Last night, just after the trade deadline, 2 of Brian Cashman's newest Yankee acquisitions made their Pinstriped debuts. Neither did anything noteworthy. A 3rd came up small.
But it was the signature Cashman trade that ended the game -- and not in the Yankees' favor.
Jameson Taillon started, and, while he only gave up 2 hits, he didn't get out of the 5th inning. You see, those 2 hits were both home runs. And in that 5th inning, well, Cliché Alert: Walks can kill you. And Taillon walked 2 batters in the 5th. And since the 2nd of those walks got him to 98 pitches, Cashman's pitch limit kicked in, and "manager" Aaron Boone was "forced" to take him out.
Boone put in Lucas Luetge, and Luetge should have been the pitcher Cashman traded away this week, not Jordan Montgomery. He gave up a double that allowed both of Taillon's walks to score.
Jose Trevino hit his 3rd home run in 2 days in the 4th inning. Anthony Rizzo hit his 3rd in 3 days in the 6th, and Josh Donaldson added one that inning. Donaldson needed it: With Joey Gallo having been traded, he has become the focus of Yankee Fans' ire, as he is batting just .223.
Luetge gave up a home run in the 7th. He was replaced by Yankee debutant Scott Effross, who got out of the inning with no further damage. Albert Abreu allowed a run in the 9th, and another debutant, Lou Trivino (not to be confused with Jose Trevino, or old-time golfer Lee Trevino) ended the inning without further ado.
You'd think that, scoring 6 runs, the Yankees did okay. But they didn't. They had men on 2nd & 3rd in the 3rd inning, but DJ LeMahieu was thrown out at the plate, the kind of play that hurt the team so often last season, but not much this season, until now. They had men on 2nd & 3rd with 1 out in the 6th, but Aaron Hicks grounded into a double play. They had Tim LoCastro on 3rd in the 8th, but Trevino struck out. And Andrew Benintendi, the new acquisition who "rarely strikes out," went 0-for-4 with 3 strikeouts.
In the bottom of the 9th, Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Hicks struck out. But LeMahieu singled, and Aaron Judge and Rizzo drew walks. (The Mariners didn't want to face Judge. It was obviously that this was one of those "unintentional intentional walks.") They had the baserunners they needed. The bases were loaded. A runner on 3rd. The tying run on 2nd. The winning run on 1st.
But, instead of sending LoCastro back up, Boone sent up Gleyber Torres to pinch-hit. (LeMahieu had started at 2nd base, with Rizzo at 1st, Matt Carpenter in right field and Judge as the DH.)
Torres, of course, is the man Cashman traded 3 months of Aroldis Chapman for to get 20 years of, the greatest "prospect" of them all. This is his 7th year in the organization, and his 5th year on the big club. He has yet to help the Yankees win a Pennant. And he ended this game with a very poor-looking strikeout.
Mariners 8, Yankees 6. WP: Penn Murfee (yes, that's his real name, 2-0). SV: Andres Munoz (2). LP: Luetge (3-4).
Disgraceful. Blame Cashman. Not any individual player.
The series concludes this afternoon. It's a battle of alleged aces: Gerrit Cole against the Mariners' big acquisition in his debut for them, Luis Castillo, whom Cashman apparently didn't lift a finger in trying to get. Also, Judge is getting the day off, although he may appear as a pinch-hitter later.
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