This was a very refreshing game, especially after a frustrating loss last night. CC Sabathia went eight strong innings while the offense picked him up, particularly … Chris Carter??? Anyways, it was a good baseball night for Yankee fans. They improve to 33-23 and are now up 2 games in the AL East again.
The Stopper
Just what the doctor ordered. As Katie Sharp noted, Sabathia has been lights-out this year in games following a team loss. The Yankees were in danger of the Red Sox tying them for first place in the AL East and CC denied it.
Sabathia didn’t get many whiffs – 5 overall – but he got weak outs and called strikes attacking the zone. Take a look:
Sabathia threw a lot outside to RHH’s and inside to LHH’s. A good amount of contact was made on pitches towards the edges of the zone, which is how Sabathia intends to approach hitters – he’s not as overpowering anymore so he needs some finesse to get through the lineup.
When it was all said and done, Sabathia had a 8.0 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 5 K outing, which is more than you could ask from a starter facing the Red Sox lineup. He improved to 7-2, 3.66 ERA for the season. Surprising how well he’s done, huh? Especially after the bad start he had to this season (5.77 ERA in first 7 starts). He has allowed only 4 ER in the past 5 GS and 32.1 IP, which is good for a 1.11 ERA.
Runs!
Unlike last night, when hitting with RISP was the team’s kryptonite — they went 0-for-10 in team’s many chances — tonight was a different story: the team went 5-for-12 in RISP situations and the most impressive offensive performer was Chris Carter. That’s how you know the game is going your way, eh?
The Yankees got the scoring started in the third inning. Didi Gregorius hit a 81 mph changeup fading downwards over the right-center fence for a solo home run. Chase Headley and Carter both followed it up with back-to-back singles and advanced to second and third with a Red Sox infield error. No outs, two runners and scoring position, time to break the game wide open, right? Brett Gardner struck out, Aaron Hicks popped out to make it two outs, and Red Sox intentionally walked Aaron Judge to face Matt Holliday, who flew out to right field to end the inning. New York took a lead but man, that was a tease.
The bats got back into it the next inning, however. Starlin Castro tripled to deep center and Gary Sanchez banged a single to bring him in, breaking a 0-for-13 team cold streak in RISP chances. After a Didi flyout, Headley singled to put two runners on. Carter got a hold of a fastball down the middle and hit a 3-run homer to put the Yankees up top, 5-0.
Carter could have added another HR to his day but was robbed, maybe more than in a way. In the bottom of sixth, he hit a big fly towards right that seemed to head into the seats but Mookie Betts made a perfectly-timed leap to make a catch… or did he? The replays showed that the fan clearly touched the ball before the ball went into the glove, which should be ruled a home run. However, despite Joe Girardi’s protest, the umpires declined to look at the replays. Weird.
Anyways, the Yankees got more runs off Rick Porcello in the seventh. Gardner reached on an error by the second baseman Josh Rutledge and stole second to put himself into, again, a RISP situation. Two hitters later, with the Red Sox pitcher changed to Blaine Boyer, Holliday hit an infield single that drove in Gardner to make it 6-0.
But wait! We’re not done here. With one out in the bottom of the eighth, Gregorius (single) and Headley (walk) reached base against Boyer. Carter, as he did all night, made contact and hit an RBI single that scored Didi. Gardner joined the RBI party with a single to make it 8-0 Yankees.
The factor to the offensive outburst tonight? Well, the top part of the lineup was quiet tonight (2-for-17) but the rest of them were en fuego (10-for-19). Also, as mentioned, helps a lot when Carter drives in 4 runs. He’s taken bad reps most of the year but he came up huge tonight. Props to the big man.
One last fun fact courtesy of Katie Sharp: this is the largest shutout win against the Red Sox at (any) Yankee Stadium since Sept. 3, 1965. Pretty unbelievable that taken been that long.
Box score, standings and WPA graph
Here’s tonight’s box score, updated standings and WPA graph.
Source: FanGraphs
The Yankees will look to take the series tomorrow in the rubber match of the series. Big Mike Pineda will take the mound against David Price. Should be a fun matchup.
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