The Colorado Rockies started the season 8-42. They were on pace to be worse than last year's Chicago White Sox, worse than the 1962 New York Mets, worse than any team since the 1899 Cleveland Spiders.
And now, the Yankees were coming into Coors Field on Friday night, to start a 3-game series, with their bats, swinging at altitude.
A funny thing happened on the road to utter annihilation...
On Friday night, in the top of the 1st inning, Aaron Judge singled, and Paul Goldschmidt tripled him home. Judge hit a home run in the top of the 5th.
But those 3 runs weren't enough for Clarke Schmidt. Cliché Alert: Walks can kill you, especially
the leadoff variety. In the bottom of the 4th, he gave up a walk, a wild pitch and a single for a run. He got the 1st 2 outs in the 5th, needing only 1 more out to qualify as the winning pitcher, and gave up 2 singles and a double, and fell behind 3-2.
Judge got 2 hits on the night. The rest of the Yankees combined, 3. Rockies 3, Yankees 2. It was the most embarrassing Yankee loss since... Game 5 of last year's World Series.
*
A response was needed on Saturday afternoon. It came. Judge homered in the 1st. It looked like all Max Fried would need, but not quite: He allowed 1 run in 7 1/3rd innings.
It was in the top of the 5th that the Rockies resembled the team that had lost 42 of its 1st 50 games. Austin Wells hit a leadoff single, Oswald Peraza doubled to score Wells, Goldschmidt drew a walk, Trent Grisham reached on an error to score Peraza, Judge was intentionally walked to load the bases and set up the double play (or the play at any base), Cody Bellinger hit a sacrifice fly to score Goldschmidt, Anthony Volpe singled home Grisham, Jasson Domínguez hit a sacrifice fly to score Judge, DJ LeMahieu singled, Wells doubled home Volpe and LeMahieu, Peraza walked, Goldschmidt singled Wells home, and Grisham doubled Peraza and Goldschmidt home, before Judge struck out to end the carnage. That's 10 runs, 7 hits, 2 walks, and an error.
The Yankees added 2 more runs in the 8th, to make it 13-1. Too bad they couldn't take 2 of those runs and transfer them to the night before, to make it a 4-3 win. Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way.
*
Will Warren started the Sunday afternoon game. Over the 1st 4 innings, he allowed 2 runs on 2 hits and 2 walks, striking out 7. The Yankees gave him a 4-2 lead in the top of the 5th. Then the rain came, and there was a delay of over an hour.
When play resumed, both teams decided not to send their starters back out. Jonathan Loáisiga finished the 5th, but allowed a run in the 6th, and had to be bailed out by Mark Leiter Jr. J.C. Escarra came up with his 2nd RBI hit of the game in the top of the 8th, to make it 5-3. Devin Williams was a little shay in the bottom of the 8th.
Luke Weaver ran into trouble in the bottom of the 9th. He allowed a leadoff homer, got the 1st out, and allowed 2 more singles, before getting the last 2 outs. Yankees 5, Rockies 4.
*
So the Yankees took 2 out of 3 in Denver, but it shouldn't have been that hard. But then, as John Sterling said on the air until he retired last season, "You just can't predict baseball." That is, sometimes you can, but, often, you can't.
At any rate, the Yankees lead the American League Eastern Division by 6 games over the Tampa Bay Rays, 6 1/2 over the Boston Red Sox, 7 over the Toronto Blue Jays, and 14 over the Baltimore Orioles.
Today is Memorial Day, and, instead of a traditional afternoon doubleheader, they play at night, starting a series against the Los Angeles Angels, at Angel Stadium of Anaheim.
No comments:
Post a Comment