Series Recap: Yanks Leave Philly Empty-Handed
Photo Via: John David Mercer — USA TODAY SportsAfter an enjoyable night without Yankees baseball on Friday, the team returned to action on Saturday and Sunday to ruin our weekend. Facing a team filled with former Yankees players and coaches, the Yankees got pummeled by the Phillies and manager Joe Girardi. All in all, it was a continuation of the 2021 Yankees season.
Game 1 (Yankees 7, Phillies 8) (10 Innings)
Jameson Taillon got single’d to death to start this game. He faced 7 batters. He gave up 5 singles, a walk, and a sac fly. The result was an immediate 4-0 lead for the Phillies. Taillon did not have any putaway stuff, as 3 of the singles occurred in 2-strike counts. The bigger picture does not look good for Taillon, who was supposed to be shaping up at about this point in the season. Nothing against Taillon, who has had to battle back through so much real-life adversity, the Yankees just cannot afford these clunkers. Taillon has no command and the breaking ball does not look sharp, so hitters are not fooled. He now has a 5.74 ERA with the needle pointing in the wrong direction. Lots of his fastballs were in the low-90’s, which will be tough to throw past hitters, especially against AL East opponents.
Add the fact that news of Luis Severino leaving his rehab start with a leg injury simultaneously broke as the Yankees were getting run out of the building and you have yourself a terrible Saturday afternoon for Yanks fans.
Despite it all, Nestor Cortes Jr. entered in the first inning and helped keep the Yankees in the game. The man with the mustache threw from tons of different arm angles and deliveries to keep hitters guessing. He ended up striking out 6 hitters in 3.2 innings of work, while allowing just 1 run. He even got an at bat where he hit a ground out, which was hilarious to see.
Gary Sánchez crushed a home run to get the Yankees going early. The offense made a full-fledged attempt to bail out Taillon. Brett Gardner lined a triple to make the score 4-2 and suddenly it felt like a ballgame again.
All hope was erased when the Phillies tacked on a run against Cortes on a single by Jean Segura, then two more runs against Luis Cessa on a single by Alec Bohm and a double by former Yankees fan-favorite Ronald Torreyes. The Phillies led 7-2 after 5 innings and the game was taking FOREVER.
Naturally, the Yankees rope us right back in. Rougned Odor hit a mammoth home run in the 6th inning, then Gary hit an RBI single in the 8th to make it 7-4. The game was still not looking good, but it allows you to play the “What if?” game in your head.
In the top of the 9th, Miguel Andújar grounded out against Phillies closer Hector Neris. With Brett Gardner and Tyler Wade up next, the odds of tying the game or taking the lead were slim to none. That was until Neris walked each of them to get to D.J. LeMahieu. Of course, LeMahieu has not been his 2019 or 2020 self, but something about when D.J. is in the batter’s box is very calming. Well, LeMahieu battled to a 2-2 count and then turned on one to left field and CLEARED THE WALL. TIE GAME!
Judge and Torres struck out after, so the game headed to the bottom of the 9th with the score all tied up. The Phillies nearly walked it off, but Gleyber Torres made an outstanding play to make sure the Yankees got to bat one more time at least.
The Yanks did not capitalize. Instead, the game went to extra innings where the Yankees failed to even move the automatic runner over one base. Then, the Phillies came to bat against Aroldis Chapman. Travis Jankowski laid down a bunt that Chapman fielded, erroneously checked third base, and rushed a throw to first that was too high for Wade to keep his foot on the bag. Two batters later, Jean Segura hit a walk-off infield single since the fielders were playing in and that was the ballgame. 8-7 Phillies. The Yankees were walked-off against in each of the last two games, both with Chapman on the mound. Yikes.
Yankee of the Day: D.J. LeMahieu (5): 2 for 5, HR, 2B, R, 3 RBI. 3-run home run tied the game in the 9th inning.
Game 2 (Yankees 0, Phillies 7)
The second game of this short series was the most uneventful game of the season, possibly. The Phillies won 7-0 without hitting any home runs and scored 15 runs in the series without hitting a home run. Domingo Germán had his worst outing of the season. Instead of talking about that, I will show you a couple more plays Gleyber Torres made at shortstop, which he played phenomenally this weekend.
Gleyber has rightfully received a lot of criticism about his defensive play. However, it is clear that he really does work at it and he has made significant strides to become better. Ultimately, I like him more as a second baseman because he does not have fantastic range, but he is definitely serviceable at short nowadays.
Yankee of the Day: Lucas Luetge (2): 2 IP, 0 R, 1 H, 0 BB, 1 HBP, 2 K.
Series Talking Points
Are The Yankees Complacent?: Yankees beat writer, Bryan Hoch, asked manager Aaron Boone about whether the team is getting used to losing. The question prompted an agitated response from Aaron Boone, but it was not at all an unfair inquiry.
If you do not want to be asked about losing, you have to win. Winning is not only a great deodorant, but it is the only way to prove yourself in New York. This city and fan base does not care about “signs of life” and “turning a corner” and “better days ahead.” You either win now or you are irrelevant. The Yankees have been the latter nearly all season. The Bombers are now in fourth place in the division and are 8.5 games out of first. The season is nearly halfway over. If things do not turn around soon, I do not see a scenario where Aaron Boone is the manager much longer. If a question like this bothers him this badly, I cannot imagine how bad things can get.
Aaron Judge Back Spasms: Judge sat out on Sunday, which Boone said was due to back spasms. Judge has played 61 games this season, which most fans might not realize. I do not know how severe this injury is, although it sounds like a day-to-day issue. If Judge has to miss significant time or avoid playing the outfield, you can basically mark this season down as finished. The Yankees flat out will not survive an Aaron Judge injury period.
Giancarlo Sits: There was no DH spot this weekend since the Yankees played in a National League park. That meant that Giancarlo Stanton was not in the lineup for either game. That is a perfect microcosm of the Yankees. A freak athlete like Stanton is just too fragile to even shag fly balls for 18 innings in order to keep his bat in the lineup. Do not worry, Yankees fans! He only has 7 more years on the contract plus a $10M buyout for the 8th season. I even like Stanton. I think fans are a little too harsh on him when he slumps. But this is what truly bothers me. It might not even be his call or his fault at all, but to see one of the Yankees best players have to sit out in a NL ballpark is just mind-boggling. What would this team do if it made the World Series? Have Stanton play outfield for the first time in a World Series game? Or bench him? Either way, you are putting the team in a position to fail. Play the man in the outfield! To be honest, he seems to get injured anyways.
Series Totals
Hitting
D.J. LeMahieu: 4 for 9 (.444 AVG), 0 BB (.444 OBP), 1 R, 1 HR, 3 RBI, 0 K (1.333 OPS), 0 SB
Giancarlo Stanton: 0 for 1 (.000 AVG), 0 BB (.000 OBP), 0 R, 0 HR, 0 RBI, 0 K (.000 OPS), 0 SB
Aaron Judge: 1 for 5 (.200 AVG), 0 BB (.200 OBP), 1 R, 0 HR, 0 RBI, 3 K (.400 OPS), 0 SB
Gio Urshela: 0 for 9 (.000 AVG), 0 BB (.000 OBP), 0 R, 0 HR, 0 RBI, 3 K (.000 OPS), 0 SB
Gleyber Torres: 1 for 9 (.111 AVG), 0 BB (.111 OBP), 0 R, 0 HR, 0 RBI, 4 K (.333 OPS), 0 SB
Gary Sánchez: 2 for 8 (.250 AVG), 0 BB (.250 OBP), 1 R, 1 HR, 2 RBI, 3 K (.875 OPS), 0 SB
Clint Frazier: 0 for 3 (.000 AVG), 1 BB (.250 OBP), 0 R, 0 HR, 0 RBI, 2 K (.250 OPS), 0 SB
Brett Gardner: 2 for 5 (.400 AVG), 2 BB (.571 OBP), 1 R, 0 HR, 1 RBI, 1 K (1.371 OPS), 0 SB
Kyle Higashioka: 0 for 1 (.000 AVG), 0 BB (.000 OBP), 0 R, 0 HR, 0 RBI, 1 K (.000 OPS), 0 SB
Chris Gittens: 0 for 1 (.000 AVG), 1 BB (.500 OBP), 0 R, 0 HR, 0 RBI, 1 K (.500 OPS), 0 SB
Miguel Andújar: 1 for 7 (.143 AVG), 0 BB (.143 OBP), 1 R, 0 HR, 0 RBI, 1 K (.286 OPS), 0 SB
Rougned Odor: 3 for 7 (.429 AVG), 0 BB (.429 OBP), 1 R, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 2 K (1.429 OPS), 0 SB
Tyler Wade: 0 for 1 (.000 AVG), 1 BB (.500 OBP), 1 R, 0 HR, 0 RBI, 0 K (.500 OPS), 0 SB
Pitching
Jameson Taillon: 0.1 IP, 4 R, 4 ER, 5 H, 1 BB, 0 HR, 0 Ks, 36.00 ERA
Domingo Germán: 4.1 IP, 7 R, 7 ER, 10 H, 1 BB, 0 HR, 2 Ks, 14.54 ERA
Nestor Cortes Jr.: 3.2 IP, 1 R, 1 ER, 4 H, 1 BB, 0 HR, 6 Ks, 2.45 ERA
Wandy Peralta: 1.2 IP, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 H, 1 BB, 0 HR, 0 Ks, 0.00 ERA
Luis Cessa: 1 IP, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 H, 1 BB, 0 HR, 0 Ks, 18.00 ERA
Lucas Luetge: 2 IP, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 H, 0 BB, 0 HR, 2 Ks, 0.00 ERA
Jonathan Loáisiga: 1 IP, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 H, 0 BB, 0 HR, 1 K, 0.00 ERA
Chad Green: 2 IP, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 H, 1 BB, 0 HR, 1 K, 0.00 ERA
Zack Britton: 1 IP, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 H, 0 BB, 0 HR, 1 K, 0.00 ERA
Aroldis Chapman: 0.1 IP, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 H, 0 BB, 0 HR, 0 Ks, 0.00 ERA
Gerrit Cole: No appearances.
Jordan Montgomery: No appearances.
Michael King: No appearances.
Brooks Kriske: No appearances.