Source: FanGraphs
So much for winning a game in this series at all. The Yankees suffered another listless loss n the second game of the doubleheader as they got swept by the Indians. They are now five games behind Boston in the AL East standings and have only a 1.5 game lead in the first AL Wild Card spot. Not what you want, folks! Following Mike’s example, we’re also doing it bullet-point style for this recap.
- Another bad first inning: The game did not start too promisingly for the Yankees. Francisco Lindor singled off Jordan Montgomery to begin the top of the first and Austin Jackson worked a walk. A hitter later, Edwin Encarnacion squared an RBI single to center to make it 1-0 Indians. Carlos Santana followed it up with a double that bounced off the third base bag to drive Jackson in. With runners on second and third, Yandy Diaz hit a single to left to drive both of ’em in to make it 4-0. Not ideal at all. The Indians ended up batting around and Montgomery threw 42 pitches. All kinds of yikes here. Montgomery managed to last through four innings, which feels miraculous given that he spent half of his pitch limits in the first inning.
- Bird is the word: The Yankees got a run in the bottom of the second thanks to… Greg Bird! Aaron Judge and Aaron Hicks got on base with a single each and Bird followed it up with one of his own to make it a 4-1 game. Fast forward to bottom of the ninth, well after Indians lefty Ryan Merritt was out of the game, with Todd Frazier (walk) and Hicks (single) on base, Bird crushed an inside fastball into the right field seats for a three-run homer. Not a lot of things to get excited about in today’s games but man, it is nice to see Bird hit in the majors. His 4 RBI’s today raised his season total up to 9. Hopefully this game gets things going for him because, with major bats slumping in the lineup, the Yankees need someone to step up.
- Post-Monty: After Montgomery departed, Joe Girardi put in Chase Shreve in the top of the fifth to keep it a three-run game. However, Encarnacion immediately made it a four-run game with a massive solo home run into the left field seats. That was 2012-16 all over again, watching Encarnacion jog around the Yankee Stadium bases with an invisible parrot on his arm. Shreve surrendered another in the sixth. Erik Gonzalez doubled to lead off the inning. After Lindor grounded out, Jackson hit a deep fly into the center that bounced off Hicks’ reaching glove and resulted as an RBI double. It’s been that kind of a game. 6-1 Tribe. But wait, we’re not done there. With Caleb Smith pitching, the Indians tacked on three more on a Yan Gomes two-run HR in the seventh and a Lindor solo dinger in the eighth. Okay, it’s over.
Here are the box score, video highlights, updated standings and WPA. It was not a great display of baseball from the Yankees for the past three games, to say the least. Gotta hope that they turn it around quickly starting tomorrow because the Red Sox are coming to town for a four-game set. CC Sabathia will be on the mound against Eduardo Rodriguez tomorrow at 7:05 pm EST.
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