Yankees Highlights: DJ LeMahieu, Gary Sanchez save the game in extras

It looked like the Yankees were going to kick off this last series before the All-Star break with a fairly easy win over the Rays. Instead, Aroldis Chapman fell apart in the ninth inning and pushed the game to extras. The Tampa Bay bullpen wasn’t up for the challenge, however, and the Bombers quickly regained the lead and hung on to win the game.

We won’t be running a full recap later in order to let our staff enjoy the holiday. Here’s the box score if you want to check it out. It was honestly a pretty boring game until the bottom of the ninth. Have a safe and happy 4th of July!

Winner(s) of the Game

J.A. Happ is having an awful season, but took a step in the right direction today. In his first outing since surrendering eight earned runs to the Astros, Happ limited the Rays to just one run. He gave up just three hits, walked three batters, and notched five strikeouts. It looked like it might be another bad outing after Tampa Bay pushed a run across in the first inning, but he settled down nicely after that. Consider this credit where credit is due.

The heroes of the night were DJ LeMahieu and Gary Sanchez. After the Rays loaded the bases with no outs in the tenth, LeMahieu knocked a hit through the left side to score two runs. With two on and one out, Sanchez mashed a second-deck home run to crack the game wide open.

Honorable Mention: Edwin Encarnacion for hitting his 25th home run.

Loser of the Game

Chapman totally collapsed. Called upon for the save in the ninth, he walked the leadoff batter then surrendered an RBI double. A wild pitch allowed the runner to move to third with two outs, then Joey Wendle scored on another wild pitch to tie up the game. Thankfully, the offense picked him up. He should probably never wear high socks again though, because that clearly didn’t work for him tonight.

Honorable Mention: Luis Cessa

Chart

Source: FanGraphs