Blowout. 5 Reasons Why NY 10 Detroit 0 on 4-30-21

May 1, 2021 paperbacklou 2021 0

Well that was easy. With Gerrit Cole and the Yankee bullpen pitching shutout ball, and the Yankee Bombers blasting 5 homers, 15 hits and 10 runs — including a Grand Slam by Aaron Judge (one of his 2 homers), the Yankees romped in a game that never seemed close. Even when it was 0-0 in the top of the 1st.

The Yankees scored a run in the bottom of the 1st, a run in the 2nd, 2 in the 3rd, 5 in the 4th, a run in the 5th, and then coasted. Coastal bombers.

1. Cole with 6 Shutout Innings

The reason why it never seemed close even when it was 0-0 was because Gerrit Cole was on the mound; and he hardly ever loses, and wasn’t expected to lose against a Detroit Tiger team that came in 8-18, the worst record in baseball.

Cole was his usual Dominant self — striking out seemingly everybody with ease: 12 strikeouts in 6 shutout innings, 4 hits and was taken out after 87 pitches and the huge 10-0 lead. Manager Aaron Boone saving him for another day.

The other reason the game didn’t seem close when it was 0-0 in the top of the 1st was that Detroit was throwing a lefty starter — Tarik Skubal — at the Yankees’ vaunted right-handed lineup and Detroit’s bullpen isn’t Tampa’s (or Cleveland’s or Toronto’s for that matter).

2. Judge Shows ‘Em

In the days leading up to this game, some of Yankee Twitter were on Aaron Judge‘s ass for being out 2 games with what Aaron Boone mysteriously called lower body soreness. With Judge having missed a significant part of the last 3 seasons with injury, Yankee Twitter was “here we go again” pessimistic. This despite the fact that Judge appeared as a pinch hitter the night before late in the game and has appeared in 23 of the Yankees 26 games this year.

The anti-Judge sentiment was more than personified and taken to highest level by a Tik Tok and tweet by a Twitter account named Dani’s Dugout, accusing Judge of being soft.

With Yanks up 2-0 in the 3rd, Judge hit a BOMB to centerfield off Detroit’s lefty starter Tarik Skubal for a 3-0 lead.

Up 4-0 in the 4th, Judge came up against Detroit’s righty reliever Buck Farmer with bases loaded and hit a titanic drive to opposite field for a Grand Slam and an 8-0 lead. Ballgame.

Judge finished 2-4 and is now at 7-15-.272 (.385 OBP). He is now tied for 4th in the league in homers (J.D. Martinez leads with 9).

3. Giancarlo Pouring It On

Giancarlo Stanton, batting 2nd in the order again, rocked 3 hits — none of them homers but it was the 3rd straight game he has gotten 3 hits, and is now on an 8-game hitting streak.

Just like that is batting .269 (his lifetime average is .268). Before the 8-game streak he was batting .158.

4. Bombers Pound Out 15 Hits vs Detroit Pitchers

After Gio Urshela led off the scoring with an RBI single in the bottom of the 1st, Clint Frazier ripped a homer to left to make it 2-0 NY in the bottom of the 2nd.

Frazier mentioned Sunday that he feels he is ‘close’ in batting practice, and he was right — he ripped a homer Tuesday night, and ripped two SHOTS that were caught on Wednesday night (one at the wall in right; one that the 1st baseman snared).

And Aaron Hicks who has been heavily crapped on by Yankee Twitter the last few weeks with an average in the .100’s and a poor throw the prior game on the game-winning sac fly in extra innings — got some redemption. Hicks hit a homer later in the 3rd after Judge’s homer to make it 4-0, and then doubled in a run in the 5th later in the inning after Judge’s Grand Slam, to make it 9-0.

Rougned Od0r finished the scoring with a home run bat flip in the 5th. What a Great pickup he’s been — the Yankees finally found their lefty power hitter to make efficient use of the short porch in right. And a guy who is a pretty good defensive 2nd baseman to boot. Odor hit 30 or more homers 3 times in Texas and he is 27 years old.

Odor’s deficiencies: he only has a .236 lifetime batting average and he led the AL in strikeouts with 178 in 2019 (he struck out at a far less frequent pace earlier in his career). But the Yankees are only paying $573K of his $12.3 M/yr salary this year and next; Texas is absorbing $11.7M of it each year.

5. Yank Bullpen Spotless

The Yankee bullpen wrapped it up with 3 shutout innings. Luis Cessa was first with a shutout 7th — lowering his ERA to 1.42.

Lefty Wendy Peralta — acquired the other day for Mike Tauchman — made his Yankee debut and pitched a shutout 8th. And lefty Lucas Leutge struck out the side in the 9th. Looks like another good pickup by GM Brian Cashman.

The Boxscore

https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore/_/gameId/401227436

 

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