Weird Yankees Stats: August 2019

By winning percentage, August was the second best month for the Yankees so far in 2019. They went 21-9 and increased their lead in the AL East by 2.5 games in that time. Things went pretty well for them.

Let’s not talk about the good moment, though. Let’s not talk about the bad moments either. Let’s go back through the month of August and look at the weird moments.

August 2nd

After the first inning of this game, the Yankees led 4-2. Considering the James Paxton/Eduardo Rodriguez pitching matchup, it didn’t seem out of the question that this was about to turn into a four-hour offensive explosion. Instead, only nine other runners reached base in the final eight innings, and none of them scored. Paxton allowed just two hits in total, and the game finished in a tidy 2:41.

August 3rd

In two regular season starts against the Yankees last year, Chris Sale allowed one run in total. It has not been a similar story this year, and this game was a big reason for that.

Here is how the bottom of the fourth inning played out:

• Edwin Encarnacion single
• Gleyber Torres fly out
• Gio Urshela single
• Cameron Maybin fly out
• Kyle Higashioka single
• Breyvic Valera single
• Brett Garnder single
• DJ LeMahieu grand slam
• Aaron Judge double
• Sale removed

Who would have ever guessed before the season that several of those people would even be on the team, let alone make key contributions against Sale? It was a slightly injury abbreviated year for him in 2018, but Sale allowed just 37 earned runs all season. He’s allowed 22 in four starts against the Yankees in 2019.

August 5th-7th

You can make a million fun facts about the Yankees’ 2019 games against the Orioles. Instead of doing that, let’s just list the players that hit home runs in this series: Austin Romine, Mike Tauchman, Mike Ford, DJ LeMahieu, Didi Gregorius, Brett Gardner, Kyle Higashioka, Gio Urshela, and Cameron Maybin. More on that matchup later.

August 9th

Brett Gardner v. Umpires Part I

In this instance, Gardner was ejected for mistaken identity, causing this. Naturally after all that calmed down, Tauchman homered because 2019 Yankees.

August 12th-14th

Ok, let’s continue with the final series of the season against the Orioles. The Yankees piled on the home runs, including bombs from Gregorius, Urshela, Ford, LeMahieu, and Gary Sanchez. For good measure, Gleyber Torres hit three! Torres finished the year with 13 homers against the O’s, and the Yankees in total hit 61 home runs against Baltimore. The Yankees lost the first series of the season against them. They didn’t lose another game after that. Farewell, 2019 Orioles. You definitely attempted baseball.

August 15th

The opener has generally worked pretty well for the Yankees this season. For a while, they were undefeated while deploying one. They did not win this day. Openers usually last at least an inning, but Chad Green did not do that. He allowed five runs in just 0.2 innings and six batters faced. It was 7-0 after the top of the first, and there was no stirring comeback that day.

August 16th

Brett Gardner vs. Umpires Part II

On this day it wasn’t a mistaken identity, but Gardner was again ejected despite technically not saying anything. This time it was his now famous bat roof thingy that got him sent to the showers. CC Sabathia also got ejected despite being on the IL at the time of this game.

The incident did lead to a new rallying cry and gesture, so that part was fun.

August 23rd

Coming into this game, Hyun-Jin Ryu had allowed just three home runs and seven runs in total at home. The Yankees literally doubled both numbers in one night at Dodger Stadium. Prior to this game, Ryu hadn’t issued an intentional walk all season. He’s did it in this game, though, and it did not work out.

August 24th

It was quite annoying, but the ninth inning of this game was weird. From Didi Gregorius’ ill-conceived bunt with two strikes to the whole timeout controversy, it was an eventful final frame.

August 25th

“Mike Ford once homered off Clayton Kershaw” is a thing we can now say thanks to this game.

Those are the big moments, but if there’s anything we missed, let us know in the comment section.