Yankees Leave Their Mark On San Francisco

I realize the San Francisco Giants are no longer at the great team they were in the 1st half of this decade, but sweeping them at their home field, now named Oracle Park, still looked pretty impressive.

Domingo German started for the Yankees in the finale of this weekend series, and was, once again, effective in the injured Luis Severino's place in the rotation. He allowed only 1 hit over the 1st 5 innings, and looked sharp. Certainly, it was good enough to give the Yankee bats the chance to win.

Which they did. For the 2nd day in a row, the Bronx Bombers jumped out to an 8-0 lead. A single, 2 walks and an error produced 2 runs in the 1st inning. Two singles, a walk and an error produced 2 runs in the 2nd inning.

Cliche Alert: Walks can kill you, especially the leadoff variety. A leadoff walk by Gary Sanchez and a Gleyber Torres home run produced 2 runs in the 3rd inning. And a Luke Voit single and, for the 2nd day in a row, a tremendous blast by Sanchez to left field scored 2 more runs in the top of the 6th.

But in the bottom of the 6th, German fell apart. He allowed 3 singles, a double, a walk and a wild pitch, resulting in 4 runs. Had the Yankee bats not given him a sufficient cushion, this would have been a very troubling inning. Fortunately, this case of onebadinningitis did not hurt much. Jonathan Holder pitched a perfect 7th, and Tommy Kahnle a scoreless 8th.

The Yankees put the game to rest in the 9th. Again, a leadoff walk hurt the Giants, drawn this time by Torres. This was followed by a wild pitch, and then by singles by Mike Tauchman, Cameron Maybin and Tyler Wade. Joe Harvey allowed a home run and a walk to start the 9th, but, unlike the day before, the Jints were not really in a position to make the game interesting. Harvey settled down, and got the next 3 batters out, to end it.

Yankees 11, Giants 5. WP: German (5-1). No save. LP: Dereck Rodriguez (3-3).

To paraphrase that great New Yorker Tony Bennett, the Yankees left their mark on San Francisco.

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So here's how things stand, 4 weeks into the 26-week Major League Baseball regular season: The Yankees are 17-11, a game and a half (2 in the loss column) behind the Tampa Bay Rays in the American League Eastern Division. The Toronto Blue jays are 4 1/2 back, the Boston Red Sox 7 1/2, and the Baltimore Orioles 9.

Today is a travel day for the Yankees. Then it's 2 games in Phoenix against the Arizona Diamondbacks, before coming home to face the Minnesota Twins.