The entirety of Yankee Twitter had their finger of blame pointed at Wandy Peralta for allowing a 3-run homer to Tony Kemp in the 6th to cough up a 3-2 lead and hand Oakland the 5-3 victory on a beautiful, 80-degree June Friday night at the Stadium.
Some had another finger of blame pointed at manager Aaron Boone, for even going to Peralta — who now sports a 5.32 ERA — when he had better options available, like leaving the starter in longer or going to other relievers, especially with Zack Britton back now to hold down the 8th.
Other fingers of blame went higher — GM Brian Cashman for ever trading for Peralta, and the owner Hal Steinbrenner, for not spending more money to bring in better middle-inning relievers.
But the Yankees lost to go 36-33, ending their 3-game winning streak. Tampa, Boston, and Toronto all lost too so the Yanks lost no ground; it was just a missed opportunity.
1. Taillon Pulled in the 5th
Jameson Taillon started for the Yanks and pitched ok. With the score tied 2-2 in the 5th, Taillon struck out shortstop Elvis Andrus, walked rightfielder Mark Canha, and struck out centerfielder Ramon Laureano — when Aaron Boone came out and pulled him at 76 pitches. Taillon has pitched into the 90’s in pitches several times this year, including a high of 99.
Instead Boone brought in the lefty Peralta to face the lefty batter Matt Olson, who hit a homerun in the 1st off Taillon and is having an All-Star caliber season as the #3 hitter in Oakland’s lineup. Olson’s slash line is 19-50-.295 as Oakland’s 1st baseman. Peralta got Olson to fly out to end the inning.
The move worked, but backfired in the next inning (below).
Boone Spares No Feelings to His Backend Starters
This marked another game where Aaron Boone pulled a Yankee backend-of-rotation starter in the 5th inning, an out away of qualifying for a potential win.
Because of Boone’s apparent lack of trust in his back-end-of-rotation starters, or lack of caring about their feelings, they now have the following records:
- Jordan Montgomery 3-1 4.20 after 13 starts — has been pulled twice with 2 outs in 5th
- Jamesson Taillon 1-4 5.59 after 13 starts
- Michael King 0-3 4.48 after 11 starts (albiet a few were as an ‘opener’) — was pulled with 1 out in the 5th and 2 outs in the 4th in his last 2 starts.
2. Odor Homer Put Yanks Ahead
Rougned Odor hit a bomb in the bottom of the 5th for a 3-2 Yankee lead and you could imagine how Taillon felt because had he been allowed to get one more out, he’d be looking at a win.
Rougie Down Bronx. pic.twitter.com/xsRUenSDp8
— New York Yankees (@Yankees) June 19, 2021
3. Peralta Loses It in the 6th
And so the game went to the top of the 6th where Peralta got the first 2 outs, but then consecutive 2-out singles put 2 on for Tony Kemp. The count went 2-2.
I think I have a super hero power — I knew the homerun was coming but I didn’t have an avenue to alert Boone quickly enough. Many Yankee fans on Twitter seemed to have this same super power. Intuiition?
TONY "CLUTCH" KEMP#RiseAndGrind | @tonykemp pic.twitter.com/RKT4o2RdQM
— Oakland A's (@Athletics) June 19, 2021
Kemp hit a 353-foot 3-run homer to right and that ended up being the old ballgame.
Defending Boone
On the other hand, all of Boone’s moves made apparent sense in this game — bringing in the left Peralta to face the lefty Olson who had hit a homer off Taillon previously, makes sense. And Peralta got the job done, initially. And the two singles Peralta allowed after getting the first two outs of the 6th were weakly hit. And he had 2 strikes on Kemp…
3. Kaprielian Wins
The Yankees got a runner on several times in the later innings of the game to bring the tying run to the plate, but never got the game-tying homer or rally.
Former Yankee standout prospect and Yankee fan James Kaprielian pitched well and ended up getting the win to go 4-1 2.84. He has finally arrived on the major league scene after years of battling injury. The Yanks traded him as the centerpiece of the trade for Sonny Gray.
DJ LeMahieu hit a 2-run homer in the 3rd to tie the score at the time, 2-2.
DJ got us falling in love again. pic.twitter.com/yhnxd6UZy4
— New York Yankees (@Yankees) June 18, 2021
Kaprielian pitched 5.2 innings allowing 3 hits, striking out 7. The Yankees got only 4 hits on the day. The Oakland bullpen of Yusmeiro Petit, Jake Diekman, and Lou Trivino pitched 3.1 shutout, 1-hit innings.
The Boxscore
https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore/_/gameId/401228095
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