Yankees Use Green Energy and Cortes to Beat White Sox

Well, Brian Cashman has done it again. Not learning his lessons from getting Chris Carter and Giancarlo Stanton, he has traded for Edwin Encarnación. The Dominican is the American League's current leader in home runs, with 401 career home runs to his credit. He is a 3-time All-Star, and led the AL in RBIs in 2016. He's also one of these guys who always seems to hit the Yankees hard, so not having to face him anymore is a plus. (I call this the Chili Davis Theorem.)

But he is a 1st baseman, when we already have Luke Voit and (at least in theory) Greg Bird, and plenty of potential designated hitters; a righthanded hitter, who would thus be at a disadvantage in Yankee Stadium; and 36 years old.

At least Cashman didn't give much up: He sent the Seattle Mariners a minor-league pitching prospect, Juan Then, and what's being called "cash considerations." The Mariners would rather have that money than pay Encarnación's salary. 

But the Yankees are still in need of starting pitching. Once again, with his children needing new shoes, Cashman decided to spend the rent money on a night out with the boys.

The truly shocking thing, or perhaps not shocking at all, is that he did this on a day when the Yankees' starting pitcher was Chad Green. If the Yankees do manage to win anything this season -- and I mean an actual Championship: Division, Pennant, and/or World Series, not merely another Wild Card berth in the Playoffs -- one thing that will have to be acknowledged is the massive luck they have had in winning some of the games that Green, a two-inning starter, has started.

Or, maybe Green has simply found his niche: We can't trust him as a reliever, but we can trust him to use his "Green energy" to go 2 innings as a starter without disaster resulting.

In his 2 innings against the Chicago White Sox last night, Green allowed no runs and just 1 hit, no walks, and all 6 of his outs were strikeouts. Theoretically, he could have been left in for another inning.

But you can't argue with success. Aaron Boone put Nestor Cortes in for the 3rd, and he was energetic as well, going 5 innings, allowing 2 runs on 6 hits, no walks, and 7 strikeouts. Overall, Yankee pitchers struck 16 batters out in this game.

But you've got to score runs, or else it doesn't matter how good your pitching is. It was still scoreless going into the top of the 4th, when the Yankees broke it open. Luke Voit led off with a single, Aaron Hicks added another, and Gary Sanchez doubled them both home. After Didi Gregorius flew out, Gleyber Torres hit a home run to make it 4-0 Yankees.

In the 6th, Sanchez drew a walk, Gregorius singled him over to 3rd, and Torres hit a sacrifice fly to get him home. Cameron Maybin led off the 7th with a home run, and the Yankees got another run in the inning with small ball.

Boone was willing to stick with Cortes for the 8th inning, which may be a good sign. But he allowed 2 singles, and Boone decided that was enough. Relieving him was the right thing to do. Relieving him with Jonathan Holder was not. Holder got the 1st 2 outs, but this was followed by a single and an error on the play, letting 1 run home. And that was followed by a 3-run homer, to put the result back into doubt.

Fortunately for the Yankees, the White Sox' bullpen isn't very good. The Yankees added a run in the 9th, on a bases-loaded walk. Yankees 8. White Sox 4. WP: Cortes (1-0, his 1st major league win). No save. LP: Reynaldo Lopez (4-7).

As a result of yesterday's games, the Yankees are back in 1st place in the AL Eastern Division, half a game ahead of the Tampa Bay Rays, one game in the loss column. The Boston Red Sox are 5 1/2 games back.

Far be it from me to suggest that the "Chad Green starts and pitches 2 innings" experiment should be ended. But if Cortes can pitch like this, why not make him the 5th starter, until Luis Severino, Domingo German or Jordan Montgomery comes off the injured list?

The series continues this afternoon. James Paxton starts for us, and Odrisamer Despaigne for South Siders. No, I'd never heard of him, either. He's a 32-year-old Cuban journeyman with a career ERA of 4.93, and a 1.500 WHIP this season. Just the kind of pitcher to have the game of his life against the Yankees, right? Especially with Paxton struggling lately.

Or maybe Encarnación will hit one out off Despaigne in his Yankee debut. John Sterling is wrong: Sometimes, Suzyn, you can predict baseball. But, as the late Houston and St. Louis pitcher Joaquin Andújar (no relation to Miguel) once said, "Baseball can be summed up in one word: Youneverknow."