To paraphrase the old Crazy Eddie commercials, That game was not Christmas in August! For much of it, the Yankees seemed to be giving it all away! But, in the end, the Yankees beat 'em! That game was IN-SAAAANE!
It didn't start out that way. The Yankees' Jameson Taillon and the Royals' Carlos Hernandez each began the game with 6 shutout innings. This seriously belied what was to come.
What followed, partly thanks to Commissioner Rob Manfred's stupid new "ghost runner" rule, was the 1st game in the 150-season history of Major League Baseball that both teams scored in the 7th inning, did it again in the 8th, did it again 9th, did it again the 10th, and did it again in the 11th.
It was also the 1st time a team had four comebacks from the 7th inning onward, and lost; and the 1st time that a team had four blown saves in 1 game, and still won.
A Luke Voit single put the Yankees ahead 1-0 in the 7th, but Jonathan Loáisiga blew it. He didn't help his own cause when he made a bad pickoff throw that allowed a runner to go to 2nd. Then he got less help from home plate umpire Pat Hoberg, who called a balk on him that only Hoberg seemed to see. Aaron Boone came out of the dugout, and, according to lip-readers, yelled, "Fucking no way! Fucking terrible!" Hoberg threw him out of the game, and bench coach Carlos Mendoza had to manage the rest of the way.
An Aaron Judge single put the Yankees ahead 2-1 in the 8th, but Chad Green blew it. Voit hit a home run to put the Yankees up 3-2 in the 9th, but Zack Britton blew it. The Yankees took a 5-3 lead in the 10th, and Clay Holmes blew that!
In the top of the 11th, with Joey Gallo starting the inning on 2nd, DJ LeMahieu singled him home. 6-5 Yankees. Voit flew out. Rougned Odor grounded to 1st, which moved DJLM over to 3rd. Tyler Wade drew a walk. So did Kyle Higashioka, loading the bases. Brett Gardner, the senior Yankee, singled home DJLM and Wade. 8-5 Yankees. Giancarlo Stanton grounded out to end it.
Wandy Peralta was brought in, to get 3 puts while allowing no worse than 2 runs. He started out fine, getting a groundout and a strikeout. But it wouldn't be that simple. He allowed a single that got the ghost runner home. Then another single.
Now, the tying runs were on base, and the winning run was at the plate, in the form of the dangerous Carlos Santana. To borrow a phrase from the rock guitarist of the same name, the Yankee bullpen had to change its evil ways, baby.
Santana hit a grounder to 3rd. It was a tough play for Odor, requiring a long throw, but Santana was out.
Finally. Yankees 8, Royals 6. Remember: It was 0-0 after 6 innings. WP: Holmes (4-2, but deserving only according to the letter of the rule). SV: Peralta (3). LP: Greg Holland (2-5).
Yankees got some bad injury news last night. Gleyber Torres, who has been hitting very well lately, had to go on the 10-Day Injured List with a thumb sprain, and Luis Severino, who had been doing well in his rehab starts, suffered an injury setback with his groin. We had hoped to see him back with the big club before the end of the month, but now, that may not happen.
The series with the Royals continues tonight. Nestor Cortes starts for the Yankees, Daniel Lynch for the Royals.
No comments:
Post a Comment