Yanks Sweep Tigers; Take Best Record in MLB — Sept 12, 2019: NY 10-4, NY 6-4

September 13, 2019 paperbacklou 2019 0

Win wise, it was a great day. The Yankees swept the Tigers in Detroit, 10-4 and 6-4; Domingo German got his 18th win, and the Astros lost to Oakland so the Yankees took a 2-game lead for best record in baseball. The Dodgers are also 2 games back.

Injury wise, not so good. Edwin Encarnacion, who blasted a homerun in the 1st game — injured his oblique and could be out a while; Gary Sanchez tried to steal 2nd base in the 2nd game, and injured his groin, and could be out a while; J.A. Happ, who pitched the first game — felt continued soreness in his bicep and was taken for a test; supposed to be ‘no big deal’.

Judge Not Injured

Aaron Judge was Superman again — in the 1st game he got on base every time he came up — he walked 3 times, got on base on an error, and drove in a run with a single; was 1 for 2 and scored 4 runs. In the 2nd game he led off the scoring with a homerun to the opposite field in the 1st inning; then later made a terrific catch slamming into the wall in right. When asked later if he was ok after hitting the wall, he said “Oh yeah. Did you ask the wall?”

Luke Voit also shined at the plate — 3 for 4 with a homerun and 3 RBI’s in the 1st game; 1 for 3 in the 2nd game.

First Game

In the first game, J.A. Happ looked terrific through 4 innings — shutout ball. Luke Voit hit a 2-run bomb in the 1st (scoring Judge) and Edwin Encarnacion hit a monster 2-run bomb in the 4th (scoring Judge) to give Happ a 4-0 lead. In the 5th Happ got the first 2 outs, then a single and homerun (by 3rd baseman Dawel Lugo to make it 4-2) and single and he was Gone. Just like that. Yank Manager Aaron Boone pulling no punches — yanking Happ an out away from a possible win. He brought in Chad Green who was lights-out through the 7th. Green turned the game into an easy win.

On the other hill was Matt Boyd, who was rumored to be a pitcher the Yanks might trade for at the deadline. Boyd pitched well overall — 5 innings 3 hits, 2 earned runs — and is now 8-11 4.54.

The Yankee offense piled on 3 runs in the 7th highlighted by an RBI double by Luke Voit (scoring Judge) and 2-RBI double by Cameron Maybin, and then 3 more runs in the 8th, highlighted by a 2-run triple by Didi Gregorius (scoring Judge and Voit) to make it 10-3.

Ben Heller, Cory Gearrin, and Tyler Lyons did the cleanup pitching for the Yanks.

Etcetera

Austin Romine had a bang-up 1st game — going 3 for 4.

The Boxscore

https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore?gameId=401076925

Second Game

In the second game, CC Sabathia started and pitched shutout ball into the 4th. Judge’s 1st inning homer off Detroit starter Spencer Turnbull and DJ LeMahieu‘s RBI double in the 2nd staked CC to a 3-0 lead.. CC got into trouble in the 4th (a 2-RBI single by leftfielder Brandon Dixon) and was relieved by Domingo German. German pitched 4 strong, shutout innings to get the win.

The German Plan

This is the Yankee plan from now on out — as Domingo German has reached 136 innings a career high — the Yankees intend to only have him pitch 4 innings or so the rest of the season. If he started, he would never be able to get a win. So they have him coming in in relief of CC Sabathia. The Yankees have 14 games left; which means 3 more tries to get German 2 wins and 20 wins on the season.

CC Sabathia didn’t get a chance at a win but did get his 3,085 th strikeout passing John Smoltz on the all-time list.

Detroit Defense

Didi Gregorius hit a clutch, 2-out, RBI bloop single that leftfielder Brandon Dixon misplayed and it went for a triple in the 5th to give the Yanks a 4-2 lead and some cushion. Ken Singleton Yankee announcer called it a triple at first and still felt it was a triple after the play as the centerfielder never touched the ball. Ken said he didn’t get many triples during his playing days.

HUGE Line-Out Double Play in the 8th

German and the Yankees’ win was on the line in the 8th — when Tommy Kahnle came in with runners on 1st and 2nd and 1 out. He got a HUGE lineout double play — Gleyber Torres to Didi to double off Harold Castro.

Gio Urshela hit a pinch-hit 2-run homer in the 9th to give the Yanks a 6-2 cushion.

But Kahnle allowed a walk and RBI triple to catcher Grayson Greiner in the 9th forcing Aroldis Chapman to come in and get the save. Kahnle was visibly pissed at himself.

Etcetera

Not starting in 2nd game essentially ended Gio Urshela’s shot at qualifying for a batting title. Coming in he needed to average 4.8 plate appearances in Yanks’ remaining 15 games. With the 1 pinch-hit at bat in 2nd game he now needs 73 plate appearances in 14 games aka 5.21 plate appearances/game the rest of the season.

The Boxscore

https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore?gameId=401167116

 

 

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