Kluber & the Bombers! 4 Reasons Why NY 5 Baltimore 1 on 4-27-21

April 28, 2021 paperbacklou 2021 0

What a day to be a Yankee fan!

Corey Kluber, who has been pitching better and better each start — had his best start yet, pitching 1-run ball into the 7th inning! Looked like his old ace self!

And the Bronx Bombers got lots of hits and scored runs all kinds of ways — including a fundamental-baseball run, a 2-out rally, and BOMBS by Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, and that pesky, new starting catcher Kyle Higashioka — “Higgy” as he is more and more affectionately called. It all gave the Yankees an EASY 5-1 victory in Baltimore on a starting-to-get-warmer late April Tuesday night.

NY is now 10-13 and on the move upward after the 5-10 start.

The details:

1. Kluber Looked Like a Really Good #2

Just like that — Corey Kluber begins to give the Yanks the look of having a vaunted starting pitching staff. It’s been a start by start process — each start his fastball ‘ticking up’ according to manager Aaron Boone and analyst David Cone, and Kluber himself. Each start his location — which is all important for his style of pitching — getting better and better, according to Kluber.

Finally he put it all together. Pitched into the 7th — 6.1 innings, 6 hits, 1 run, 5 strikeouts.

Kluber allowed only the one run — a leadoff double in the 4th to rightfielder Trey Mancini who came around to score on an infield single by 3rd baseman Maikel Franco — Kluber was up 4-0 at the time and that made it 4-1. He cruised after that, never in trouble.

With Domingo German looking good, and Jameson Taillon looking overall pretty good, and Jordan Montgomery looking pretty good, and Deivi Garcia looking pretty good the other night — add that all up with Gerrit Cole as the ace — Yanks are looking… pretty good. That’s the median — calculating the average, they are looking Good. The optimist would project Very Good!

2. The Bronx Bombers ‘Woke Up’

It is getting warmer out as noted at the top, and the Yankee offense may be starting to ‘wake up’. The Yankees got 12 hits in this game — including 3 BOMBS and also got runs with a fundamental baseball play and a 2-out rally.

The Fundamental-Baseball Run

The Bombers started off with some good ole fashion baseball — in the top of the 1st against Oriole lefty starter Bruce Zimmermann, DJ LeMahieu (remember him?) led off with a double, Aaron Judge singled him to 3rd after a Stanton groundout, and Gio Urshela — the most fundamentally sound baseball player on the Yankees — hit a sacrifice fly to center to score the runner. Yankee Twitter raised a collective HALLELULIAH!

The Bombs

In the top of the 3rd, Aaron Judge hit a homer to left. BOOM.

In the top of the 4th, Kyle Higashioka hit a homer to right. BOOM.

The 2-Out Rally

Still in the 4th, with 2 outs — LeMahieu singled, Stanton singled, Judge walked, and Urshela — the most fundamentally sound player on the Yankees — got a 2-out single to left to plate a run and make it 4-0 NY.

The Insurance Bomb

In the top of the 7th, Giancarlo Stanton led off with a LOOONG homer to center to make it 5-1. BOOM. The insurance policy cashed.

On the day:

  • LeMahieu (batting leadoff) went 2-4 to raise his average to .262
  • Stanton (batting 2nd) went 2-4 to raise his average to .205
  • Judge (batting 3rd) went 2-4 to raise his average to .263
  • Urshela (batting 4th) went 1-3 to raise his average to .267
  • Gleyber Torres (batting 5th) went 2-4 to raise his average to .222
  • Higgy (batting 8th) went 2-4 to raise his average to .320
  • Rougned Oder (batting 9th) got the other Yankee hit — going 1-3

Those Yankee batting averages are starting to rise. And note — the top 3 Yanks in the order all got 2 hits! And look how good the top 5 in the order did!

3. Loaisiga & the Bullpen Sharp Again

Jonathan Loaisiga relieved Kluber in the 7th and pitched the 8th too — shutout ball again, and striking out 3 of the 4 outs he got. There are those who have compared him to Mariano Rivera. ‘Johnny Lasagna’ has looked good this year; he has a 1.23 ERA.

Lucas Luetge pitched a scoreless 9th and that was the Old Ballgame.

Etcetera

Before the game the Yankees announced they had traded Mike Tauchman to the San Francisco Giants for left-handed reliever Wandy Peralta and a player to be named later.

It seems they are reducing their outfield log jam to free up time for Giancarlo Stanton to play out there, so Miguel Andujar — who before the game was taken off the Injured List and made active at the alternate site — can get bats at DH.

Tauchman was great for the Yanks — excellent outfielder, fast and excellent baserunner, and gave them a solid bat — but it will also be good to see Andujar’s bat back in the lineup a bit, if that is indeed the plan.

Also before the game, it was announced that Higgy would be the starting catcher — not only for this game but apparently into the future, and that Aaron Boone had ‘talked to’ Gary Sanchez about it. Higgy has been red hot and catching well.

Not only has Higgy (4-6-.320, .414 OBP in 25 At Bats) outhit Sanchez (2-4-.182, .308 OBP in 55 At Bats) by a large margin, but @NYYFanForever96 pointed out the pitcher-handling difference:

  • Yankees Pitchers with Kyle Higashioka : 2.43 ERA
  • Yankees Pitchers with Gary Sanchez: 3.92 ERA

The Boxscore

https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore/_/gameId/401227399

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.


*