Well that sucked. The Yankees ballpen blew a 3-1 lead in Houston, Greg Bird went 0-4 with 4 strikeouts, and it was announced Luis Severino needs ‘more tests’.
Bird Is Lucy with the Football
The Bird thing is neither here nor there — he is Lucy with the football. Every year he teases us with a terrific spring training. And then the season starts. Even this year, we predicted him to have a good year after his torrid Spring training; even after his failings of last season. On Yankee twitter, comparisons were made all night between Greg Bird and Chris Davis of Baltimore, who last night set a record with 47 consecutive at bats without a hit to start the season.
Severino
The Luis Severino thing is a big deal. I do not expect Severino back this year — and haven’t as soon as he complained of rotator cuff soreness in Spring training. If he comes back this year it’s a bonus. You can only hope his career isn’t threatened by this.
The Game
This was a matchup of two aces — Masahiro Tanaka versus Justin Verlander. The Yanks jumped out to a 1-0 lead on a Luke Voit single in the 1st. Houston tied it with a Jose Altuve homer.
Aaron Judge had a classic at bat against Verlander in the 5th, and then the crack of the bat — a homer to the opposite field in right for a 2-1 Yankee lead.
Muscle up Monday. #AllRise pic.twitter.com/y5FjXxpN9B
— New York Yankees (@Yankees) April 9, 2019
Clint Frazier doubled in DJ LeMahieu in the 6th to give the Yanks a 3-1 lead.
This DJ LeMahieu x Clint Frazier collab is fire 🔥 pic.twitter.com/uzIpeIoW4j
— New York Yankees (@Yankees) April 9, 2019
Yankee Ballpen Failed
Tanaka was shutting down Houston — in complete control. Yankee Manager Aaron Boone scared the crap out of Yankee fans by warming up Jonathan Holder in the 6th but didn’t bring him in. Into the 7th it went, with the vaunted Yankee ballpen taking the hill. In came Zack Britton. And he got Tagged — Tyler White and Yuli Gurriel got on base and then Robinson Chirinos hit a 2-run double to deep right center to tie the score.
Adam Ottavino allowed the go-ahead run in the 8th — with two outs and a runner on 3rd, Carlos Correa hit a little grounder to first that both Ottavino and Greg Bird went after — Bird didn’t charge thoroughly and there was no play at home and Ottavino didn’t cover first. No Man’s land. It seemed to be Bird’s play and Yankee fans on Twitter were PISSED.
Astro Ballpen Succeeded
The Houston ballpen of Will Harris (7th), Ryan Pressly (8th), and Roberto Osuna (9th) retired the Yanks rather easily and that was ballgame.
and the bullpen again failed last night
but the defense of Frazier and Romine failed even more