Domingo German allowed a home run to the 1st batter he faced — Joc Pederson — and then pitched 6 strong innings of shutout ball, pounding the strike zone with his curveball curving, his fastball sharp — to outduel Clayton Kershaw in the Yanks 5-1 victory to take the weekend series 2 games to 1. The Yanks — still tied with Houston for best record in the American League — pull to within 1 game of Dodgers for best overall record and, importantly, won the season series so that if both teams happen to finish with the same record and meet in the World Series, the Yanks would get home field advantage. German improved his record to 17-3 4.03. Kershaw fell to 13-3 2.76.
The Yanks hit 3 homers — DJ LeMahieu led off the game with one, and Aaron Judge hit his 3rd homer in the 3 game series in the 3rd for the game winner.
Temperature: Rising đź‘€ pic.twitter.com/RIYj8wnFC8
— New York Yankees (@Yankees) August 25, 2019
Boom Operator. pic.twitter.com/KwJa8Z5SHN
— New York Yankees (@Yankees) August 26, 2019
Mike Ford hit one out in the 6th to make it 3-1 Yanks against Kershaw who only allowed 4 hits. Ford was an emergency replacement after Didi Gregorius was hit in the shoulder by a pitch in the 1st inning and was removed from the game — Ford went in to play 1st base, LeMahieu moved over to play 2nd base, and Gleyber Torres became the shortstop.
Ford doubled to deep left (opposite field) to knock in an insurance run in the 8th on a 3-2 pitch with 2 out — a terrific at bat. In the 9th Brett Gardner singled, then scrambled to 3rd base after an errant pickoff throw, and scored on a Gio Urshela bloop single to right — Gardner the Disruptor.
The Bullpen Breezes
The Yankee bullpen did its job — Adam Ottavino came in for the 7th and threw filth, then with 2 outs nobody on, Aaron Boone surprisingly went to Tommy Kahnle who threw smoke to strike out his batter. Zack Britton pitched the 8th — 3 easy ground ball outs on 5 pitches.
The Missile
Staked to a 5-1 lead, Aroldis Chapman came with his all-black Players Weekend uniform sporting his nickname The Missile on his back — looking very scary as he started throwing 100 MPH smoke. He threw a strike to his first batter, Corey Seager, then 4 straight balls to walk him. But just as the agita was starting he found the strike zone and struck out the next 3 batters swinging, pushing the radar gun to 102.
Etcetera
The Player’s Weekend uniforms were such that fans either hated or loved them. Most Yankee fans universally hated the Dodgers all-white uniform. We ran a poll on the Yankees uniform, and the results were that out of 322 votes:
- 59% hate it
- 41% love it
Poll: what is your take on the Yankees all-black “Player’s Weekend” uniform?
— Yankees.Blue (@Yankees_Blue) August 24, 2019
The Yankee nicknames on the back of the uniforms are described here:Â https://www.mlb.com/yankees/news/yankees-players-weekend-nicknames
Alex Rodriguez was part of the ESPN broadcast team and mentioned that he talked to Gary Sanchez before the game, and Sanchez told him he feels he is on the verge of going on a hot hitting streak. ARod called Sanchez “not a good hitter — a Great hitter”. Sanchez went 0-4 however in this game.
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