Pitching, and Defense — July 3, 2019: Yankees 5 Mets 1

July 4, 2019 paperbacklou 2019 0

Pitching, and Defense. These headlines write themselves. These Yankee wins write themselves. In this game the Yankees got pitching — from Domingo German who is Back. Not just a 4 or 5 inning first-game-back start, but 6 innings — a normal start. Domingo’s curveball was curving and his fastball was solid. And then Chad Green came in for 2 shutout innings of — get this — setup relief. His “opener” bandmate Nestor Cortes Jr. came in for the final inning of relief. Because of course with Domingo German back in the rotation, the Yanks don’t need an “Opener” anymore. Do the Yankees now have — an over abundance of pitching?? Imagine if Luis Severino comes back (doubtful).

The Defense

And then the Yanks got Defense. A department they certainly have an overabundance of.

In the infield, Gold Glove 2nd baseman DJ LeMahieu — who either plays 1st or 3rd allowing Gleyber Torres and Didi Gregorius to do their scintillating double-play thing — played 1st with Luke Voit out and Edwin Encarnacion slumping, which opened up 3rd base in this game to Gio Urshela — who had been numbers-game sent to the bench after the Encarnacion pickup.

And Gio layed down some draw droppers:

and later, after Gio seemed to possibly injure himself on his homerun as there was hitch to his run circling the bases, he stayed in the game and did this..

In the outfield, Aaron Hicks did this:

The Offense

DJ LeMahieu and Aaron Judge led off the game with doubles and just like that it was 1-0 Yanks. Gleyber Torres got a 2-out RISP single to plate Judge. LeMahieu got 3 more hits to raise his average a point to .342, leading the American League.

Things didn’t start out well for Domingo German, allowing a homerun to the first batter he faced, Jeff McNeil — who leads the National League in batting. When is the last time a Yankee and a Met led their respective leagues in batting?

Vargas = What Hollywood Movie Villain?

And then German settled down. For the Mets, Jason Vargas pitched well until Didi Gregorius and Gio Urshela hit back-to-backs on him in the 6th.

In the meantime, Yankee Twitter had fun trying to figure out what villain Jason Vargas reminded them of. I’ve been saying for a while he looks like a South American drug lord. Vargas layed down a beautiful 2-strike bunt in one inning that had you wondering why every professional Hitter in MLB can’t do the same thing.

Overabundance — Actually an Embarrassment — of Talent

The Yankees right now have an embarrassment of talent on the field and off the field. Remember Clint Frazier, who was batting .285 with 11 homers in 150+ at bats and Red Hot — is in the minor leagues because of the numbers game. Miguel Andujar, last year’s runner up to Rookie of the Year, is out for the year. Gio Urshela — batting .307 (.357 OBP) can barely find playing time.

Encarnacion is still in the top 3 the AL in homeruns; Mike Trout now leads; Gary Sanchez 2nd. But Encarnacion now is losing playing time, so the homerun title is probably gone. Wonder if he wishes he hadn’t been traded to Yanks? Having an over abundance of talent is a good thing, but there are tradeoffs that Aaron Boone must manage.

The All Star game reserve replacements were named today, and Gleyber Torres (19-50-.298, .365 OBP) didn’t make the All Star team. Aaron Boone was quoted as saying “it is a joke that he’s not on that team.”

Etcetera

Michael Kay tweeted numerous times during the night explaining his absence — how he requires surgery on his vocal cords and will be out a month at least. Meanwhile the news broke the day before that John Sterling would be out a while as he is worn down after the London trip — the first time he has missed a broadcast in like 40 years — since the 70’s.

The Boxscore

https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore?gameId=401076024

 

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