Weird Yankees stats: June 2019

Another month of the 2019 season is in the books. It was yet another successful one, as the Yankees went 17-9, and extended their lead atop the AL East.

However, now it’s time to focus on the weird things that happened. Let’s look back at the wildest moments and games from the month of June.

June 1st/June 11th

Now that it appears to be over, we can make a definitive judgement of Kendrys Morales’ time with the Yankees. It was bad. He recorded just 11 total hits, and put up a triple slash line of .177/.320/.242 in 19 games. It would have been even worse if not for two games.

On June 1st, Morales went 3-for-4 against Rick Porcello and the Red Sox. Ten days later, he went 3-for-5 against Zack Wheeler and the Mets. Without those two games, Morales would have hit .093/.269/.148.

That June 11th game against the Mets also featured a fun, five-run fourth inning where four of the runs were unearned because Todd Frazier made an error with two outs.

June 15th

This was a mostly normal 8-4 win for the Yankees over the White Sox, but I’d like to point your attention to Chicago’s box score:

Welington Castillo had to exit this game game early, causing James McCann to move from DH to catcher. That cost the White Sox their DH, which can always lead to some strange things in an AL game. One of them ended up being Manny Banuelos technically taking Eloy Jimenez’s spot in the lineup. Only semi Yankees-related, but that’s still something to note. That also could have been a scenario that played out in New York had Banuelos’ lived up to his prospect status and had the Aroldis Chapman to the Cubs trade gone differently.

June 17th

This was probably the peak of the Cameron Maybin home run streak, as it was an important one in a 3-0 win. It was the third of four consecutive games played where Maybin homered. Just like all were predicting back in spring training.

June 19th

Blake Snell is the reigning AL Cy Young winner. Early in his Mother’s Day start against the Yankees at the Trop, he sure looked like it. He very much did not in this game. Snell lasted just 0.1 innings in this one, having allowed six runs. What’s even odder is that he only gave up two hits. He just only threw 19 strikes in 39 pitches. We also got a position player pitching as the Rays brought in Daniel Robertson for the ninth. He was actually one of Tampa Bay’s most effective pitchers on the day.

June 20th/June 21st

Gary Sanchez and, especially, Gleyber Torres’ stats against the Orioles this season are well known at this point. However, the two of them hankered back to those games in these two against the Astros. Sanchez and Torres hit a home run each in the two opening games of a series against Houston. Maybe they just hate the color orange.

June 22nd

After a solid Tanaka outing, Jonathan Holder pitched the seventh inning against the Astros and promptly allowed three runs to put Houston ahead. The Yankees then answered back with an Austin Romine home run and a Giancarlo Stanton RBI single. No, those two outcomes aren’t reversed.

June 24th/June 25th/June 26th

This series against the Blue Jays ended with a Yankees sweep. It was about as weird a sweep as you’ll see, however.

In the opener, the Yankees led 10-2 only for the Blue Jays to score six runs in the eighth and ninth, and bring the go-ahead run to the plate. Once again, thanks Holder.

The following day, the Yankees plated an insurance run in the eighth, which turned out to be extremely important, as the Blue Jays then went on to score in the top of the ninth before the Yankees won 4-3. Who was responsible for that insurance run? Former Blue Jay Edwin Encarnacion, who had only come to New York in an out of nowhere trade earlier in the month.

In the series finale, the Yankees finally did fully blow a ninth inning lead, only to score in the bottom of the inning to win.

The Yankees won these three games by a combined four runs despite being in control for the vast majority of them.

June 29th/June 30th

You knew it was coming: the weird games to end all weird games. The Yankees and Red Sox went over to London and played two of the most insane games you’ll see.

In the first game, neither starting pitcher lasted more than two outs. There were six runs scored in four different half-innings. The Yankees had an 11-run lead at one point and still had to face the tying run later on.

In the second game, the Yankees trailed 4-0 after the first inning. Later on, they had a nine-run seventh inning where eight of the nine players in the lineup safely reached base at least once. They opened up an eight-run lead, but again had to face the tying run after some bullpen shenanigans.

The teams combined for 50 runs, 65 hits, and 22 walks in just two games. It would not be shocking if none of those totals were surpassed in the four-game series the Yankees are playing against the Rays at time of writing.