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Series Recap
·9 min read

Series Recap: Detroit deadlock, Yankees settle for split

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They settled for a split but one can’t help but feel like the New York Yankees left a win on the table against the fledgling Detroit Tigers. The Yankees bolstered the roster with the return of Gary Sanchez and additions of Andrew McCutchen and Adeiny Hechavarria, who flashed the leather. Between the Tigers and Chicago White Sox, the homestand ended at 3-4. Perhaps the Bronx Bombers will rise up to the competition as they head out to the West Coast.

Game 1

Entering the contest the Tigers had the fewest team home runs in baseball. So, naturally, they would turn into the 1987 Tigers and bash five home runs and edge the slugging Yankees 8-7.

WHAT’S HAPPENING?

You can’t win them all (unless you’re Aaron Small I suppose) and J.A. Happ wasn’t going to. Thursday was Happ’s least effective and shortest outing in pinstripes, logging 4.1 frames while surrendering three home runs, including a solo shot to Jeimer Candelario in the first inning, a two-run jolt to Ronny Rodriguez during the fourth frame and a two-run tater to Victor Martinez in the fifth inning. Happ’s line included 10 hits, five runs, three strikeouts and zero walks.

MR. 300

The Bronx Bomber bats struck back at Francisco Liriano in the third inning, although they could’ve had more. Brett Gardner laced a one-out single to center. Aaron Hicks followed by lining a single to right but Gardner ended up being thrown out at third base. With two down, Giancarlo Stanton slugged his much-anticipated career home run No. 300 to right, giving the Yankees a 2-1 lead.

Receiving his first Yankee Stadium curtain call, Stanton became the fifth fastest player to reach the milestone.

GLEYBER GOOD, GLEYBER GONE

With the Yankees trailing 3-2 in the fourth inning, Gleyber Torres made some noise. After a Luke Voit single, Torres smoked a two-run bomb to center, catapulting New York into a 4-3 lead.

HEADS UP BASERUNNING

Trailing once again in the fifth, Miguel Andujar answered the bell and heads-up baserunning by Stanton helped tie the game. Following a Hicks singled and a free pass to Stanton, Andujar beat out a ground ball to third and on the errant throw, Stanton bolted home to tie the contest at five.

LUUUUUKE

In the seventh, with two down and Stanton having reached on a double off Victor Alcantara, Voit drilled a two-run jack to straightaway center, posting the Yankees to a 7-5 lead. The blast led to a chorus of “Luuuuuke” cheers throughout the Stadium.

However, with the Tigers’ on the ropes, Torres tried to stretch a single into a double and was thrown out to end the threat.

BETANCES BUNGLES

It’s hard to get down on Dellin Betances, especially with what he’s provided in the second half this season. Chalk it up to mechanics, routine or whatever you will but for some reason, his struggles come to the forefront a bit more in the ninth inning.

Around striking out the side, Betances walked Nick Castellanos and yielded a wall scraper home run to Martinez, who found a fountain of youth and squared the game at seven. The ensuing batter Niko Goodrum clocked a solo shot to right for the go-ahead and eventual game-winning home run.

Game 2

Tonight was the night Aaron Boone became President err Yankees manager. Boone’s third ejection as skipper was his most animated moment at the helm in pinstripes and fired up his squad. Luis Severino carved out a bunch of K’s and Gleyber Day weekend got off to a great start with a 7-5 victory.

SMOKE SHOW SEVERINO

Severino came out firing darts. Registering his tenth career 10+ strikeout game with 10 K’s, Severino broke the mark set by Pedro Martinez for a Dominican-born pitcher by age 24. After breezing through the first three innings, Severino ran into his first hiccup in the fourth. Goodrum knocked his second home run in as many days and staked Detroit to a 1-0 lead. In the fifth, Severino would strike out the side but not before a two-out, two-run triple by Jim Adduci, increased the Tigers advantage to 3-0.

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Overall, Severino was tagged for six hits, three runs and zero walks, along with the aforementioned 10 K’s in six innings.

BOONE FIRES ‘EM UP

With the Yankees being no-hit by Jordan Zimmerman in the fifth, Boone was none too thrilled with the strike zone and got his money’s worth. Boone’s father Bob was a former catcher and Aaron made sure to frame up where the strike zone was behind home plate. Needless to say, it was the moment Yankee fans have been waiting for from their skipper and he definitely made some more fans in the stands and inside that clubhouse.

SLUGGING SIXTH

After Boone’s ejection, the Bronx Bombers offense erupted during the sixth inning. Austin Romine reached on an error on a ball hit through the wickets of Detroit second baseman Dawel Lugo. Ronald Torreyes followed by reaching on a force out. Gardner, the ensuing batter, broke up Zimmerman’s no-hitter and shutout by jolting a two-run homer to right. With two outs, Hicks hit one to the sticks, squaring the contest at three with a home run to right-center. Giving the Yankees the lead was the next batter, Andujar, smacking a solo home run to left.

BULLPEN DOOR SWINGS

As was the case Thursday, Friday had its fair share of swings and sways. In the seventh inning, Jonathan Holder ran into a bit of trouble around recording two outs, allowing singles to JaCoby Jones and Candelario. With Zach Britton on, pinch-hitter Mikie Mahtook plated Jones with a single to right to tie the game at four.

During the eighth, Britton allowed a pair of consecutive singles to Castellanos and Martinez and issued a free pass to Goodrum. A sacrifice fly to center by Rodriguez, gave the Tigers a 5-4 advantage. Britton would get out of it without any further damage but also without the lead.

GLEYBER DAY WEEKEND IS UNDERWAY

Facing Joe Jimenez, Gardner charged the offense with a double to right to start the eighth. After a Stanton strikeout, Hicks walk and an Andujar strikeout, the Yankees caught a bit of a break when Voit appeared to break or roll his wrist but was awarded a walk, which sent arguing Tigers’ skipper Ron Gardenhire to the showers.

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Instead of a strikeout to squash the threat, Jimenez was pulled for Alex Wilson. Coming through in the clutch was Torres, who came within a doink off the head of the diving left-fielder Mahtook, from an inside the park grand slam. Advancing to second base on the throw, the two-run base knock by Torres, provided the pinstripes with a 6-5 lead. Following an intentional walk to Neil Walker, Romine added insurance with an RBI infield single to deep short up the middle.

ROBERTSON WITH THE “WETTELAND SAVE”

David Robertson entered in the ninth and much like former Yankees’ closer John Wetteland if it wasn’t a one-run lead, had to make it just that much more difficult on himself to get out of the inning. After yielding a leadoff single to Lugo, Robertson fanned Candelario. A walk to Mahtook tough would bring the go-ahead run to the plate. However, Robertson would focus and use a sharp curveball to whiff Castellanos and Victor Reyes to close out the victory.

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Game 3

It was all about quality over quantity in the Yankees 2-1 victory. Gary Sanchez hit the ball about as hard as you can without registering a hit. Andrew McCutchen made his pinstriped debut, reaching on a hit by pitch. Adeiny Hechavarria also made his debut in the Bronx as a defensive replacement at shortstop. The Yankees managed two hits but would only need a big one.

TANAKA TIME

Masahiro Tanaka provided the Yankees with length and made big pitches when he had to. Tanaka became the first Yankee since Andy Pettitte to record 10+ wins in his first five seasons. After three consecutive soft singles loaded the bases with zero outs in the first frame, Tanaka stayed calm, exiting the jam with only one run allowed on a Martinez sacrifice fly RBI to left. On the bookend of his seven strong innings, Tanaka pitched around a second and third with zero outs situation in the seventh and left the game with the lead. Tanaka’s overall ledger displayed one run on seven hits and one walk, along with six K’s in his seven innings of work.

GLEYBER DAY COMES EARLY

Much like the prior contest against Zimmerman, the Yankee bats had some early issues against Daniel Norris and his first four flawless frames. However, in the fifth, Andujar broke up the perfecto with a leadoff walk. After Sanchez lined out, Torres kept his hot hitting going. The rookie shortstop broke up the no-hitter, shutout and gave the Bronx Bombers a 2-1 advantage with a two-run tater to left for home run No. 22 on the campaign. It would turn out the be the difference maker on the afternoon.

BETANCES, THE DELLI BEST

Apparently, Betances can handle the ninth inning after all and he made some history in the process. In recording the save, Betances also fanned one batter, giving him 100 K’s on the campaign. In doing so, Betances became the first reliever in major-league history with five consecutive seasons of 100 strikeouts. He’s a pretty special pitcher.

Game 4

Who knows how much autonomy bench coach Josh Bard had as acting manager with Boone serving a one-game suspension but given how he utilized or rather did not utilize his roster, the Yankees could have put half the team on an early flight to Oakland. Playing catchup all afternoon, the Yankees dropped the series finale 11-7.

THE END OF LYNN-SANITY?

Even “Linsanity” eventually came to an end at Madison Square Garden. Lance Lynn didn’t get hammered but boy did he get hit. Lasting only 3.2 frames, Lynn was lit up for nine hits, six runs, while incredibly only walking one and fanning six.

One could certainly see Sonny Gray getting slotted back into the starting rotation after only yielding one run in four frames of relief. Or with the roster expansion, perhaps the Yankees start “bullpening” with this spot in the rotation.

SHORT-LIVED LEAD

Hicks squared the contest at one with a solo blast to right off Matthew Boyd in the first inning. Following an Andujar double, Sanchez recorded his first hit in his return from the disabled list, singling home Andujar.

IT’S IN THE WAY THAT YOU USE IT

Nobody’s right until somebody’s wrong, as the Eric Clapton song goes, the September roster expansion gave the Yankees a plethora of extra options, which may or may not have been a good thing.

I could see where one might want to give Gray a fresh inning to take over but the way Tommy Kahnle has looked of late, perhaps that’s why he was called upon in the fourth inning. Kahnle gave up a two-run homer to Castellanos, which pushed the Detroit advantage to 7-2.

With Stanton available off the bench, the Yankees chose to keep him there as they forged together a rally. There were certain spots which would’ve called for his services.

Andujar cut the lead to 8-4 with an RBI-single against Louis Coleman. With the bases loaded and one out, the Tigers made the switch to Alcantara. Voit, who picked it nicely at first and homered in the fourth, whiffed on what was also a three-strikeout afternoon. With two down and Walker pinch-hitting for Romine, an RBI-single off Alcantara cut the deficit to three. Bard would then send Greg Bird to the dish in place of the sparkling defender Hechavarria, to represent the go-ahead run at the plate. Bird would scald the ball but ultimately fly out to the wall in right, ending the threat.

In the ninth, the Yankees “rolled out the tarp,” Stephen Tarpley made his MLB debut. Bard said in the postgame if it had been a two-run deficit, they probably call on Chad Green. While Tarpley recorded two outs on the first three batters he faced, he’d leave with a six-run deficit.

Who knows how Detroit would’ve approached things in the bottom of the ninth otherwise but the Yankees did manage to get two of those runs back with Torres notching a two-run single against Shane Greene, running his hit-streak to seven straight games.

ON DECK

At 86-51, the Yankees travel to Oakland to take on the Oakland Athletics in a potential playoff matchup, for a three-game series starting Monday afternoon.

Pitching probables, CC Sabathia vs. Trevor Cahill, J.A. Happ vs. TBD, Luis Severino vs. Mike Fiers.