Yankees Highlights: Gary Sanchez goes deep twice and DJ LeMahieu walks it off

This really wasn’t the Yankees’ best game. Their offense went silent for wide swaths of the game, hardly ever threatening Homer Bailey and the Athletics staff. Domingo German turned in a solid, albeit short, five-inning start, but the bullpen arms that followed him looked shaky, clogging the bases with walks.

Yet as much as critics of the live-and-die by the long ball philosophy like to focus on the times teams die when the long ball doesn’t come, sometimes, the home run brings life. Today, a few crucial big swings from their big bats kept the Yankees in the game, long enough for them to pull out an unlikely win on, you guessed, it a walkoff homer.

Winner(s) of the Game

The Yankees’ offense really did not look sharp today. They struck out 15 times, and produced only six hits in 35 at-bats. Yet they did get their money’s worth on the hits they did manage, including two more bombs off the bat of Gary Sanchez. Sanchez will finish the month of August, his favorite month, as we all know, with eight home runs in just 69 at-bats.

And, of course, DJ LeMahieu was the hero who ultimately sent the fans home happy. LeMahieu only recorded one hit on the day, but it was a big one, a solo shot on the first and only pitch in the bottom of the 11th:

Loser of the Game

This should probably go to a reliever, on a day when several of the Yankees’ relief arms came in and struggled to find the strike zone. The worst performance belonged to Adam Ottavino, who recorded only a pair of outs and yielded two line-drive hits, a walk, and a hit-by-pitch to let the A’s take a take a 3-2 lead in the seventh.

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FanGraphs