top of the 3rd inning, Mike Zunino allowed two passed balls in one at-bat, and the Yankees put up a second run. Weird to see the Rays being the ones to give up runs in silly ways, huh?

Zunino has been a biiiiig passed ball guy in the past. He led the league in passed balls last year, despite only appearing in 28 games. Still, two in one at-bat is not what you’re looking for.

But Some Good Offensive Catching

Zunino led off the bottom of the 3rd and got the first hit off Montgomery, a bomb to left center. I don’t know if Statcast’s 472 foot mark was quite right, but man did he put a charge into it.

The Rays Pitched Well Because That’s What They Do

Luis Patiño was as advertised. He threw hard and used his slider really nicely. He reached career highs in pitches (65) and innings (4.0), and allowed 3 H and 2 R (only 1 earned). His control wasn’t great, only 35 strikes on 65 pitches, but he got 3 strikeouts and was quite effective.

Josh Fleming, who was projected to start later in the series, followed Patiño and pitched 2.2 perfect innings before he fell victim to the Kraken, and #HotGarySummer. If he starts heating up, and he might be heating up with two recent homers, baseball better watch out. Remember when I said there was good offensive catching in this game?

Speaking of Pitching Well, Who Want Lasagna?

Jonathan Loaisiga came in for the seventh, and the Rays employed Joey Wendle and Brandon Lowe as pinch hitters against him. Loaisiga got Yandy Diaz and Wendle to ground out, but walked Lowe and labored a bit (including a wild pitch) before striking out Zunino on a BEAUTIFUL changeup to end the inning.

Loaisiga allowed another baserunner in the eighth when Brett Phillips singled to left field with one out, but he got Arozarena to ground into a fielder’s choice and Margot to ground out to Gio to end the inning. I’ll take 2 scoreless innings from our Newly-Minted High Leverage Guy.

Is It 2017 Again?

Montgomery pitched a gem, Gary and Judge homered, Chapman was untouchable, and THEY WON AT THE TROP.

Game 2: Yankees Win 1-0

McHUGH! Bless You - But Could You Simply Be Worse?

Collin McHugh opened for the Rays in front of Ryan Yarbrough, and was a lot better than I hoped he would be. He worked a perfect first inning in which he struck out Giancarlo Stanton. He struck out Gio Urshela to start the second inning, and then worked around a walk to Luke Voit by getting Aaron Hicks to ground into a double play to end the inning. No runs, no hits, one walk, one strikeout. Good showing from McHugh, who has a history of being good against the Yankees (they came into the game with a .600 OPS against him in his career).

Yarbrough: You’re Not Our Bro

Ryan Yarbrough diced up the Yankees, as he has a particularly annoying tendency to do. Cash pulled him after only 56 pitches, a season low, but he made those pitches count. He allowed only 2 hits over 3.1 shutout innings and struck out 4 Yankees along the way. Not unexpected, but not any fun either.

The Trop Is A Disgrace

In the bottom of the first, Gerrit Cole struck out Randy Arozarena, and got Austin Meadows to hit a high fly ball to right field (xBA .020). Judge was camped under it, or so he thought. The ball hit a catwalk and came back into play in short right field between DJ and Voit. Meadows, wisely, never stopped running and ended up on second by the time the ball could be fielded. As a text I received said, “what a joke of a stadium.”

Because he’s awesome, Cole got Manny Margot to ground out and struck out Brandon Lowe to end the threat, but look at this nonsense.

Gerrit Cole Is A Treasure To Be Protected At All Costs

You saw Gerrit Cole work around a Trop-induced baserunner in the first inning. He worked around a Gerrit Cole-induced baserunner in the second, when Yandy Diaz led off the inning with a single to right field. Cole got two double play balls (and one double play) out of the next two batters to sit the Rays down.

He worked a 1-2-3 third inning, and allowed nothing but a bunt single in the fourth.

After Lowe’s bunt single, Cole retired 5 Rays in a row before allowing a double off the top of the wall in left field to Yankee Killer Randy Arozarena. Arozarena advanced to third on a groundout by Austin Meadows, but Cole stranded him there by striking out Manny Margot despite falling behind in the count 3-1.

Cole retired Lowe, Diaz, and Wendle in order in the seventh. He came out to pitch the eighth, for the first time this season, against the bottom of Tampa’s order. He struck them all out because Gerrit Cole is a monster. His final line in this one, his best start as a Yankee, was 8 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 12 K, 0 BB. Bless our absolute ace. Check him out.

The Rally

In the top of the seventh inning, Aaron Judge and Gio Urshela both notched their second hits of the game, a single and a double, two put runners on second and third with nobody out.

Luke Voit ripped a ball, but ripped it directly at Joey Wendle for an out. With runners on first and second and one out, Aaron Hicks lined a ball into right center. Brett Phillips caught it while going back, and Judge scored to give the Yankees a 1-0 lead. One run isn’t much, but it’s all they needed. Thanks Aaron.

Inspired by Cole, Aroldis Chapman was Untouchable

Chapman got Randy Arozarena to fly out to right, on a play during which Aaron Judge and DJ LeMahieu almost got into a very violent collision. The Rays then pinch hit Mike Brosseau for Austin Meadows, either as a platoon move or a mojo move (because Brosseau homered off of Chapman once). Chapman gave him the full “get off me” and sandwiched some splitters and sliders between fastballs of 99 and 101 MPH to get Brosseau swinging. Margot popped up to Gio, and that did it.

House of Horrors No More?

The Yankees beat the Rays for the second night in a row despite scoring only 4 runs. The good news is they allowed just 1 run over the first 18 innings of the series. That 0.50 ERA will play, as far as I’m concerned. They also took their first series win at the Trop in more than two years. Love This Team.

The Bill Miller Show

It had been a while since the Yankees had played in a good ole fashioned “game that the umpire makes all about himself” and folks, this was one of those games. Bill Miller was egregiously bad all night, operating without any sense of the strike zone, which I gather is kind of his thing. When Clint Frazier expressed some displeasure with how Miller was calling the game, Miller threw him out. The reason for this is because Bill Miller is a soft clown who’s horrible at his job. Take a look.

This kind of BS is so much easier to take when it comes in a win.

Notes

  • That ejection was the first of Clint Frazier’s career, and I can’t really imagine him deserving it any less

  • This marked the second time this season that the Yankees had given up no more than 1 run over the course of 2 games (April 27 and 28 at Baltimore)

  • Aaron Judge notched the 24th 3+ hit game of his career - the Rays only had 4 hits as a team

Game 3: Yankees Lose 9-1 (And I Don’t Care)

Some Bad News

Gleyber Torres had to go on the COVID IL before the game due to a positive test (despite being fully vaccinated and feeling good) and is out for at least 10 days. Aaron Hicks was also held out of the game for his wrist to be examined. Let’s hope we hear some good news on Hicks’s front, given that the Yankees are not exactly spoiled with outfield options.

Some Good News

Miguel Andújar, loved by all including this blog, is back.

Affluent Mound

The Rays started Rich Hill, quietly a former Yankee in this one, and I wish he had acted more like he wanted the Yankees to win.

He allowed at least one baserunner in each of the first 3 innings (1st: Stanton single, 2nd: Frazier BB, 3rd: Gardner BB, Judge HBP), but the Yankees did not capitalize on any of those opportunities.

Ultimately, the Rays built up a big lead and despite putting some runners on at various times, the Yankees really got diced up. Hill’s final line was 6.2 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 9 K. Ugh. Gross. Good thing the Yankees got the first two games.

This is a Formal Event, Put Your Taillon

Jameson Taillon had a nice start to the game. Randy Arozerena popped up to Clint, and Austin Meadows struck out. He then allowed an unfortunate soft-contact single to Manny Margot, and the Rays capitalized. Brandon Lowe ripped a double to right field, and then a Yandy Diaz single up the middle gave the Rays a 2-0 lead.

He bounced back nicely by striking out the side in the second inning. Good on you, Jamo.

Things got bad again in the third. Taillon walked Arozarena despite getting two strikes on him, and then gave up a 393-foot home run to Austin Meadows, who was bound to stop being bad eventually.

Meadows continued to stop being bad with one out in the fifth, when he doubled off the wall in right on a ball that *whispers* Aaron Judge maybe should have caught… After that, Jamo struck out Manny Margot and walked Brandon Lowe. After the walk, Boone pulled him from the game. Final line for Jamo was 4.2 IP, 6 H, 4 R (bad), 9 K (good), 2 BB.

King of the Hill (it’s too good not to use)

Mike King came on to get the last out of the fifth, and did so by striking out Yandy Diaz. He put his 0.00 ERA in jeopardy in the sixth when he walked Joey Wendle and allowed a single to Kevan (spell your name right) Smith.

King struck out World Series hero Brett Phillips and ALDS hero Mike Brosseau, but allowed a home run to Yankee Killer Randy Arozarena which put the Rays up 7-0 and basically sealed things.

Ultimately, it was 2.1 IP, 2 H, 3 R (all on the Arozarena HR), 6 K, 2 BB. Not what the Yankees were looking for, but immaterial ultimately. His season ERA is now 1.84.

Notes

  • Multi-hit game (single, double, walk) for Gary Sanchez… the groundwork for #HotGarySummer is being laid

  • The rest of the Yankees only had 3 hits all together, which is not ideal

  • Do not let that distract you from #HotGarySummer

Parting Shots

There’s just not really a way for me to feel bad about this series. The Yankees won a series at the Trop for the first time since I was in college, Voit came back, Gary and Judge homered, Stanton ripped some balls, Miggy came back.

The Yankees are 20-17, they’re on a 15-7 (.681, 110-52) pace over their last 22 games, and have been playing great baseball. They’ve won 4 series in a row, and are 5-0-1 in their last 6 series after winning just 1 series in the season before that.

Alec will have a preview of the O’s series on Friday afternoon. Let’s go Yankees.

Will Harris
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