Tampa & Brosseau Revenge Game; Tampa 5 NY 2 — Sept 2, 2020

September 3, 2020 paperbacklou 2020 0

Tampa 2nd baseman Mike Brosseau, who had just been BUZZED by several pitches including a controversial 100-mph fastball behind his head by Aroldis Chapman the night before — before striking out for the final out of the game — hit a 2-run homerun in the 1st, and a solo homerun in the 4th to get his revenge on the Yankees.

On the first homer, the Tampa Devil Ray account ragged “Over everyone’s head”:

Montgomery RAKED

Jordan Montgomery started for the Yankees and got RAKED — allowing a leadoff double to centerfielder Manuel Margot, a homer to leftfielder Randy Arozarena, a single to deep right by right fielder Austin Meadows, the homer to Brosseau, a double by shortstop Willy Adames, before striking out two batters. He then walked 1st baseman Nate Lowe to load the bases and was gone from the game — replaced by Nick Nelson.

Afterwards, Montgomery said he hung a few pitches. He said there was nothing mechanically wrong with him, he essentially just fucked up.

It was going to be a bullpen day.

Nick Nelson got the final out of the 1st but walked the first 2 batters of the 2nd and thoughts started going to whether Coronavirus rules had changed enough to allow the Yanks to call up Clarke Schmidt in between innings. It looked like a day when Luis Cessa might have to ride to the rescue and pitch a bunch of shutout innings.

But Nelson settled down and pitched 2 shutout innings, relieved by Jonathan Holder (who allowed the 2nd homer to Brosseau) and then Ben Heller for the final out of the 4th.

Cessa did come in to pitch — 2.2 shutout innings (5th, 6th, and 7th). Adam Ottavino, and Chad Green pitched a shutout 8th and 9th, and the Yankee bullpen ended up allowing only 1 run to Tampa in 8.1 innings.

Tampa Bullpen

Charlie Morton (16-6 3.05 last year for Tampa; 15-3 3.03 the year before for Houston) started for Tampa, but entered with an ERA over 5. He looked like last year’s Morton — pitching 2 shutout, no-hit innings — striking out the side in the 2nd — but then was gone after walking Tyler Wade to lead off the 3rd. He was coming off an injury and was scheduled to only pitch a few innings.

Still the Yankee offense knocked on the door, but couldn’t break through against Tampa’s bullpen all night.

In the bottom of the 4th, after Aaron Hicks struck out, Clint Frazier walked and Gio Urshela hit a double that one-bounced up against the right-field wall off Tampa’s John Curtiss to put runners on 2nd and 3rd with 1 out. The ball just missed going out. But then Curtiss then struck out both Mike Tauchman and Gary Sanchez.

The Yankees broke through on a homerun by Clint Frazier in the 6th to make it 5-1.

In the 9th, DJ LeMahieu singled in a run to make it 5-2, and two runners on with Luke Voit (who leads the AL in homeruns) at the plate. But Luke grounded out to 2nd.

And that was the old ballgame.

Yanks at 20-15 — 4.5 Behind Now

The game meant 2 games in the standings — the Yanks could have pulled to within 1 game of Tampa in the loss column, but instead fell 3 games behind in the loss column, and 4.5 games overall. NY is now 20-15; Tampa 26-12.

Etcetera

The Yanks were managed for the evening by Carlos Mendoza the former catcher. Aaron Boone, Tampa manager Kevin Cash, and Aroldis Chapman were all suspended before the game for the night before’s brew-ha-ha.

During the game, news broke that Tom Seaver had passed away at age 75. In 1975, an argument amongst Yankee fans was who was better — Seaver or Catfish Hunter. Both went to the Hall of Fame. Seaver had alzheimers in recent years — which came early. Seaver owned a vineyard. Hunter owned a farm, and came down with Lou Gehrig‘s disease. You have to wonder if the pesticides used on these farms might contribute to early onset of their diseases.

The Boxscore

https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore?gameId=401226235

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