Yankee Ballpen Blows It — April 9, 2019: Houston 6 New York 3

As much as Monday night sucked, last night sucked even more. Yanks were involved in a “real pressure cooker” — they threw Lasagna at Houston ace Gerrit Cole and into the bottom of the 7th, the Yanks had a 3-2 lead. Jonathan Loaisiga (he says people call him “Lasagna” and he’s fine with that) was pulled after 3 innings (71 pitches) and the Yankee middle relief did well — Stephen Tarpley with a shutout inning (the 4th), Luis Cessa pitched the 5th and 6th scoreless, relieved by Jonathan Holder who got the last out of the 6th and all was well.

The 7th

Holder got the first two outs of the 7th and was cruising. Alex Bregman hit liner to left that would have been the 3rd out and an easy inning. Instead, it bounced off the tip of a diving Clint Frazier‘s glove for a double. Frazier probably didn’t need to dive and Brett Gardner (playing centerfield) surely would have made the play if he was playing his normal leftfield. Instead, the next batter up — DH Michael Brantley — doubled in the tieing run on an inning that should have been over.

Astros Hit Green in the 8th

Chad Green came in to get the final out of the 7th in the now tied game. In the 8th — Green lost it — a single by left fielder Yuli Gurriel, a walk to catcher Robinson Chirinos, a walk to leftfielder Tony Kemp, then a double by centerfielder George Springer and it was over. Tommy Kahnle relieved and allowed a sac fly to Jose Altuve for the 6th run.

And that was ballgame.

Yankee Offense

The Yanks took an early lead on a Luke Voit homerun in the 1st inning.

Later Gary Sanchez crushed a 2-out double to give the Yanks a 3-2 lead in the 5th, plating Brett Gardner and Voit. And that was it for the offense — plenty enough off ace Gerrit Cole to get a win if the ballpen had done its job.

The Baserunning Blunder After the Bunt

In the top of the 3rd, with runners on 1st and 2nd and nobody out, Brett Gardner bunted — and thought it went foul — so didn’t run to first. But it wasn’t a foul ball — and ended up being a double play. A wasted opportunity that had Yankee twitter Lit Up.

Other Yankees

Aaron Judge had a single (in the 8th) and a walk in this game. Gio Urshela and Austin Romine also got hits. DJ LeMahieu, Gleyber Torres, and Clint Frazier were hitless.

The Boxscore

http://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore?gameId=401074889

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