Yankees Torpedo Brewers

The Yankees' 4-2 win over the Milwaukee Brewers on Opening Day at Yankee Stadium II was nice. It's not looking rather pedestrian.

Fans of other teams are already yapping about the new, unusually-shaped "torpedo bats" that 5 of the Yankees are using. Aaron Judge is not one of them.

Given how much the Major League Baseball office likes to mess with the Yankees, there is no way the organization would have let the players use the bats without first clearing it with said office. The bats meet the letter of the law, within the length, circumference and construction parameters set forth in the rules. So they're legal.

And there's nothing to stop the other 29 MLB teams from ordering the bats, to the specifications of their individual players, and using them in competitive (non-exhibition) games. So they're fair.

And, of course, we're getting whining about how the new Stadium is too easy to hit home runs in. Well, why don't the other teams take advantage of it?

It's like the old joke: A couple go on vacation. As they check out of the hotel, the husband looks at the bill, and demands too see the manager. He asks why there's an extra $75 on the bill. The manager says it's for their service for dirty movies on the TV. The husband says, "But I didn't use it!" The manager says, "It was there for you."

So the husband says, "Oh yeah? Then I'm suing you for $1 million for sleeping with my wife while she stayed here!" The manager, shocked, says, "I didn't sleep with your wife!" The husband says, "It was there for you!"

*

So, on Saturday afternoon, the Yankees played the kind of game Brian Cashman seems to have designed them for: Offsetting bad pitching by bombing the opposition out of the yard. The Yankees set a team record with 9 home runs, 1 short of the major league record.

Former Yankee Nestor Cortés started for the Brewers, and the Yankees did something no MLB team has ever done before: They hit home runs on the 1st 3 pitches of the game: Paul Goldschmidt hit his 1st home run as a Yankee, Cody Bellinger did the same, and Judge hit one. Later in the inning, Austin Wells homered off Cortés. Anthony Volpe homered off him in the 2nd.

Judge had 3 home runs: He also hit a grand slam off Connor Thomas in the 3rd, and a 2-run homer off Thomas in the 5th. He had a chance to join Lou Gehrig, in 1932, as the only Yankees to hit 4 in a game, and he came close in the 8th, but could "only" manage a double. Jazz Chisholm Jr. hit one off Connor Thomas in the 3rd, and Oswald Peraza hit one off Chad Patrick, 7th.

The Yankees' scoreline for the 1st 5 innings was 43630. That ZIP Code is not in use, but if it were, it would be in Toledo, Ohio.

Max Fried also made his Yankee debut, but he didn't get out of the 5th inning, allowing 6 runs, although only 2 were earned. In other words, the Yankees had given him 16 runs' worth of support, but he wasn't going to be the winning pitcher. Instead, it was the 1st major league win for Yoendrys Gómez, a 25-year-old righthander from Venezuela.

Final score: Yankees 20, Brewers 9.

*

Yesterday's game was doomed to be anticlimactic. And the temperature dropped: While it was unseasonably warm the day before, getting into the 80s, this game was in the high 40s.

Marcus Stroman, who might not even be in the rotation if everybody was healthy, but is now the Number 3 starter, gave up a run in the 1st inning, and 3 in the 1st 5 before being taken out -- like Fried, he stood to be the winning pitcher if he'd gotten 1 more out, but couldn't.

No matter. Judge hit a 2-run homer in the bottom of the 1st. Ben Rice hit a solo shot in the 3rd. The Yankees got 2 more runs in the 7th. They got 5 more runs in the 8th, including a 3-run homer by Chisholm.

Yankees 12, Brewers 3. The Brewers' best player in this series was Jake Bauers. He drew a walk as a pinch-hitter on Thursday. On Saturday, he had an RBI single, and, with the game out of hand, he pitched a scoreless 8th inning. And yesterday, he hit a 2-run homer, and, again, pitched a scoreless 8th inning.

*

So the Yankees start the season 3-0, which is unusual. I'm not going to start the Magic Number countdown. I'm just gonna enjoy the nice start.

Today is a day off. Tomorrow, the Arizona Diamondbacks come to town. Then the Yankees go on the road, to Pittsburgh and Detroit, before coming home.

Yanks Don't Hit In Series Finale With Cards

The day my twin nieces Ashley and Rachel were born, the Yankees won, beating... the Minnesota Twins.

That would not be the case on their 16th birthday, and not just because they were, instead, wrapping up a series away to the St. Louis Cardinals.

Ace Gerrit Cole started, and, for the most part, he did his job: He went 6 innings, allowing 2 runs on 6 hits and 2 walks, striking out 5. He has fallen victim to the gopher ball a few times, but did not allow a home run this time.

But Jordan Montgomery became the latest in a long line of former Yankee pitchers to pitch well against the Bronx Bombers. The Yankees didn't score off him until the top of the 7th inning, when Jake Bauers doubled home Isiah Kiner-Falefa. And that would be the only run the Yankees would score.

The poor pitching of Jimmy Cordero put the game out of reach, as he allowed 2 runs in the 7th and 1 in the 8th. The Yankees stranded Bauers on 2nd in the 7th, and wasted a leadoff walk by Oswaldo Caberera in the 8th (no Cliché Alert here). With 2 out in he 9th, Anthony Volpe singled and Bauers walked, making a comeback look possible. But Kyle Higashioka grounded out to end the game.

Cardinals 5, Yankees 1. WP: Montgomery (6-7). No save. LP: Cole (8-2). The Yankees are 9 1/2 games behind the Tampa Bay Rays in the American League Eastern Division, 8 games in the loss column. If the current standings hold to the end of the season, the Yankees will have the 5th seed in the AL Playoffs.

The Yankees come home, to play a 4-game home series with the Baltimore Orioles. The Tuesday game is the 4th of July, and thus a matinee, while the others are night games.

One-Nil to the Pinstripe Boys

Yesterday, my Summertime blues led me to raise a fuss and raise a holler over the Yankees being unable to win games when they score two runs, or one: Their record in such games this season was 1-24.

It's almost as if they actually read that post.

Luis Severino started against the Texas Rangers. He has been shaky since coming off the Injured List. This time, he went 6 innings, allowing 5 hits and 2 walks, but no runs. He walked 2 batters in the 1st, and a single nearly scored Nathaniel Lowe, but right fielder Jake Bauers threw him out at home plate. He kept the shutout through 6 innings, and Tommy Kahnle pitched a perfect 7th. 

But it doesn't matter how good your pitching is if you don't score. The Yankees went down 1-2-3 in the 1st inning, Giancarlo Stanton singled with 1 out in the 2nd, but was stranded. With 1 out in the 3rd, Anthony Volpe drew a walk. Jake Bauers grounded out, advancing Volpe to 2nd. Gleyber Torres drew a walk. And Harrison Bader singled, but Volpe had to hold up. The bases were loaded for Anthony Rizzo, and he struck out.

Billy McKinney, doing his best Aaron Judge impersonation, hit a home run with 1 out in the 4th. It wasn't "One-nil to The Arsenal," it was "One-nil to the Pinstripe Boys." I don't think anyone in the crowd of 46,018 expected that score to hold up. The Yankees went down 1-2-3 in the 5th inning. Rizzo singled with 1 out in the 6th, but was stranded. They went down 1-2-3 in the 7th.

Aaron Boone sent Wandy Peralta out to pitch the 8th. He allowed back-to-back singles, and the new rule, designed to avoid what used to be known as LOOGys (Lefty One Out Guys), forced Peralta to face a 3rd batter, but he struck him out. Then Boone sent Clay Holmes in, and he got out of the jam. The Yankees went down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the 8th.

A 1-0 lead is nerve-wracking enough in the closing minutes of a soccer game. In a baseball game, especially in the new Yankee Stadium, which, for all our protestations of "Death Valley" in left and center field, does favor hitters, a 1-0 lead will, as our old friend Phil Rizzuto used to save, give us agita.

Boone sent Ron Marinaccio out to finish the job. He gave up a single to Jonah Helm. He walked Mitch Garver. Oh no, this is it, isn't it?

No, it wasn't: Marinaccio struck Ezequiel Duran out, he struck Leody Taveras out, and he got Marcus Semien to pop up to 2nd, where a very nervous-looking Torres caught it. Done and dusted. One-nil to the Pinstripe Boys.

Yankees 1, Rangers 0. WP: Severino (1-2). SV: Marinaccio (2). LP: Jon Gray (6-3). Yankees' record when scoring fewer than 3 runs this season: 2-24.

The series concludes this afternoon. The good news: Gerrit Cole starts for the Yankees. The bad news: Nathan Eovaldi starts for the Rangers. No player more symbolizes the failure of Brian Cashman than Eovaldi, whose Yankee tenure was messed up by how his injury was handled, and then he was released, and then he was picked up by the Boston Red Sox, and he went on to be the winning pitcher in 2 postseason elimination games against us. This game could end up being typical of the season -- depending on how we follow it up.

Brito, Homers Get Yankee Job Done vs. Mariners

Last night was another injury-forced "hole in the rotation" game for the Yankees, the middle game of a 3-game home series with the Seattle Mariners.

Into this hole stepped Jhony Brito. He has been inconsistent, looking like the next great hope of the Yankee rotation one game, and looking like just another feeble attempt to fill that hole the next.

This time, he got the job done, going 5 2/3rds shutout innings, allowing only 2 hits and a walk. He only threw 81 pitches, and was taken out immediately after that walk, with 2 outs and no other baserunners.

There was absolutely no reason to take him out, but Aaron Boone did it anyway. Fortunately, Jimmy Cordero got the last out in the 6th inning, and pitched a scoreless 7th.

Anthony Volpe led off the bottom of the 3rd with a walk, and Jake Bauers hit a home run. Homers were added by Billy McKinney in the 4th and Volpe in the 7th. It was 4-0, and the Yankees were cruising.

Then Boone's musical chairs with the bullpen, no doubt ordered by Brian Cashman, nearly cost the Yankees the game. The unreliable Wandy Peralta was brought in for the 8th, and he allowed a home run. 

Michael King had to be brought in to finish the inning. He got in trouble in the 9th, and a run was allowed before Tommy Kahnle finished it off.

Yankees 4, Mariners 2. WP: Brito (4-3). SV: Kahnle (1). LP: Luis Castillo (no, not that one;  fortunately, this one was bad enough, 4-6).

The series concludes tonight. Domingo Germán starts against Bryan Woo. He won't also be hitting, so we can't say, "Woo's on first."

Yankees Give the Dodgers the Gate

The Yankees continued their high-profile Interleague series away to the Los Angeles Dodgers last night. As Fox usually do, they gave as much of the credit as they could to the opposition, talking about the Dodgers, their tradition, their Stadium, and the memories of Vin Scully and Tommy Lasorda, all of them vastly overrated.

The Yankees had the proper response to this. The Herman Edwards response: They played to win the game.

Their ace, Gerrit Cole, was on the mound. He left after 6 innings, due to a cramp in his pitching hand. He allowed 1 run on 4 hits and 2 walks, striking out 5.

Jake Bauers, a native of nearby Newport Beach, California, started in left field, and hit home runs in the 2nd and 4th innings. Oswaldo Cabrera replaced him in the 7th, and he hit a home run in the 9th, so the Yankees got 3 home runs from the position in the game.

Aaron Judge hit a home run in the 6th. In the 8th, he took at least a double away from J.D. Martinez, catching a ball at the right field fence, and falling through the open bullpen gate, but holding onto the ball. To borrow an old expression for getting rid of someone, the Dodgers tried to give the Yankees the gate, but it was the other way around.

There was a moment of worry in the 7th. Aaron Boone sent Wandy Peralta out to replace Cole. This was a stupid thing to do, because he allowed a single, a triple and a walk. Since he has pitched to the minimum 3 batters, Boone got him out of there, and brought Michael King in. He allowed an RBI single, allowing the Dodgers to close to within 5-3, but got the next 3 batters out to end the threat. He then pitched a scoreless 8th, and Clay Holmes pitched a scoreless 9th.

Yankees 6, Dodgers 3. WP: Cole (7-0). SV: Holmes (6). LP: Michael Groves (0-2).

The series concludes tonight, on ESPN. Domingo Germán starts against Bobby Miller.

Da Judge Giveth, and Da Judge Taketh Away

The Yankees started a roadtrip last night, against the Seattle Mariners at T-Mobile Park (formerly Safeco Field). Since it was Memorial Day, both teams and the umpires wore patches of red poppies, with the legend "LEST WE FORGET" on them, the way English soccer teams wear poppy patches in their last home game before Armistice Day (November 11, which we call Veterans Day).

Domingo Germán returned from his "sticky stuff" suspension, and was not very sharp: He got into the 7th inning, allowing 4 runs on 7 hits and 3 walks.

But he got the kind of support that better pitching would have deserved. Jake Bauers doubled home a run in the 1st inning, and hit a solo home run in the 4th. Aaron Judge hit a 2-run home run in the 3rd inning, and a solo homer in the 6th. The Yankees also got runs from doubles in the 5th by Willie Calhoun and Isiah Kiner-Falefa, and a single by Kyle Higashioka in the 9th.

Da Judge giveth, and Da Judge taketh away: In the 8th, Teoscar Hernández hit a long drive to right field, and it looked like it was out. But Judge leapt high enough to snare the ball, and came down with it, sticking out of his glove. We used to call that "an ice-cream cone catch."

Yankees 10, Mariners 4. WP: Germán (3-3). No save. LP: Bryce Miller (3-2).

The series continues tonight. Nestor Cortés starts against Logan Gilbert.

Are the Rays Cheating? It's Not Necessary vs. the Yankees

Yesterday, on radio station WFAN, Evan Roberts made the claim that the Tampa Bay Rays' amazing start -- 13-0, now 30-9 -- is due to cheating:

"There's something suspicious about that, by the way," Roberts said of the Rays' start. "All I know is, I'm a baseball fan. I know baseball. I like baseball. I was very skeptical with what I saw this weekend."

Roberts is a Met fan. He admitted, "I have no evidence" of the Rays cheating, but pointed to the number of players on their roster who are outperforming their baseball card: "Christian Bethancourt: Hello? Taylor Walls, what?"

Bethancourt is a 31-year-old catcher, who has already hit 6 home runs, when he hit 11 last season, topping a previous season-high of 6. Walls is a former top prospect who has improved which is understandable, since he batted just .172, with 8 home runs and 33 RBIs in 142 games. But he was already 25 years old. Most guys who are that undeveloped at 25 aren't going to pan out. Walls is now batting .261 with 6 homers and 13 RBIs.

Roberts continued, comparing the situation to The Athletic, in 2019, breaking the story of the Houston Astros' cheating:

You know what most of us do? We don't know who they are, so we just say, "The Rays are brilliant." Here's the problem: I know who they are. They're not good. The Rays are 19-3 at home? Hello? Are you gonna wake up when the article’s written in The Athletic, or are you gonna wake up now? Sometimes, you don't need evidence. Sometimes, you gotta say, "What I'm watching doesn't make sense." So I'll do it. I'm not a Yankee fan. I'm gonna raise my hand. Hey, ladies and gentlemen: What I'm seeing in Tampa makes no sense.

Look, we know that baseball teams cheat. The Astros have gotten caught. The Red Sox have gotten caught. Major League Baseball officials didn't care when the team getting hurt by the cheating was the Yankees. The only reason the Astros got punished as little as they were is that, in the 2017 World Series, the cheating hurt a team that MLB does like, the Los Angeles Dodgers.

In 2018, the Red Sox, having already been caught using Apple Watches to cheat, beat the Astros in the Playoffs. In 2021, the Astros beat the Red Sox in the Playoffs. No evidence of the Astros cheating in 2021 has yet surfaced, but, like the Red Sox, they have forfeited the presumption of innocence. If the proof is ever found, what then? Probably the same thing that happened to them after the 2017 proof was found: As the old saying goes, "Thirty lashes with a wet noodle."

Yes, the Rays are 19-3 at home. They are also 11-6 on the road. That's pretty strong. A reasonable person would conclude that, if they are cheating, it is not with a method that is tied in to their home stadium.

*

Anyway, coming off a sweep of the Oakland Disarr-A's, the Yankees had some momentum going into their home series with the high-flying Rays.

But Maurice "Mo" Mentum is a free agent, and he switched teams again.

Domingo Germán started for the Yankees last night, and he was fine for the 1st 4 innings, allowing 3 hits and 2 walks, but no runs. But the Yankees didn't score, either, as Drew Rasmussen allowed just 1 baserunner, a single by Jake Bauers in the 2nd inning.

And error by Anthony Rizzo at 1st base led to a Rays run in the 5th. They loaded the bases in the 6th, and Ron Marinaccio couldn't stop them from clearing the bases with a double. At 1-0, it was still game winnable; at 4-0, it was game over.

The Rays got another run in the 7th, and 3 more in the 8th. The Yankees still got nothing. Bauers hit another single in the 5th, and Harrison Bader was hit by a pitch in the 8th. (Don't worry, he wasn't injured again.) That HBP and the 2 Bauers singles were the Yankees' only baserunners over the 1st 8 innings.

Willie Calhoun led off the bottom of the 9th with a double. Anthony Volpe and Aaron Judge grounded out. But Rizzo and DJ LeMahieu drew walks to load the bases, so there was the slimmest of hope. Gleyber Torres singled Calhoun and Rizzo home. But it was somehow fitting that Bauers, the only offense the Yankees had previously had, ended it with a strikeout.

Rays 8, Yankees 2. WP: Rasmussen (4-2). No save. LP: Germán (2-3). The Yankees are 9 games behind the Rays, and we're not even halfway through May. I don't know if the Rays are cheating. I know that, whatever the Yankees are doing, legal and otherwise, isn't working. So the Rays don't need to cheat against them.

The series continues tonight. Gerrit Cole starts against Trevor Kelley.

And, last night, the New Jersey Devils' season came to an end, with a 3-2 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes in the NHL Eastern Conference Semifinals. It was their best season in 11 years. They made the Playoffs. They won a Playoff Round. They beat the arch-rival New York Rangers in so doing. The future looks bright.

For them. For the Yankees, to borrow a phrase that Muhammad Ali once used, the future is a mist.

Even Clarke Schmidt Can Beat the Oakland A's

The Oakland Athletics are so bad!

(How bad are they, Uncle Mike?) They're so bad, even Clarke Schmidt can be the winning pitcher against them.

Actually, last night, at Yankee Stadium II, the A's took a 1-0 lead in the top of the 2nd. But in the bottom of the 3rd, well, you know how I feel about leadoff walks. If the Yankees get them, great. Jose Trevino drew a walk. Then Aaron Hicks drew one, raising his on-base percentage to .231. Anthony Volpe flew out, moving Trevino over to 3rd, and then Aaron Judge, returning to the lineup after an injury, grounded to 3rd, and a run scored on an error.

Anthony Rizzo singled a run home, Gleyber Torres did the same, Harrison Bader made it 3 of those, and Jake Bauers hit a sacrifice fly, to make it 5-1 Pinstripes.

I've said before, upon seeing good pitching, "That kind of pitching deserves support." Well, the converse is also true: That kind of support deserves good pitching. And Schmidt actually provided it, going 6 innings, allowing 2 runs on 5 hits and 2 walks, striking out 7. He allowed a home run in the 4th to make it 5-2, but a Rizzo single and a Torres homer in the 5th made it 7-2.

Schmidt threw 93 pitches over 6 effective innings. For once, taking him out for a reliever made some sense. Except the pitcher that Aaron Boone chose was Albert Abreu, and he gave up a home run to the 1st batter he faced, Jordan Díaz. Bauers hit a home run in the bottom of the 7th. Díaz hit another homer in the 8th, off Greg Weissert. Judge hit a sacrifice fly in that inning.

Yankees 10, A's 5. WP: Schmidt (1-3). No save. LP: Drew Rucinski (0-3).

The series concludes this afternoon. Jhony Brito starts against Kyle Muller. 

Yanks Take Walkoff Win Into Big Series With Rays

Clarke Schmidt as the starting pitcher? Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton still hurt? Oswald Peraza and the newly-reactivated Harrison Bader both injured during the game? The offense still weak? The Cleveland Guardians being a Playoff team from last season? It all seemed to add up to another Yankee defeat.

It didn't. Schmidt got into the 5th inning, allowing only 2 runs, neither of them earned, both in the 1st inning, and he calmed down from there. With a day off today, Aaron Boone knew he could use whoever he wanted out of the bullpen, and they'd get rest today. Ian Hamilton finished the 5th, and pitched the 6th. Jimmy Cordero pitched the 7th. Ron Marinaccio pitched the 8th. No further runs scored.

The Yankees tied the game in the 5th. Willie Calhoun hit a home run for the 2nd game in a row. He's now batting .250, after batting only half that a week ago. And the newly-called-up Jake Bauers homered as well.

Marinaccio got the 1st 2 outs in the 9th inning. But Boone took him out after that, and brought in Clay Holmes. This was an incredibly stupid thing to do: Holmes allowed a double and a single, giving the Guardians a 3-2 lead. To make matters worse, the single was a looper, and 3 Yankees came together to try to catch it, and none did. It was a Mets-type play.

To make matters worse still, 2 of those Yankees, center fielder Bader and left fielder Isiah Kiner-Falefa collided. Bader was hurt, and had to leave the game. IKF was able to stay in, and moved to center field. Oswaldo Cabrera moved in to left field.

Guardians manager Terry Francona, our old nemesis from the Boston Red Sox, brought in his closer, Emmanuel Clase. But the Yankees didn't give up. Anthony Rizzo led off with a single, and Boone pinch-ran Peraza for him. Peraza stole 2nd, but he hurt his ankle in the attempt. Aaron Hicks was sent in to pinch-run for him. After DJ LeMahieu grounded out, Calhoun singled Hicks home to tie the game. But Cabrera grounded into a double play to end the inning.

Albert Abreu, who has been less than reliable, was brought in to pitch the 10th inning. He struck out the leadoff batter, then intentionally walked the next one, to set up an inning-ending double play. It worked, and that stranded the "ghost runner."

So, with the walk being intentional, perhaps we can avoid the Cliché Alert. No, we can't: Bauers was the leadoff hitter for the Yanks in the bottom of the 10th, and Guardians reliever Trevor Stephan walked him. IKF bunted him and ghost runner Cabrera over. And Jose Trevino singled Cabrera home with the winning run. Commissioner Rob Manfred's stupid rule worked in the Yankees' favor this time.

Yankees 4, Guardians 3. WP: Abreu (1-0). No save. LP: Stephan (1-1).

After the game, Boone said that Bader would undergo some tests on his head and neck area but appeared to be in "good spirits, laughing in the training room." He also said that Peraza would undergo X-rays, and did not know if the rookie would need a stint on the Injured List.

As I said, the Yankees have today off. Tomorrow night, they start their first big series of the year, away to the Tampa Bay Rays. Here's the schedule, and the projected starting pitchers:

* Friday, first pitch at 6:40 PM: Jhony Brito vs. Yonny Chirinos.

* Saturday, 4:10: Domingo Germán vs. Drew Rasmussen.

* Sunday, 1:40: Gerrit Cole vs. Josh Fleming.