Remember when Josh talked about the Yankees’ 17-0 drubbing at the hands of the Reds last week? Well, he have another one of those to talk about this week.
First, the good part: after that laughable loss at home, the Yankees bounced back with four straight wins. They started with a 5-3 revenge victory over the Reds, where the Bombers overcame a 3-0 deficit. Four of the Yankees’ five runs were scored with the long ball, as Gio Urshela, Aaron Hicks and Gary Sanchez went deep, while Gleyber Torres smacked an RBI single to continue his climb out of an early-season slump. One bat that is still cold is Giancarlo Stanton’s, as the slugger went 0-for-3 with a walk and three strikeouts, dropping his batting average to .168.
It was the Yankees’ turn to pick up a blowout win in the series finale, thumping the Reds 10-2 after jumping on Trevor Bauer for three runs in the first inning, and six over 3.1 frames. Miguel Andujar and Aaron Judge were monsters for New York, with Andujar pounding out four hits including two doubles (clearly channeling his inner 2018), while Judge crushed a home run and a pair of doubles of his own. Even Stanton recorded a hit!
The winning streak reached three the following day against the Tigers (who are currently 4-22 on the season, lol). James Paxton continued his solid season by allowing just one run over seven innings in a 9-1 victory, while the Yankees’ offense stayed hot in the form of eight doubles, including two by Torres. Andujar had a dinger and a double, and Stanton, perhaps climbing out of his funk, had a double and an RBI as well. Despite his three-hit game, I’m sure the Stanton haters still had something to be mad about.
The Yanks made it four wins in a row in thrilling fashion the following night, grabbing a 5-4 win in 10 innings to take game two in Detroit. The Yanks pounced for two runs in the first, but they let the Tigers claw back in the eighth when Chad Green allowed two runs. That spoiled Masahiro Tanaka’s strong outing, where he had twirled seven innings of two-run ball, including 11 strikeouts.
Fortunately for the Yanks, they were able to push across a run in the 10th and Aroldis Chapman closed the door. Torres smacked a home run and is officially on fire, while the Stanton heat-up talk may have been premature. He went 0-for-5 on the night. Oh, and Urshela started at shortstop. I guess Aaron Boone figured it was the Tigers and he could afford to have a little fun with things. He almost got stung for it.
The Yankees couldn’t clinch the series after a 7-3 loss in game three. The Bombers trailed 3-0 after another poor start from Jordan Montgomery, but tied the game with three in the seventh behind an RBI single from Luke Voit and a two-run homer from Gary Sanchez.
Then J.A. Happ happened. The southpaw allowed three runs in the bottom of the eighth to give the win to the Tigers, but the Bombers took the series the following day, winning 6-1 behind a brilliant 8.2 innings from Gerrit Cole. Torres, Hicks and DJ LeMahieu all homered for the Yankees, while Andujar had another two-hit day. He’s up to No. 2 in the lineup.
Okay, this is where things got crazy again. In the series opener back in the Bronx against Cleveland, Luis Severino was pounded for 25 hits in a COMPLETE GAME that the Yankees lost 18-8. Seriously, this comes a week after Montgomery pitched a complete game in a 17-0 loss. Boone really leaves these guys out to dry!
The offense did its part early on, tagging Carlos Carrasco for eight runs through four innings, but unsurprisingly, a really bad Luis Severino continued to be really bad, spoiling three-hit days by Urshela and LeMahieu. We’re going to have to keep track of these complete games that have no business being complete games, but this ridiculous loss dropped the Yanks back down to 16-11 on the season, falling a half game back of the first-place....Blue Jays?