“Down Town Goes Frazier!” And Aaron Judge (twice)! — April 6, 2019: NY 6 Baltimore 4

April 7, 2019 paperbacklou 2019 0

The headline says it all. Summarizes the game almost completely. Almost.

That Big Son of a Bitch

Was at a Yankee game in 2017 where there were a group of really obnoxious Baltimore Orioles fans next to me, all of us standing in the main hallway behind home plate as the game was about to end with Baltimore getting the win. They were loudly sing-songing their relief pitcher Darren O’Day (“o-day o-day o-day”) who was about to end the game and give the Yankees a loss. With hundreds of Yankee fans around them at Yankee Stadium. And mentioning out loud how so many fans had left the stadium already. Pissing a lot of people off. But Yanks were rallying. One of them speculated to another on the upcoming Yanks — and referred to Aaron Judge as “this big son of a bitch” coming up. He said it with some fear and caution in his voice. The Yanks rallied to tie the game so we all had to go sit back down. Glorious. Unfortunately the Yanks lost in extras.

Since then, Aaron Judge has pummelled the Orioles. I can only imagine what those Oriole fans think of him now.

Almost Identical Monster Shots to Center

Yesterday — Aaron Judge who hadn’t hit a homer yet this year (but was batting around .300 with many singles) — launched one to center the first time up.

Then, after Orioles had tied it, launched another one to center his second time up. These almost seem like identical videos!

In between those homers, Tyler Wade made a spectacular play in the bottom of the 1st to make a single into an out. Since the next batter Trey Mancini hit a homer, it probably saved a run (although you never know if the pitcher would’ve made same pitch to next batter with a runner on, etc etc).

The Baltimore Catcher

A lot of Yankee fans on twitter enjoyed the spirited reaction to some of these Yankee hits by Baltimore catcher Pedro Severino. Check out the second homer by Judge above, and the Clint Frazier shot below.

The Middle Innings

The Yankees loaded the bases with nobody out in the 6th, after Gary Sanchez got hit by a pitch, and consecutive singles by DJ LeMahieu (3 for 4 on the day), and Gleyber Torres (1 for 2 with 2 walks). But Sanchez got picked off third and the Yanks never scored. Meanwhile, J.A. Happ was so-so — couldn’t quite get thru 5 innings. Jonathan Holder came in and got out of a jam in the 5th, pitched a good 6th, but then was left in for the 7th where he got hit. On a key play, Greg Bird bumbled a grounder to first and threw home to miss the runner; had he picked it clean it would have been an out.

Down Town Goes Frazier!

In the 8th, Yanks down 4-3, 2 out — up stepped Clint Frazier, who ‘represented’ the entire Cleveland Indians farm system with this 3-run homer to essentially win the game on a 2-2 pitch:

A lot of people (including us) were curious on twitter as to what John Sterling’s home run call for Frazier was. It is easy to forget Sterling already gave Frazier a call 2 years ago in 2017 when Frazier hit 4 homeruns for the Yanks in his first call up. For the younger folks, “Down town goes Frazier” is an ode to the famous Howard Cosell call when George Foreman annhiliated Joe Frazer for the heavyweight championship of the world in 1972.

The End Game

Adam Ottavino got out of the 7th, but got in trouble in the 8th. Chad Green came in to shut the door. Pressure ratcheted up when Green faced Chris Davis with bases loaded and 2 out. He got two quick strikes on him, then threw fastball after fastball, Davis either letting them go too high, or fouling them off. Finally Green Struck him out. And the boos rang down.

Aroldis Chapman allowed a single in the 9th but got the outs. Ballgame.

The Boxscore:

http://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore?gameId=401074858

Note Other Yank hits: Mike Tauchman hit doubled in the 4th and showed much spirit after sliding into 2nd, and Brett Gardner got a hit (1 for 5 a run scored).

Photo Credit: photo of Clint Frazier for this article taken by Gail Burton/AP.

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