The Yankees began the official, if not numerical, 2nd half of the regular season with a message being delivered to them: There is still a Texas-sized cloud hanging over them, and it has no intention of going away.
Due to the rescheduling of the 1st week of the season, today was set as the day for a doubleheader against the Houston Astros, whose combination of talent, grit and blatant cheating has led them to the following over the last 7 completed seasons: 5 postseason appearances, 4 American League Western Division titles, 3 AL Pennants, winning the 2017 World Series, and, most significantly from our perspective, eliminating the Yankees from 3 postseasons: The 2015 AL Wild Card Game, and the 2017 and 2019 AL Championship Series.
There are certain unpleasant truths about the current Yankees, as good as their 1st half was. One is that they can't beat the Astros. Another is that they don't score runs for Jordan Montgomery. Today, he pitched into the 7th inning, allowing just 2 runs, and giving the bullpen a break: Albert Abreu threw only 19 pitches to finish the 7th and pitch the 8th, and Michael King pitched the 9th. But the only run the Yankees scored over the 1st 8 innings, and 1 of the only 3 hits, was a home run by DJ LeMahieu in the 5th.
With 1 out in the top of the 9th, Aaron Hicks singled. Giancarlo Stanton grounded out, but that moved Hicks over to 2nd, Isiah Kiner-Falefa hit a ground ball that should have ended it, but Astro 3rd baseman Alex Bregman made 2 mistakes on the play: He couldn't reach the ball, and screened shortstop Jeremy Peña behind him, so that Peña couldn't see the ball. The play was charitably scored as a hit, and Hicks scored the tying run.
Joey Gallo drew a walk, raising his on-base percentage to .287. (His batting average is .162.) There was now hope. But LeMahieu grounded to 2nd to end the comeback.
Bregman made up for his mistake by leading off the bottom of the 9th with a single off King. Aledmys Díaz doubled, and the Yankees were momentarily lucky that Bregman couldn't score. At first, it looked like King might get out of it: He struck Yuli Gurriel out; then walked the dangerous Jordan Álvarez intentionally to set up a play at the plate, and maybe a double play; and struck Chas McCormick out. But rookie 1st baseman J.J. Matijevic hit a grounder to deep short, and IKF was off-balance as he tried to make the inning-ending throw to 2nd, which seemed to be the easiest play. Instead, Álvarez was safe, and Bregman scored the winning run.
Astros 3, Yankees 2. WP: Héctor Neris (3-3, despite his blown save). No save. LP: King (6-3).
The only good thing about this game is that most of the Yankee bullpen is still available for the nightcap. Domingo Germán comes off the Injured List to make his 1st start of the season, against Luis García.
2 comments:
I really wish the Yankees would stop losing games that they should have won, especially when it comes against teams like the Astros. Also for the nightcap, knowing that German just got back doesn't make the wasted offensive effort any better even though one can never expect any pitcher to bring his A game after the return.
Sometimes I wonder if Jordan Montgomery had done something in his past life to get him cursed with terrible luck with run support. I don't recall even Moose being this unlucky.
The Yankees need to do better come playoffs if they meet the Astros again, otherwise providing the contract issue with Judge isn't resolved, they may not even get to at least give the guy a good sendoff as a Yankee like what the Braves ends up doing for Freeman after being unable to resign him.
This was a chance to send a message to the Astros, but instead they ended up giving them message instead.
*massage
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