Series Recap: Yanks Split Two Games with Braves
This past weekend, the Yankees had a team meeting led by manager Aaron Boone to address the club’s recent shortcomings and embarrassing performances. If you watched this series, you would conclude that the meeting did not work. The Yankees were gifted a win by the Braves, who are off to a similar start to the season. Then the Yankees gifted a game right back. Approaches at the plate have been awful and hitters can only muster up consistently weak contact. Last week, the theme of the recap was that there was no motivation and poor effort on the Yankees’ part. Nothing has changed. An ugly win and an ugly loss was the best case scenario for a team snoozing through April.
Game 1 (Braves 1, Yankees 3)
Jameson Taillon and Charlie Morton squared off against two stagnant offenses. The Braves struck first with a pair of doubles in the third inning to take a 1-0 lead, but Taillon was able to get through 5 full innings. He stuck with a 3-pitch mix (4-seam fastball, curveball, and slider) and struck out five. Taillon nixed the changeup, instead opting to pepper the top of the strike zone with fastballs and then drop the curveball. At times Taillon missed over the middle of the plate, but he was never punished for it.
Gio Urshela provided the charge that the offense needed if the Yankees were to have a shot at a win. He hit a missile over the centerfield wall for a solo home run in the 5th inning. After 5 innings, the score was even at 1-1.
Lucas Luetge was the first arm out of the bullpen in the 6th inning. He fell behind 2-0 in the count to Freddie Freeman, Marcell Ozuna, and Travis d’Arnaud. Fortunately he retired Freeman and Ozuna, and only issued a walk to d’Arnaud before getting through the inning without any damage.
Charlie Morton completed 6 innings, striking out 6 Yankees, allowing 3 hits, and walking 2. The Braves nearly got a lead for Morton in the top of the 7th. Luetge walked Pablo Sandoval, so Boone went to Chad Green. He struck out Dansby Swanson, but then allowed back-to-back weak singles to Austin Riley and Guillermo Heredia to load the bases with one out. Green threw three fastballs and curveball to get Ehire Adrianza swinging. It was Freeman’s turn to bat, so Boone opted for his third pitcher of the inning, Justin Wilson. Wilson forced Freeman to roll over one and get out of the inning.
Fast forward one inning and the Yankees themselves fill up the bases on an Aaron Hicks pinch-hit walk, and singles by LeMahieu and Judge. With pinch-hitter Clint Frazier at the plate, Atlanta pitcher Nate Jones threw a wild pitch, so Hicks scored to give the Yankees a 2-1 lead. Frazier and Gleyber Torres sandwiched outs around an intentional walk to Giancarlo Stanton, so the Yankees again had the bases juiced with 2 outs. Mike ford drew a walk to bring the lead to 3-1.
Aroldis Chapman continued his dominance. He slammed the door shut by striking out 2 hitters in the 9th inning. It was Chapman’s second save of the season, giving the Yanks a 3-1 win.
Yankee of the Day: Gio Urshela (2): 2 for 3, HR, 2B, RBI, R.
Game 2 (Braves 4, Yankees 1)
Coming off of a win, the Yankees brought just as little energy as they have had all season. The teams exchanged zeroes through each of the first four frames. Ian Anderson and Corey Kluber were cruising. But in the 5th inning, Kluber allowed a single to Sandoval. The turning point of the frame occurred two batters after Sandoval. With one out, Kluber got ahead in the count 0-2 to Austin Riley. Kluber was unable to put him away and instead issued a 6-pitch walk. He walked the next batter, Heredia, as well.
With the bases loaded and one out, Adrianza hit a fly ball to centerfield. Hicks caught the ball for the out, but did not even attempt to throw home to nab the slow-footed Sandoval. The play gave the Braves a 1-0 lead. Freeman walked to re-load the bases. Boone went to Nick Nelson in relief, but Nelson entered and walked Marcell Ozuna on four pitches before striking out d’Arnaud. The Braves led 2-0 after their turn to bat in the 5th.
The ugly play really expanded in the 7th inning. With Luis Cessa on the mound, Austin Riley popped a ball up to shallow right field. Aaron Judge slowly charged the popup, as he anticipated Mike Ford to proceed into shallow right field and catch the ball. The ball was just out of Ford’s reach, so it fell in between Judge and Ford. Had Judge charged the ball and called Ford off, the play would have been an easy out. Of course, the very next batter hit a slow ground ball to D.J. LeMahieu at second base, but the result was not ideal. Riley ran just past LeMahieu as he was charging towards the grounder, so LeMahieu could not field the ball cleanly and everybody was safe. Three batters later, Marcell Ozuna grounded into a fielder’s choice, knocking in a run to make the score 3-0 in favor of Atlanta.
The Yankees decided to punt the game in the 9th inning. Boone turned the ball over to rookie Brooks Kriske and he immediately allowed a home run to Riley. The Yankees entered the bottom of the 9th trailing 4-0. The Yankees failed to truly rally, but they spoiled the shutout when Clint Frazier hit a bloop single to right field to bring the final score to 4-1.
Yankee of the Day: Clint Frazier (1): 1 for 3, BB, RBI.
Series Talking Points
Gio Urshela Injury: The Yankees have not had many bright spots this season, and Urshela might not quite truly be one. However, he has been one of the team’s better hitters and was in the midst of a good series. Instead, Urshela exited the second game with lower back stiffness. It remains unknown whether he will miss the next game.
Gleyber Torres Jogging: In the botttom of the 7th inning, Gleyber Torres led off with a check swing dribbler to the catcher. Instead of hustling down the line to first base as if he wanted a hit, Torres pouted and strolled towards first. “I feel like I can put a little bit more effort in,” the shortstop said in his postgame interview. Torres is hitting .186 on the season and has yet to have an extra-base hit. The only thing he should be doing, if anything, is hustling. It does not take talent to hustle. You do not have to spend hours in a batting cage or out on the field in order to give 100 percent effort. Since Gleyber failed to do so, a benching might be coming his way and I would not blame management at all for it.
Aaron Hicks Benched: Aaron Hicks was left out of the lineup for the first game of this series. Boone initially stated that the plan is likely to give Hicks back-to-back games off in order to work on mechanics in the batting cage. Hicks found himself in the batter’s box in the first game, but did not see a strike. Hicks then returned to centerfield for the second game.
Series Totals
Hitting
D.J. LeMahieu: 2 for 9 (.222 AVG), 0 BB (.222 OBP), 1 R, 0 HR, 0 RBI, 1 K (.444 OPS), 0 SB
Aaron Judge: 2 for 5 (.400 AVG), 3 BB (.625 OBP), 0 R, 0 HR, 0 RBI, 0 K (1.025 OPS), 0 SB
Aaron Hicks: 0 for 2 (.000 AVG), 3 BB (.600 OBP), 2 R, 0 HR, 0 RBI, 1 K (.600 OPS), 0 SB
Giancarlo Stanton: 0 for 6 (.000 AVG), 2 BB (.250 OBP), 0 R, 0 HR, 0 RBI, 3 K (.250 OPS), 0 SB
Gleyber Torres: 1 for 8 (.125 AVG), 0 BB (.125 OBP), 0 R, 0 HR, 0 RBI, 0 K (.250 OPS), 0 SB
Gary Sánchez: 0 for 7 (.000 AVG), 1 BB (.125 OBP), 0 R, 0 HR, 0 RBI, 3 K (.125 OPS), 0 SB
Gio Urshela: 3 for 6 (.500 AVG), 0 BB (.500 OBP), 1 R, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 0 K (1.667 OPS), 0 SB
Clint Frazier: 1 for 4 (.250 AVG), 1 BB (.400 OBP), 0 R, 0 HR, 1 RBI, 1 K (.650 OPS), 0 SB
Brett Gardner: 0 for 3 (.000 AVG), 0 BB (.000 OBP), 0 R, 0 HR, 0 RBI, 2 K (.000 OPS), 0 SB
Kyle Higashioka: 0 for 3 (.000 AVG), 2 BB (.400 OBP), 0 R, 0 HR, 0 RBI, 0 K (.400 OPS), 0 SB
Mike Tauchman: 0 for 2 (.000 AVG), 0 BB (.000 OBP), 0 R, 0 HR, 0 RBI, 0 K (.000 OPS), 0 SB
Mike Ford: 1 for 7 (.143 AVG), 1 BB (.250 OBP), 0 R, 0 HR, 1 RBI, 1 K (.393 OPS), 0 SB
Rougned Odor: 0 for 1 (.000 AVG), 0 BB (.000 OBP), 0 R, 0 HR, 0 RBI, 0 K (.000 OPS), 0 SB
Pitching
Jameson Taillon: 5 IP, 1 R, 1 ER, 4 H, 1 BB, 0 HR, 5 Ks, 1.80 ERA
Corey Kluber: 4.2 IP, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 H, 4 BB, 0 HR, 2 Ks, 3.86 ERA
Nick Nelson: 1.1 IP, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 H, 1 BB, 0 HR, 3 Ks, 0.00 ERA
Brooks Kriske: 1 IP, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 H, 2 BB, 1 HR, 1 K, 9.00 ERA
Jonathan Loaisiga: 1 IP, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 H, 0 BB, 1 HBP, 0 HR, 1 K, W, 0.00 ERA
Justin Wilson: 0.1 IP, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 H, 0 BB, 0 HR, 0 Ks, 0.00 ERA
Luis Cessa: 2 IP, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 H, 1 BB, 0 HR, 1 Ks, 0.00 ERA
Lucas Luetge: 1 IP, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 H, 2 BB, 0 HR, 0 Ks, 0.00 ERA
Chad Green: 0.2 IP, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 H, 0 BB, 0 HR, 2 Ks, 0.00 ERA
Aroldis Chapman: 1 IP, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 H, 1 BB, 0 HR, 2 Ks, 1 SV, 0.00 ERA
Darren O’Day: No appearances.