Part of the Grand Plan — May 9, 2019: NY 3 Seattle 1

This was part of the grand plan: good starting pitching for 5 innings, then bring in the vaunted ballpen. What’s missing is the other part of the plan — the awesome lineup that Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, and Didi Gregorius would form the heart of.

In the playoffs, even awesome lineups might not score many runs due to elite pitching. For now, the Yanks come at you with a scrappy lineup that has three (3) guys hitting over .300 — three more than they did all of last year — DJ LeMahieu (.344), Gio Urshela (.354), and temporarily at least, Cameron Maybin (.322). Add Clint Frazier (just under at .298) and Thairo Estrada (.292) — the Yanks have had a machine-gun lineup vs the awesome bazooka lineup predicted.

Executing the Plan in This Game

In this 70-degree May Thursday night at the Stadium, J.A. Happ pitched scoreless into the 6th; and then the ballpen came in to all do their job — Adam Ottavino, Tommy Kahnle, and Zack Britton pitched a scoreless 6th, 7th, and 8th respectively. Aroldis Chapman allowed a homer in the 9th to make it 3-1 but got the save without further agita.

Offensively, the Yanks took a 1-0 lead on a Cameron Maybin RBI double off Seattle starter Mike Leake in the 2nd, and held that 1-0 lead til the 8th when Gio Urshela — who had gotten injured the previous game and didn’t start but came in for Miguel Andujar for defense late — stepped in and got a 2-RBI single for a 3-0.

And that was ballgame.

Leake pitched great — 7 innings, 1 run — that’s the kind of pitching you can expect to be thrown against you in the playoffs. This Yankee team executed its plan on this May Thursday night for the win.

Other Yanks

Gary Sanchez got a hit; Gleyber Torres got 2 to raise his average close to .280 (.278); and Mike Tauchman got a hit. All is good in Yankee Universe — with the win the Yanks are 22-15, 1.5 games back of Tampa heading into a 3-game set in Tampa this weekend.

The Boxscore

http://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore?gameId=401075292

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