Is a point before Memorial Day Weekend too soon in the Major League Baseball season to call a game a "must-win"? I'm a Yankee Fan, so I want to win them all, but I'll settle for 2 out of every 3.
Going into last night's home game with the Baltimore Orioles, the Yankees had lost 3 straight, and 4 of their last 5. And Jordan Montgomery was starting, so I wasn't expecting much run support.
Montgomery went 6 innings, allowing 1 runs on 3 hits, no walks, and 5 strikeouts. It was a performance worthy of strong support. And, at first, it looked like he was getting it: In the 1st, Aaron Hicks singled and Anthony Rizzo hit a home run. Jose Trevino added one in the 3rd. Gleyber Torres added one in the 4th.
For once, Aaron Boone did what I would have done, and sent a starting pitcher who was cruising on just 84 pitches out to start the top of the 7th inning. This time, it didn't work: Montgomery allowed a leadoff homer to Austin Hays.
Boone took Montgomery out, and brought in Michael King. One of the big reasons for the Yankees' earlier success, King got crowned last night: He got Ryan Mountcastle to fly out, but it almost went out; he allowed a single to the O's highly-touted catching prospect, Adley Rutschman; walked Ramon Urias, and allowed a 3-run homer to former Yankee Rougned Odor. It was 5-3 Baltimore.
Through May 7, King had a 0.51 ERA and a 0.736 WHIP. Since then, counting this game, those stats have been 7.45 and 1.552.
But the Yankees tied the game in the bottom of the 7th. Torres hit another homer, Isiah Kiner-Falefa singled, Marwin Gonzalez was hit by a pitch, and Trevnio singled IKF home.
The game went to extra innings, and it looked like the "ghost runner" rule might doom the Yankees again, when, in the top of the 11th, the runner was moved over and scored with 2 weak grounders. But the Yanks began the bottom of the 11th with Torres on 2nd. Miguel Andújar led off, and his fly to right got Torres to 3rd. IKF singled Torres home. Gonzalez singled IKF over to 2nd. And Trevino hit what would ordinarily have been a double down the left-field line, but a single was all that was necessary to score IKF with the winning run, and so it went into the books as a game-winning single.
Yankees 6, Orioles 5. WP: Clarke Schnmidt (3-2). No save. LP: Bryan Baker (1-2). Perhaps it was too soon to call the game "must-win," but we can call it "won."
The series concludes tonight, with JP Sears pitching for the Bronx Bombers, and Tyler Wells for the Baltimore Birds. One's name sounds like a department store, the other's like a law firm. Then, the Yankees head south, for a 4-game series against the Tampa Bay Rays. As of right now, the Yankees lead the American League Eastern Division by 4 1/2 games, 4 in the loss column, ahead of the Rays. So this is as big as a series can get on Memorial Day Weekend, and may set the tone for the rest of the season, at least as far as the Division is concerned.
1 comment:
I can only hope it's one of those patterns that have been going on with the Yankees since the second half of the 2000s where after they went at least 10 games above .500 for the first time the team starts acting funny and briefly slump before struggling to stay above that for good, then the pattern repeats upon reaching 20 games above the mark. Because if that's the case, they'll recover soon but considering what happened last year, I won't be holding my breath remembering how streaky that team was that season. So streaky I'm surprised they didn't get arrested for public nudity.
That's my concern especially coming into the Tampa Bay series.
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