Series Recap: Yanks Take Series After Losing The First To The Royals
Photo Via: Kathleen Malone-Van DykeLuke Voit returned and he brought a jolt of energy with him. The Yankees hosted the Royals for three games at the Stadium. After losing game one, the Yanks came back in game two and dominated game three for the series win. With the trip to Boston due up, it was very important to grab a series win. The lineup got going, with the exception of a couple guys. Starting pitching did its job. The bullpen was a mixed bag.
Game 1 (Royals 6, Yankees 5)
Gerrit Cole was going in the first game on Tuesday, so the expectation was naturally a Yankees win. This became especially true once the return of Derek Jeter at shortstop occurred in the 1st inning.
On his first pitch back from the injured list, Luke Voit demolished a baseball over the left field wall. Talk about bringing fire to the squad. Immediately, Tuesday night was feeling like a great time to watch the Yanks.
Higashioka led off the 2nd inning with a solo shot off of Brady Singer and the Yanks had a quick 2-0 lead.
The Royals fought back with a fielder’s choice RBI in the 3rd inning. Then, Ryan O’Hearn punished a pitch from Gerrit Cole in the 4th inning and it was suddenly a tie game.
Each team battled for the next few innings, trading scoreless frames. After not getting a strike 3 call on a pitch well inside the zone, Cole gassed up the last batter of the 7th inning to end his night.
In the bottom of the 7th, Luke Voit nearly left the yard again. Instead, it was a triple, but the Yankees’ best friend (aka the wild pitch) made sure to come through and give the Yankees the lead, 3-2.
The 8th inning is where things fell apart. Jonathan Loáisiga, who has been incredibly great this season, ran into a mixture of bad luck, missed locations, and the heart of the other team’s order. The Royals reeled off 4 runs, a few of which scored without the baseball leaving the infield.
D.J. LeMahieu did not hear no bell! He homered to make the game close again, but unfortunately that was all the Yankees had in the comeback effort.
In the top of the 9th, we were reminded that Gio Urshela is a spectacular third baseman.
Overall, it was a thrilling, yet crushing loss. Now, the Yankees have to win the next two games with Michael King and Jameson Taillon.
Yankee of the Day: D.J. LeMahieu (7): 2 for 4, HR, BB, R, 2 RBI.
Game 2 (Royals 5, Yankees 6)
Just a quick note before diving into the big plays. These four young fans had the best night of their life at Yankee Stadium and you cannot tell me any differently.
Ryan O’Hearn took advantage of the short porch off of Michael King and the Yankees faced an immediate 2-0 deficit. After last night’s loss, the Yankees were in real danger of losing the series.
Clint Frazier hit the equalizer, which was a 2-RBI double off the right field wall.
King got rolling after the 1st inning and made it through 4.2 innings. Chad Green got the last out of the 5th inning, then got through 2 more innings cleanly.
The Yankees went to Zack Britton in the 8th inning with the game tied. Britton had not pitched in a while because of arm soreness. He ended up surrendering a go-ahead solo home run to Carlos Santana and the Yankees were in trouble again.
In the bottom of the 8th, the Yankees walked for the 10th time in the game, but it was erased by a double play. The very next batter, Clint Frazier, got the team’s 11th walk of the game. The Yankees were finally able to capitalize. Rougned Odor crushed a go-ahead 2-run bomb!
Aroldis Chapman entered the game for the save in the 9th inning and things did not go well. He got a strikeout to begin the inning, but allowed a single to Michael A. Taylor. Then, Chapman whiffed Hanser Alberto for the second out of the inning, but the Royals turned the lineup back over to Whit Merrifield. A softly hit ball landed just fair of the right field line, which Aaron Judge played perfectly to keep Merrifield on first with a single. Taylor advanced to third base.
With Carlos Santana stepping in, Aaron Boone made a mound visit. Boone got all the way back to the dugout, then signaled to the umpire to intentionally walk Santana. Chapman was not happy about that decision. Instead of facing Santana, Chapman was tasked with getting Sebastian Rivero out. Rivero is a rookie who had yet to record a major league hit.
With the bases loaded and two outs, Chapman completely lost the strike zone and walked the rookie catcher on four pitches to tie the game. Chapman screamed on the field.
For good measure, the Royals took the lead on a Ryan O’Hearn check swing infield single. Chapman then got out of the inning and blew up in the dugout.
Greg Holland came in for the save opportunity in the bottom of the 9th. He got Aaron Judge to strike out, which brought up Gary Sánchez. The Kraken hit a laser line drive that cleared the left field wall to TIE THE GAME!
Giancarlo Stanton grounded a single to right field and Tyler Wade pinch ran for the DH. A wild pitch put Wade on second base, then Luke Voit did the rest. He came very close to smacking a walk-off home run, but a walk-off single did just fine. Yankees win, 6-5!
The Yankees flirted with one of their more depressing possible losses of the season and turned it into a remarkable win. The change of fate could have a great impact on the season if the Yanks are able to bring the momentum into Boston.
Yankee of the Day: Rougned Odor (2): 1 for 3, HR, BB, R, 2 RBI.
Game 3 (Royals 1, Yankees 8)
The last game of the series went exactly how the Yankees wanted it to go. The Bombers got up early and built up a large enough lead to not require any high-leverage relievers or pinch-hitters. Jameson Taillon threw a great game and Nestor Cortes Jr. did his job to take it home.
In the 1st inning, Aaron Judge got the scoring started with a porch job. Then, Rougned Odor hit a slow roller into the shift, but beat it out for an RBI infield single giving the Yanks a 2-0 lead.
Judge singled in the 2nd inning, so the Yankees were up 3-0 until LUKE VOIT AGAIN! He hit an opposite field shot and the Yankees were off to a comfortable 4-0 lead.
The Royals got one run across, but any hope a complete comeback was erased when the Yankees RELEASED THE KRAKEN! A 3-run tank for Gary made the score 7-1.
Giancarlo Stanton got a single in the 8th to make the score 8-1, which was the final. Credit to Cortes Jr., who threw 2.2 innings out of the ‘pen and racked up 5 strikeouts.
Yankee of the Day: Aaron Judge (9): 3 for 3, HR, 2B, 2 BB, 3 R, 2 RBI.
Series Talking Points
Boone Intentional Walk Decision: Aaron Boone and Aroldis Chapman got into an interesting exchange on Wednesday night. When Boone walked out to the mound as Carlos Santana was due up, it seemed as if he and Chapman disagreed on whether to pitch to Santana. When Boone got back to the dugout, he signaled for the intentional walk. Chapman ended up walking the next batter, Sebastian Rivero, on four pitches to tie the game. Rivero did not have a major league hit in his career.
Boone drew a lot of criticism for not believing in Chapman to get Santana out, but I mostly disagree with the criticism. If Aroldis Chapman’s confidence wavered because he had to face a rookie with the bases loaded, then that says more about Chapman than it does Boone. It was clearly the better matchup with two outs and a one-run lead. Yes, Chapman has a history of great success against Santana, but it also meant Santana had seen him a lot. Santana had also just homered off Britton in the prior inning, so the decision made sense. Chapman not being able to throw a strike with the bases loaded just cannot be attributable to Aaron Boone’s managing. It just cannot. Luckily, the win erased this situation from a lot of people’s minds.
Gleyber Benched: Gleyber Torres got benched for Thursday afternoon’s game. He has been in a horrific funk that is a part of an awful season at the plate. He employed a similar high leg kick in his swing that Gary Sánchez had when he was struggling. He is also leaning so far back on his right shoulder that he is not keeping the barrel in the zone and instead has an elongated uppercut. Hopefully a day in the batting cages let Gleyber figure out what to do for the weekend in Boston.
Urshela Injury: Gio Urshela has been nursing a bad knee for most of the season. Then, he was plunked in the leg during the series against the Royals. The Yankees desperately need Gio to be healthy and in their infield in order to maintain competitive infield defense. It was night and day seeing the infield defense when he is in there turning triple plays, compared to when he is missing and teams are scoring multiple runs on infield fielder’s choices in one inning.
Series Totals
Hitting
D.J. LeMahieu: 4 for 12 (.333 AVG), 3 BB (.467 OBP), 2 R, 1 HR, 2 RBI, 1 K (1.050 OPS), 0 SB
Giancarlo Stanton: 4 for 10 (.400 AVG), 5 BB (.600 OBP), 1 R, 0 HR, 1 RBI, 1 K (1.000 OPS), 0 SB
Aaron Judge: 5 for 12 (.417 AVG), 3 BB (.533 OBP), 3 R, 1 HR, 2 RBI, 4 K (1.367 OPS), 0 SB
Luke Voit: 4 for 13 (.308 AVG), 1 BB (.357 OBP), 2 R, 2 HR, 3 RBI, 5 K (1.280 OPS), 0 SB
Gio Urshela: 2 for 4 (.500 AVG), 0 BB, 1 HBP (.600 OBP), 0 R, 0 HR, 0 RBI, 0 K (1.100 OPS), 0 SB
Gleyber Torres: 0 for 6 (.000 AVG), 3 BB (.333 OBP), 0 R, 0 HR, 0 RBI, 5 K (.333 OPS), 0 SB
Gary Sánchez: 3 for 10 (.300 AVG), 2 BB (.417 OBP), 3 R, 2 HR, 4 RBI, 2 K (1.317 OPS), 0 SB
Clint Frazier: 1 for 10 (.100 AVG), 3 BB (.308 OBP), 1 R, 0 HR, 2 RBI, 4 K (.508 OPS), 0 SB
Brett Gardner: 0 for 8 (.000 AVG), 1 BB (.111 OBP), 1 R, 0 HR, 0 RBI, 2 K (.111 OPS), 0 SB
Kyle Higashioka: 1 for 3 (.333 AVG), 0 BB (.333 OBP), 1 R, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 1 K (1.667 OPS), 0 SB
Miguel Andújar: 1 for 3 (.333 AVG), 1 BB (.500 OBP), 1 R, 0 HR, 0 RBI, 0 K (.833 OPS), 0 SB
Rougned Odor: 4 for 8 (.500 AVG), 1 BB, 1 HBP (.600 OBP), 1 R, 1 HR, 3 RBI, 1 K (1.600 OPS), 0 SB
Tyler Wade: 0 for 3 (.000 AVG), 1 BB (.250 OBP), 3 R, 0 HR, 0 RBI, 1 K (.250 OPS), 1 SB
Pitching
Gerrit Cole: 7 IP, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 H, 3 BB, 1 HR, 6 Ks, 2.57 ERA
Michael King: 4.2 IP, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 H, 3 BB, 1 HBP, 1 HR, 5 Ks, 3.86 ERA
Jameson Taillon: 6.1 IP, 1 R, 1 ER, 5 H, 2 BB, 1 HBP, 0 HR, 6 Ks, W, 1.42 ERA
Nestor Cortes Jr.: 2.2 IP, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 H, 2 BB, 0 HR, 5 Ks, 0.00 ERA
Lucas Luetge: 1.1 IP, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 H, 0 BB, 0 HR, 1 K, 0.00 ERA
Zack Britton: 1 IP, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 H, 0 BB, 1 HR, 2 Ks, 9.00 ERA
Jonathan Loáisiga: 0.2 IP, 4 R, 4 ER, 5 H, 0 BB, 0 HR, 2 Ks, 54.00 ERA
Chad Green: 2.1 IP, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 H, 0 BB, 0 HR, 1 K, 0.00 ERA
Aroldis Chapman: 1 IP, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 H, 2 BB, 0 HR, 2 Ks, W, 18.00 ERA
Wandy Peralta: No appearances.
Luis Cessa: No appearances.
Domingo Germán: No appearances.
Jordan Montgomery: No appearances.