Fortunately, Jordan Montgomery kept his recent hot streak alive. He pitched 5 shutout innings, allowing 5 hits and 3 walks, with 5 strikeouts.
Of course, his big problem lately has been almost no run support at all. This time, after 4 innings, that looks like it would be the case again, as the game was scoreless. But Greg Allen led off the top of the 5th with a double, and DJ LeMahieu singled him home, to make it 1-0 Yankees.
The top of the 6th begin with Gleyber Torres and Rougned Odor hitting singles, and being driven home on a double by Gio Urshela. Now, Montgomery had a 3-0 lead.
But Aaron Boone didn't send Montgomery out for the bottom of the 6th. Instead, he let Chad Green pitch it, and he allowed to walk and a home run. Why does Boone make these decisions? Is he an idiot? Or is he following Brian Cashman's orders, and Cashman is the idiot? We may never know for sure, unless Boone gets managing job somewhere else, and gets to prove what he can really do -- good or bad.
Jonathan Loáisiga rebounded from his Fenway disaster to pitch a perfect 7th. Ryan La Marre hit a home run in the top of the 8th. But Zack Britton allowed another run in the bottom of the 8th. And so, when Aroldis Chapman was sent out in the bottom of the 9th, it was to protect a one-run lead against Tampa Bay, away.
He got the 1st 2 outs, then issued a walk. Cliché Alert: Aroldis gotta Aroldis. But that also means he's capable of the game-ending strikeout, blowing the last hitter away, and that's what he did. Yankees 4, Rays 3. WP: Montgomery (4-5). SV: Chapman (19). LP: Shane McClanahan (4-4).
The series continues tonight. Nestor Cortes starts for us, Michael Wacha for them.
After last night's game -- indeed, after midnight, in the kind of bush-league move you would expect from the Mets -- the Yankees announced a trade, a puzzling one. They sent Luis Cessa and Justin Wilson to the Cincinnati Reds for a player to be named later.
This is a classic Cashman close-to-the-trade-deadline move. Cessa and Wilson have both been bad relief pitchers, but both have been considerably improved lately. So now, when they're actually strengthening the bullpen instead of hurting it, Cashman hurts it by trading them. And for what? So far, nothing.
It is widely suspected by Yankee Fans on social media that this is simply freeing up salary, mostly Cessa's, so that Cashman can bring in a big name before the deadline. Or maybe he's just being a cheap prick, like so many other times before.
The difference between this trade and the white flag trades he made at the deadline in 2016 is that, at that point, I thought the Yankees still had a chance at the Playoffs. This time, I don't think they're going to make it. And even if they do, they won't get very far. That's on Cashman, too.
Another wasted season, unless whoever Cashman brings in -- either from the Reds or is it part of a 3-way or even 4-way deal -- turns out to be a blockbuster, a game-changer, a season-changer, or even, in Cashman's case, a historical reputation-changer. Because if this there's one guy on the Yankees who needs his reputation changed, it's not any player, it's Cashman.
We shall see.
2 comments:
"in the kind of bush-league move you would expect from the Mets..." Did the Mets put together a right-handed hitting team in a park with a short right field fence? Do the Mets have two wife beaters on their pitching staff? Did the Mets top starter see his ERA jump over 5 once baseball made him stop cheating? F U
The Mets put together a non-hitting team.
The Yankees have no wife-beaters on their team. If you believe otherwise, do what the law couldn't do: Prove it.
As for cheating, if not for Mike Piazza and steroids, the Mets would have won no Pennants between 1986 and 2015. And even 2015 is dubious: There's a reason Yoenis is known as CesPEDes.
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