“If You’re Going to Lose, LOSE”. Yanks LOSE. Cleveland 11 NY 3

September 18, 2021 paperbacklou 2021 0

As they say, “If you’re going to shoot, Shoot” (Eli Wallach in ‘The Good, the Bad, & The Ugly‘), and “If you’re going to Lose, LOSE”. The Yankees LOST this game. In doing so they did many Yankee fans a favor — not wasting their afternoon on an 85-degree, Sunny, near-last-day-of-Summer Saturday afternoon. Versus sucking the fans in but losing in the last inning by blowing a save like they’ve done so often.

1. Gil Pitched 4 Good Innings

Luis Gil (pronounced ‘heel’) started and looked pretty good again thru the first 4 innings of the game. Gil allowed a homer to 1st baseman Yu Chang in the 2nd, and was only down 1-0 into the 5th as Cleveland starter Aaron Civale was shutting out the Yanks.

“We knew bringing him up here, in a lot of ways he’s not a finished product yet,” said manager Aaron Boone of Gil afterwards. “But he’s done a really good job of navigating that; being able to make adjustments on the fly; his poise has been excellent.”

“I thought he threw the ball really well,” added Boone. “I thought his slider was as good as we’ve seen it. But he got himself into enough trouble with a walk here, a walk the next inning to where it made him throw a lot of pitches where he’s in the mid 80’s by the 5th inning, making it a little bit of a grind for him. But I feel like he’s competing and continuing to get better all the time.”

Sanchez Dropped the Ball

Gil got the first out of the 5th too, and then it looked like out #2 when Oscar Mercado hit a pop foul behind the plate — but Gary Sanchez dropped the ball.

“I thought I’ve been very good, especially this year, on catching those flies. I think that’s the first one I missed this year,” said Gary afterwards. “I got under it too much. When the ball is coming down it has backspin. But you have to put it aside; the next time it happens I have to put myself in a better position on that play.”

Gil then hit Mercado with a pitch and instead of 2 outs, nobody on — there was a runner on with 1 out. Gil then walked Jose Ramirez on 4 pitches and was gone after 88 pitches.

2. Abreu Bombed

In came Albert Abreu, and in his worst performance of the season, it all went absolutely downhill fast. In 12 pitches, Abreu allowed a:

  • Double (for a run making it 2-0),
  • Hit by pitch,
  • Double (by Yu Chang making it 4-0),
  • Single (by 2nd baseman Owen Miller making it 5-0),
  • Foul out to Gary Sanchez (drawing a Bronx cheer — for the 2nd out; it should have ended the inning), and
  • Homerun by shortstop Andres Gimenez and it was 8-0 Cleveland for the old ballgame.

Abreu got centerfielder Myles Straw to ground out for the final out.

It is hard to figure what would have happened if Sanchez had caught the first foul pop. It would have been 2 outs, nobody on. Would Gil have finished the inning? Hard to say.

“I think he was probably tiring at that point,” said Boone afterwards, when asked if the Sanchez drop affected Gil.

Gil’s final line wasn’t bad: 4.1 innings, 3 hits, 3 Runs, 2 ER, 6 K’s, 4 walks. His ERA goes to 3.07.

3. Heaney Heinous Again

Andrew Heaney came in for the 6th and almost immediately allowed a baserunner and then a 2-run homer, to the big 6’5 DH Franmil Reyes — to make it 10-0 Cleveland.

NY Yankees Stats reported that “Andrew Heaney has allowed 13 HR since he made his Yankee debut on August 2nd. That’s the most in AL over that span.”

PS: the tweet above by the Cleveland Indians was ratio-ed by Yankee fans, and drew responses like this one from Yankee fan Chris Vitali:

The Indians Twitter person was making jokes all day about where Yankee Stadium was located — must have been some inside joke that almost everyone didn’t get.

4. Civale Shut Down Yanks

Aaron Civale — the 26-yr-old, 6’2 righty in his 3rd season — finished with 6 shutout innings, improving his record to 11-4 3.40.

“He just does a little bit of everything,” said Boone afterwards. “He’s really good at changing speeds, really good strike thrower, but nothings really the same — he changes shapes with the slider and the cutter, mixes in the split, runs a 2-seamer in on you, has the ability to really slow you down with the big curveball. That’s kind of who he is — a big mix of pitches; a real good feel for those pitches. I thought he threw the ball really well for them today.”

5. Giancarlo and Voit Provide Highlights

As Yankee fans were freed up to do wonderful outdoor things on the beautiful, 85-degree late Summer Saturday, Giancarlo Stanton put the Yanks on the board by CRUSHING a meaningless homer to right center in the 7th.

And Luke Voit hit a 2-run bomb in the bottom of the 8th to make it 11-3.

Etcetera

The Boxscore

https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore/_/gameId/401229271

 

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