"Triple-A" Yankees Reclaim Their Throne: 1st Place

Clint Frazier on the Iron Throne,

wearing the T-shirt given away at last night's game

The Yankees began another showdown with the 1st place Tampa Bay Rays last night. It was Game of Thrones Night, in honor of the pop-culture phenomenon whose last first-run episode airs on HBO this Sunday night. A replica of the show's Iron Throne was placed on the Yankee Stadium concourse, and commemorative T-shirts were given away to all adult fans.

The irony is, series creator George R.R. Martin is a Mets fan. Which explains why so many of his characters die horribly, get disfigured, or go mad -- or some combination thereof. Forget "You gotta believe": Happy endings are not his style.

They are the Yankees' style. At least, they're supposed to be. Valar Defeatus. High Valyrian for "All men must lose." Well, what do we say to the God of Defeat? "Not today."

Carsten of House Sabathia, second of his name (CC's full name is Carsten Charles Sabathia Jr.), the Well-Fed, Paw of the South, Fanner of the Three Thousand, started for the Yankees. He went 6 innings, allowing 1 run on 6 hits and 2 walks. Ordinarily, that would be enough to win, especially against the Rays, with their "no starter" philosophy.

Kendrys Morales gave CC a 1-0 lead with a home run in the 2nd inning, but the Rays tied it in the 4th. It was still 1-1 going into the 7th, when Aaron Boone brought Adam Ottavino in to pitch. He got the 1st 2 outs, but then walked a batter, and Boone brought in Tommy Kahnle. He allowed a hit, before getting a strikeout to end the threat.

There was no need to relieve CC: He had thrown only 84 pitches. And when Boone sent Chad Green out to pitch the top of the 8th, he allowed 2 runs, on 2 doubles, a single and an error by Gleyber Torres. "The night is dark, and full of errors." It was 3-1 Rays, and then came a rain delay. If the game were called, the score would revert to what it was at the end of the last inning: 1-1.

The game was resumed, and the Yankees went down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the 8th. Jonathan Holder pitched a perfect 9th, and Jose Alvarado came out to close down the win for the Rays.

But the 1st batter he faced was Luke Voit, and he hung a slider to him. Voit hung it over the fence. 3-2. Gary Sanchez singled. Thairo Estrada was brought in to pinch-run for him: Boone was either going for the win, or trusting Austin Romine to both bat and catch from the 10th inning onward. (Gulp.)

Morales struck out. But Torres made up for his earlier error with a double, getting Estrada to 3rd. Now, I ask you: What was the point of bringing in a pinch-runner, if he wasn't going to be able to score on a double? Clint Frazier was intentionally walked, to set up a play at any base.

Cameron Maybin was the batter, and Alvarado threw a wild pitch that got Estrada home. Tie ballgame. Maybin grounded to 3rd, and the force play was made at home plate. The Yankees now had the tying run, Frazier, on 3rd, and the winning run, Maybin, on 1st, but were down to their last out, and a sacrifice fly would no longer be sufficient.

The batter was 3rd base find Gio Urshela. Following Maybin, whose run meant nothing, stealing 2nd on defensive indifference, maybe the right call would have been another intentional walk, setting up a play at any base, and pitching to DJ LeMahieu, who was already 0-for-4.

The Rays didn't do that. They pitched to Urshela. Big mistake: He ripped a drive to right-center. Frazier scored easily. Ballgame. Yankees 4, Rays 3. WP: Holder (3-1). No save. LP: Jose Alvarado (0-3).

With the win, the Yankees are now 27-16, in 1st place in the American League Eastern Division, half a game ahead of the Rays, even in the all-important loss column.

This bunch of "Triple-A" Yankees are a lot like Arya Stark (played by Maisie Williams on the show): They may not be big, and they may not be the hero we expected -- "the princes that were promised" -- but they are getting the job done, slaying the enemies, exacting the revenge. And, like Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) did last Sunday, we have taken what is ours -- not with fire and blood, but with leather and wood.

The South Bronx remembers. So bend the knee, Tampa Bay.

The series continues this afternoon. Masahiro Tanaka starts against Blake Snell. Hopefully, Winning is coming. Brace yourselves!

German's Pitching Allows Yanks to Complete Sweep of Birds

I was hoping the Yankees would sweep all 3 games against the Baltimore Orioles in this home series. But I'll take a sweep of a 2-game series any day -- even if they're both on the same day, as was the case today.

My concern going in was that Brian Cashman's order to Aaron Boone to use as many relievers as possible in the opener of this rain-forced doubleheader -- the only explanation that makes any sense, because it was potentially very stupid, and so is Cashman -- was going to backfire, especially in the nightcap. But that turned out not to be a problem: In the opener, Adam Ottavino threw just 15 pitches, Tommy Kahnle 10, Zack Britton 12, and Aroldis Chapman 11. This was a good sign.

So, on to the nightcap. Domingo German, terrible last year mixing starting and relieving, has become the anti-Joba Chamberlain: Yankee management has committed to making him a starter, and he was fantastic again tonight. He went 7 innings, allowing just 1 run on 6 hits and 1 walk.

But no matter how good your pitching is, you gotta score runs. Pitching doesn't win games, or championships, but it gives your hitting a chance to do that. The hitting still has to happen.

In the 3rd inning, the Yankees got a 2-out rally going. DJ LeMahieu beat out an infield single, and Luke Voit doubled him home. Gleyber Torres led off the 4th with a tremendous home run, 432 feet, his 3rd dinger of the doubleheader. The "Gleyber Day" jokes came out on the YES Network and social media.

The Orioles got a run back in the 5th. In the bottom of the 7th, Thairo Estrada doubled, and, yes, him again, Voit singled him home. Voit has done a hell of a job, especially considering that, coming into this season, I only knew "Voit" as a sporting goods company that specialized in making basketballs.

Those 7 innings that German ate made a big difference, especially since he left with only a 1-run lead in a hitter's park. Boone was able to leave Ottavino and Kahnle on the bench. Britton pitched a scoreless 8th, throwing 19 pitches, giving him 31 on the day -- which is about what a pitcher should throw if he's going 2 full innings. Chapman needed only 9 pitches to toss a perfect 9th.

Yankees 3, Orioles 1. WP: German (8-1). SV: Chapman (11). LP: Andrew Cashner (4-2).

Amazing stat, one that Michael Kay will find very "manageable": The Yankees played 2 games today, with a total time of 4 hours and 41 minutes. Or, as Lindsey Adler of The Athletic pointed out, about the time of a single Yankees-Red Sox game. I would add, "Especially at Fenway Park."

German is the 1st major league pitcher to win 8 games this season, which is only 26 percent done. He has an ERA+ of 166, and a WHIP of 0.954. At his current pace, he could win the American League Cy Young Award, something no Yankee has done since Roger Clemens in 2001 -- and, before that, Ron Guidry in 1978.

No, Mariano Rivera never won it. Nor did Andy Pettitte, nor did David Wells. David Cone won it in 1994, but was with Kansas City at the time. CC Sabathia won it in 2007, but with Cleveland.

At any rate, the Yankees close the night half a game behind the Tampa Bay Rays in the American League Eastern Division, 1 full game in the all-important loss column. Tomorrow is a day off for the Yankees, but not for the Orioles, as they go to Cleveland, so the other rainout couldn't be made up tomorrow. On Friday, the Rays come in, and 1st place will be on the line, as it was last weekend at the Blunderdome in St. Petersburg, when the Yankees took 2 out of 3.

In mid-game, it was announced that Miguel Andújar will have season-ending shoulder surgery on Monday. The only good thing about this is that it is resolved. With Gio Urshela playing so well, both hitting and fielding, the Yankees are not in immediate need of a new 3rd baseman.

The Yankees also made a trade, getting 1st baseman and designated hitter Kendrys Morales from the Oakland Athletics, for a player to be named later or "cash considerations." Formerly a Playoff performer with the Los Angeles Angels and the Toronto Blue Jays, and a 2015 World Champion with the Kansas City Royals, he is about to turn 36 -- which is also the uniform number he was assigned -- and runs nearly as slowly as I do. But he could provide some lefthanded pop. Boone says, "He balances the offense."

He got into the 2nd game tonight, going 1-for-2 with 2 walks. That will light up the analytics section of Cashman's alleged brain.

And Mike Tauchman, who got off to a great start but has fallen off the map as a hitter, was sent back down to Scranton.

Oh well. Tomorrow is a day off, well-earned, and not very common for the rest of the season. Then... bring on the Tampa Bay Strays, and reclaim 1st place!