The Cleveland Guardians were never going to be pushovers in this American League Division Series. But it doesn't help when Aaron Boone messes up the pitching choices.
Nestor Cortés started, and threw 92 pitches, 64 of them for strikes, over 5 innings, allowing 2 runs on 6 hits and 3 walks. He was backed by a 1st inning home run from Giancarlo Stanton, but couldn't hold it.
And Boone saw that pitch count, and panicked. He put Lou Trivino in for the 6th, left him in for the minimum 3 batters, including 2 outs, and brought Jonathan Loáisiga in to finish the 6th and pitch the 7th. He let Loáisiga start the 8th, and let Clay Holmes finish it.
But the Yankees just didn't hit, again. The Yankees stranded men on 2nd and 3rd with 1 out in the 3rd inning, 1st and 2nd with 2 out in the 6th, and bases loaded in the 8th.
Then, having already used 4 pitchers when he should have used only 2, Boone made a critical mistake, bringing starter Jameson Taillon in to start the 10th. Such things have been done in the postseason before. And, with the ghost runner dropped for the postseason (thank God), no one knew just how long this game could go. But Taillon had never pitched in relief before: 143 previous major league appearances, all starts. So this decision was so dumb.
How dumb was it? Taillon faced 3 batters, allowing a double, an RBI single and an RBI double. Boone then replaced him with Clarke Schmidt, who got 3 straight groundouts. So why didn't Boon bring Schmidt in for the 10th in the first place?
Josh Donaldson drew a 1-out walk in the bottom of the 10th, but Oswaldo Cabrera struck out, and IKF grounded out to end it. Guardians 4, Yankees 2.
First 2 games of this series: IKF, 3-for-7; Donaldson, 2-for-4; Anthony Rizzo, 2-for-7; Gleyber Torres, 2-for-8; Stanton, 1-for-5, the 1 being the homer; Harrison Bader, 1-for-7; Kyle Higashioka, 0-for-1; Jose Trevino, 0-for-4; Cabrera, 0-for-8; Aaron Judge, 0-for-8 with 7 strikeouts.
Not good enough. Game 1 looked like the June Yankees, Game 2 looked like the August Yankees. Game 3 is tonight in Cleveland. Luis Severino starts against Triston McKenzie. If the Yankees don't play like the June Yankees, and lose this game, they might not win another game that counts until April.
1 comment:
Boone did it again, what are the chances that he's being paid to throw the series? Seriously the decisions he made would have made even Girardi in the Boone Logan era cringe, was he even trying to win? Both of their decisions would defy common sense but in a really important moment, Boone helped gave away two consecutive games and the latter which the Yankees should have won!
Will Cashman ever get it to his head on why we wanted Boone replaced after last year?
If this team loses the ALDS, the only small consolation would depend on whether or not the Padres finishes off the Dodgers.
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