Yanks Jazz It Up Against Nomad Athletics

The Yankees played a home series this weekend, against the team currently known as simply "The Athletics" -- formerly Philadelphia, Kansas City and Oakland, and, they hope, soon to be Las Vegas.

Friday night was a "hole in the rotation" game, but Will Warren filled it well, pitching 5 shutout innings. The bullpen allowed just 1 hit and no walks the rest of the way. The Yankees only got 4 hits themselves, but 1 was a home run by Jazz Chisholm, 1 an RBI single by Cody Bellinger, and 1 an RBI single by DJ LeMahieu, and they won, 3-0.

But, on Saturday, they got handcuffed by former Yankee JP Sears, getting only 2 hits off him and 1 off reliever Jack Perkins. Clarke Schmidt, who pitched 7 no-hit innings in his last start, was not good, allowing 4 runs in 6 innings. The A's won, 7-0.

The Yanks made the A's pay dearly for that yesterday. Chisholm homered in the 2nd inning. The Yankees scored 4 runs in the 3rd, including a bases-clearing triple by Chisholm. Aaron Judge, who explained his drop from batting .400 to .356 with a bad back, hit home runs in the 4th and the 7th. Bellinger hit a home run in the 5th. And, just as it was a former Yankee who shut them down the day before, so, too, was this onslaught against a former Yankee: Luis Severino.

That kind of onslaught deserved some good pitching. Marcus Stroman came off the Injured List, and allowed just 1 run over 5 innings. JT Brubaker was awful in the 6th, but the rest of the bullpen pitched shutout ball, and the Yankees won, 12-5.

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We are now past the numerical halfway point of the season. The Yankees are 48-35, on a pace to finish 94-68. They lead the American League Eastern Division by a game and a half over the Tampa Bay Rays, 3 over the Toronto Blue Jays, 8 over the Boston Red Sox, and 12 over the Baltimore Orioles.

On to Toronto for 4 against the Jays. Then, 3 in Flushing, including a 4th of July "day game after a night game," against The Other Team.

Cole and Judge Lead Yanks Past A's

The Yankee being on the Pacific Coast is unpleasant for many reasons, most of all the difficulty they traditionally have winning there, regardless of the current conditions of the Oakland Athletics (whom they're (playing in their current series), the team now known as the Los Angeles Angels (whom they play in their next series), and the Seattle Mariners (whom they don't play on this roadtrip).

But one advantage is that, usually, the teams in the race with the Yankees for whatever they're going for are done, or almost done, with their game by the time the Yankees start theirs. Such was the case yesterday: The Tampa Bay Rays and the Toronto Blue Jays, the Yankees' closest challengers for the American League Eastern Division title, both lost; while the Houston Astros, whom the Yankees are chasing for the best record in the AL and thus home-field advantage in the Playoffs, also lost.

So this game, against the struggling A's, was a big opportunity. They had to take advantage of it.

Gerrit Cole was ready, and he pitched like an ace: 7 1/3rd innings, 1 run, 3 hits, 2 walks, 11 strikeouts. He now has exactly 200 strikeouts on the season. Barring injury, he will have 6 more starts in the regular season. If he averages 8 strikeouts a game, he will tie the Yankee single-season record, set by Ron Guidry with 248 in 1978.

(Cole fell just short last season, with 243. Between Guidry and Cole, the best performances were by CC Sabathia in 2011 and Luis Severino in 2017, both with 230. Andy Pettitte holds the career record with 2,020.)

But JP Sears, whom the Yankees sent to Oakland in the Frankie Montas trade, kept the Yankees off the board for 4 innings. But rookie Oswaldo Cabrera led off the top of the 5th with a single, and DJ LeMahieu led off with another. Here came da Judge, and there went da ball: Aaron Judge hit his 49th home run of the season. He's now on a pace for 63.

Cole said, "It's really special to get to have the best seat in the house every night for The Aaron Judge Show, which is one-of-a-kind right now." He's right: Next-best in the major leagues is Kyle Schwarber, the former Chicago Cubs star now with the Philadelphia Phillies, with 35.

Judge also leads the major leagues with 109 RBIs, a stunning figure given that manager Aaron Boone nearly always bats him 2nd in the order. Pete Alonso of the Mets leads the National League with 105. Only 1 Met has ever led the NL in RBIs: Howard Johnson, with 117 in 1991. The last time New York had the RBI champion in both leagues? 1945: Nick Etten had 111, while Dixie Walker of the Brooklyn Dodgers had 124.

Those were the only runs the Yankees would score. But they would be the only runs the Yankees would need. Jonathan Loáisiga finished the 8th inning for Cole. Wandy Peralta allowed a run in the 9th, but only the 1. Yankees 3, A's 2. WP: Cole (10-6). SV: Peralta (3). LP: Sears (5-1).

The Yankees now lead the Rays by 8 1/2 games, and the Jays by 9 1/2. The Magic Number to clinch the AL East is 29. They trail the Astros by 2 1/2, by 2 in the all-important loss column.

The series continues tonight. Domingo Germán starts for the Yankees, Adam Oller for the A's.

Yanks Follow Loss With Big Trade for Montas

Why is this man smiling? Because he's about to wear Pinstripes.

When I found out that the finale of the yankees 4 game home series with the Kansas City Royals was going to be started by the ill-supported Jordan Montgomery and the possible future Hall-of-Famer Zack Greinke, I had a sinking feeling that a sweep of the series was not in the offing. 

Sure enough, the game was scoreless going into the top of the 5th inning, when Montgomery had a bad inning, allowing 4 runs, and needing to be bailed out by Albert Abreu.

As it turned out, though, neither starting pitcher ended up as a pitcher of record. The Yankees came back with 3 runs in the bottom of the 5th, including a home run by DJ LeMahieu. 

Anthony Rizzo homered in the 7th to give the Yankees a 6-3 lead. Montgomery couldn't get the win, but he was off the hook for the loss.

But Ron Marinaccio gave up a solo homer to start the top of the 8th, and Clay Holmes blew it with a 3-run homer to Salvador Perez in the top of the 9th. The Yankees got the tying runs on in the bottom of the 9th, but couldn't get them home.

Royals 8, Yankees 6. WP: Taylor Clarke (2-1). No save. LP: Holmes (5-2).

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We leave July and enter August with a record of 69-34. In the American League Eastern Division, the closest team is, for the moment, the Toronto Blue Jays, 11 1/2 games back. The Magic Number to clinch the Division is 45. The Yankees are 2 1/2 games ahead of the Houston Astros for the best record in the AL.

And now, general manager Brian Cashman has pulled the trigger on a trade. With the Seattle Mariners, who come into Yankee Stadium for a 3-game series, having traded for Luis Castillo of the Cincinnati Reds, the man considered the best remaining available pitcher was Frankie Montas of the Oakland Athletics.

So the Yankees send pitchers JP Sears, Ken Waldichuk and Luis Medina, and 2nd baseman Cooper Bowman, to the A's for Montas and relief pitcher Lou Trivino, both righthanded. Since the Yankees need help for both the starting rotation and the bullpen, and they didn't give up one of their bigger prospects like Anthony Volpe or Jasson Dominguez, this is, at least at first glance, a good trade.

Neither pitcher has yet been assigned a uniform number. In Oakland, Montas wore 47, worn here by Montgomery; and Trivino wore 62, which is currently available. Montas wore 60 when he first came to the majors, with the Chicago White Sox. On the Yankees, that number is currently worn by bullpen coach Mike Harkey, and making a coach give up a uniform number is easier than making an active player give his up.

This season is 18 out of 27 weeks, or 2/3rds, done. Time to get serious.

There's More for the Yankees' Life With Sears

Brian Cashman's "Bomb the opposition out of the yard, so it doesn't matter how good your pitching is" philosophy often doesn't work. Especially when you get to a game where your starting rotation has a hole in it, and you need to call someone up from the minor leagues. Last night's game against the Oakland Athletics at Yankee Stadium was an example: Rookie JP Sears (like CC Sabathia, no periods) had been called up to start.

It turned out to be the 23rd time in their 1st 75 games this season that the Yankees scored 2 or fewer runs. But the pitching has been good enough that their record in those games is 9-14.

So after Aaron Boone put this game on his Sears card -- I can tell that joke, because I worked at a Sears store for a year and a half -- Sears pitched into the 6th inning, allowing no runs, just 3 hits and 1 walk. The store's old slogan was right on this occasion: "There's more for your life at Sears." Ron Marinaccio, Wandy Peralta and Michael King got the team through the 8th inning with no damage.

But you need to score runs to win. Jose Trevino singled home a run in the 1st inning, and Marwin González hit a home run in the 2nd. The Yankees didn't get many more chances. Isiah Kiner-Falefa got to 2nd base with 1 out in the 5th, and that was as close as they came to a 3rd run.

Clay Holmes has done a fantastic job substituting as the closer during the injury to Aroldis Chapman -- who, it has been suggested, may be activated today. (If he is, then it will probably be Sears who gets sent down to open the roster spot. "Thanks for the win, pal, now get back to Scranton.") But last night, Holmes struggled to finish the game off. He struck out the 1st 2 batters he faced. Then, Trevino committed catcher's interference -- after the Yankees benefited from that call twice in 1 inning the night before. King then allowed 2 singles, leading to a run, before getting a groundout to end it.

Yankees 2, Athletics 1. WP: Sears (3-0). SV: King (13). LP: Frankie Montas (3-8). The Yankees are now 55-20.

The series concludes tonight. Cole starts -- not Gerrit Cole for the Yankees, but Cole Irvin for the A's. The Yankee starter will be Jameson Taillon. Then we go down to Houston for a big, big series against the cheating Astros. The idea of starting Sears last night was to make the Yankee rotation line up better against the Astros this weekend.

Yankees Get Sears Protection Plan, Beat Orioles

The Yankees closed a homestand last night, and I really wanted them in the right frame of mind as they head south to face the Tampa Bay Rays, who are chasing them for 1st place in the American League Eastern Division -- a condition many predicted would be the other way around, and many others predicted that the Rays and the Toronto Blue Jays might be battling it out for the Division lead. But both the Yanks and the Rays have recently given the Jays beatdowns, so they will not be a factor for a while.

The Yankees sent JP Sears out to start the finale against the Baltimore Orioles, probably to have everybody else in the rotation fresh against the Rays. (Like our old friend CC Sabathia, John Patrick Sears does not use periods on his initials.) The 26-year-old rookie righthander from South Carolina, wearing Number 92, had beaten the Orioles in relief on April 16, for his 1st major league win. This would be his 3rd major league game, and his 1st major league start.

He was asked to pitch only 5 innings. He walked the leadoff man, and regular readers of this blog know how I feel about that. After that, though, he was fine, allowing just 3 hits and 1 more walk, striking out 5.

That called for good support. Good enough, anyway. Aaron Judge led off the bottom of the 4th by nearly hitting one out, settling for a ground-rule double. Anthony Rizzo hit a line-drive out to left, and Judge couldn't advance. But Gleyber Torres singled him over to 3rd, and Miguel Andújar singled Judge home and Torres over to 3rd. Aaron Boone then called for the old 2nd-and-home double steal, and it worked: Andújar stole 2nd, and the throw from the catcher was bad, allowing Torres to score without a play at the plate.

That would be all the scoring in the game. Ron Marinaccio pitched a perfect 6th and 7th. Lucas Luetge and Miguel Castro, both needing a good performance, combined for a scoreless 8th. Clay Holmes allowed 2 hits in the 9th, but allowed no runs.

(We now know why Holmes has been the closer: It's not that Boone has lost confidence in Aroldis Chapman, it's that Chapman is injured. They say nobody should lose his job due to injury, but I think the Yankees need to seriously consider making Holmes the closer from here on forward.)

Yankees 2, Orioles 0. WP: Sears (2-0). SV: Holmes (5). LP: Tyler Wells (1-4). Unlike the department store for whom I used to work, and is now out of business, this Sears offered a reliable protection plan.

So the Yankees are 31-13, with the best record in baseball, and 4 1/2 games, 4 in the loss column, ahead of the Rays. Now, the Yankees travel to face the Rays in each team's biggest series of the season thus far. In fact, 10 of the Yankees' next 25 games are against the Rays. This, more than the earlier series against the Jays, will be the team's first true test.

Here are the projected pitching matchups for this series, with the Yankees' starter being listed first:

* Tonight, 6:00: Nestor Cortes vs. Ryan Yarbrough.

* Tomorrow, 6:30: Jameson Taillon vs. Jeffrey Springs.

* Saturday, 3:00: Gerrit Cole vs. Corey Kluber, who was a Yankee and pitched a no-hitter last year.

* Sunday, 12:30: Luis Severino vs. Shane McClanahan.

Note that the Friday game will only be broadcast on Prime Video. The rest will be available on the YES Network.

Hail the Yankees as They Win in Baltimore

Cliché Alert: In baseball, you never know when you're going to see something you've never seen before.

Last night, in the middle game of a 3-game visiting series for the Yankees at Oriole Park at Camden Yards, I saw something I'd never seen before: A baseball game interrupted by the falling of hailstones.

The Yankees were trailing the Orioles 2-0 with 1 out in the bottom of the 5th. Had the Orioles gotten 2 more outs before this happened, it would have been an official game, and, with the Yankees' luck, it might have been called and the Orioles the official winners.

Anyway, the YES Network cameras picked up what looked, at first, like rain. Then broadcaster Michael Kay suggested that the rain looked "chunky." A moment later, he suggested it was actually hail, and he turned out to be right.

It reminded me of Johnny Carson's Carnac the Magnificent routine on The Tonight Show:

A: Hail, Caesar.

Q: What's that stuff coming out of the sky, Cleopatra?

The umpires halted play, and the Camden Yards grounds crew reacted as if it was rain, getting the mini-tarps onto the pitcher's mound and the home plate area very quickly, with the main tarp to follow.

Up to that point, it looked like it would be another game in which the Yankees simply didn't hit. The Aarons, Hicks and Judge, led off the game with singles, but the Yankees couldn't score. They loaded the bases in the 3rd, and got nothing out of it. Just before the delay, Hicks drew a 1-out walk. Once the delay began, I figured that was it: Any chance of this turning into a rally was gone.

Certainly, given Brian Cashman's idiotic pitching philosophy Aaron Boone's curious pitching predilections, Jameson Taillon would not still be pitching if the game were resumed. He gave up a 2-run home run to Cedric Mullins in the 3rd, but had otherwise pitched well.

The hail turned to rain within 5 minutes, and the delay lasted about 45 minutes. Wonder of wonder, miracle of miracles, the Yankees came back out smoking: The "rain" had been chunky, and the Yankees got funky.

Judge drew a walk, Anthony Rizzo singled Hicks home, and Giancarlo Stanton hit a double that scored Judge, although Rizzo was thrown out at the plate. (I thought he was out when it happened, but the plate umpire ruled him safe, the Orioles asked for a review, and the call was correctly reversed.) The next man up was Josh Donaldson, and he crushed one into the bleachers, making it 4-2 Yankees.

If Rizzo had stopped at 3rd on Stanton's double, it would have been 5-2. With these Yankees, the thought that such a mistake would come back to haunt us was in the front of the mind.

Taillon was sent out to pitch the bottom of the 5th. He got an out, then allowed a single. He got a 2nd out, then allowed a walk. That's when Boone took him out, denying him the chance to be the winning pitcher. JP Sears -- like CC Sabathia, John Patrick does not use periods for his initials -- in only his 2nd major league appearance, walked the bases loaded, before getting out of the inning without allowing a run.

The Yankees added a run in the 6th, and Sears, Michael King, and Clay Holmes took the worry about Rizzo's failure to score away. Yankees 5, Orioles 2. WP: Sears (1-0, his 1st major league win). SV: Holmes (1). LP: Travis Lakins (0-1).

The series concludes this afternoon, with the first pitch scheduled for 1:05. Nestor Cortes is listed as the Yankees' starter, and Bruce Zimmerman for Baltimore. Happy Easter.