Here Come the Yankees! — 3 Reasons Why NY 5 Cleveland 3 on 4-23-21

April 24, 2021 paperbacklou 2021 0

In a game just like the night before,

  • the Yankee starting pitcher allowed 3 runs in the 1st inning,
  • then settled down and didn’t allow any more runs, allowing
  • the Yankee offense to come back and take the lead, and
  • the Yankee bullpen to come in and shut things down;
  • this time it was Yankees 5 Cleveland 3; yesterday it was Yankees 6 Cleveland 3.

You can almost copy and paste yesterday’s first paragraph here. But this is different — the Yanks have now won 2 in a row and 3 of 4 — and are 8-11 on the year; they no longer have the worst record in baseball and continue their move upwards.

Here come the Yankees.

Details:

1. Monty Shoulda Won

Jordan Montgomery started and allowed those 3 runs in the bottom of the 1st — a 1-out double to 3rd baseman Jose Ramirez, a double to DH Franmil Reyes, and a single to former Met Amed Rosario. (now playing centerfield for Cleveland). Afterwards, manager Aaron Boone said he was “a hitter away from being out of that game, obviously. I don’t believe in taking him over 35 pitches in that inning.”

Monty then settled in and pitched shutout ball into the 5th while the Yankee offense got him the lead. With NY up 5-3 in the bottom of the 5th, Jordan Luplow doubled with 1 out, but Monty struck out 2nd baseman Cesar Hernandez and then got Jose Ramirez to hit a slow grounder just past him to shortstop. Gleyber Torres tried to short hop the ball instead of charging it with the speedy runner up, and didn’t make the play. Many on Yankee Twitter felt it was an error — but it was ruled a hit.

With 1st and 3rd, 2 out, and cleanup hitter Franmil Reyes, a right-handed batter, up — Boone relieved Montgomery for lefty Lucas Luetge.

Luetge struck out Reyes to end the inning with the prettiest curveball you’ll ever see.

Monty looked pissed in the dugout, and Yankee Twitter agreed with him, feeling

a) Boone shouldn’t have taken him out with 2 outs and a chance to win — the next batter was a righty hitter so why bring in the lefty, and Monty was at 89 pitches, and

b) Gleyber Torres had clearly cost him a chance at a win.

2. Yank BOMBERS Led by Giancarlo, Odor

Down 3-0 after 1 inning, the Yankee offense immediately stepped up. Aaron Hicks hit one to the sticks with 1 out in the top of the 2nd to make it 3-1 Cleveland.

Gary Sanchez then singled and with 2 out, Rougned Odor stepped up and hit a BOMB to right with a bat flip that was talked about all over Yankee Twitter — for a tie game 3-3.

Aaron Boone shook up the lineup in this game for the 3rd time in 3 games — this time placing Giancarlo Stanton second in the lineup ahead of Aaron Judge hitting 3rd. Judge leads the Yanks with a .370 OBP — the move was so that Stanton would see good pitches to get him going.

The move was widely criticized on Yankee Twitter before the game but Boone proved right when Giancarlo Stanton stepped up to leadoff the 3rd and hit a MISSILE to left — it looked like one of the hardest hit balls ever — and could have killed someone in the bleachers if they got hit while looking at their cell phone or something, thinking they were safe out there.

“It’s weird. It’s just different. I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Aaron Boone afterwards on the way Giancarlo Stanton hits homeruns.

In the top of the 5th Giancarlo hit another BOMB to centerfield to make it 5-3 Yankees.

The Yankees only got 6 hits. But 4 homers gets you a lot of bang for that buck.

3. Yank Bullpen = Nasty

Luetge pitched 1.1 shutout innings, Darren O’Day pitched a shutout 7th, Chad Green pitched a shutout 8th, and Aroldis Chapman a shutout 9th for the save. Chapman hasn’t allowed a run yet this year; Green’s ERA is 0.73; O’Day’s ERA is 1.29.

The Boxscore

https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore/_/gameId/401227340

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