Wasted Opportunity. Reasons Why KC 6 NY 5 on 6-22-21

The Yankees left 13 runners on base, including leaving bases loaded twice, and Jonathan Loaisiga blew a 3-2 lead in the 8th to cause this wasted opportunity of a loss. To top it off, Aaron Judge hit a drive that looked like a homer to tie the game in the bottom of the 8th, but it hit off the wall for a double and he was left stranded on 2nd.

Boston beat Tampa, so the 38-34 Yanks stayed within 4 of 2nd place Tampa but fell to 5.5 behind 1st place Boston.

1. Cole Pitched Well

It all wasted a good start by Gerrit Cole: 7 innings, 3 hits, 2 runs, 6 K’s. Cole’s mistakes — allowing consecutive singles then a groundout by Whit Merrifield for a run in the 3rd, and allowing a homer to Ryan O’Hearn in the 4th. Other than that Cole cruised through innings.

2. Voit to Detroit

Luke Voit was back in the lineup after a long stay on the DL due to a hamstring pull and immediately announced he was back with a homerun on the 1st pitch to him by Brady Singer in the bottom of the 1st.

3. Higgy Homer

Controversy before the game was that the red-hot Gary Sanchez wasn’t playing — Kyle Higashioka is Gerrit Cole‘s personal catcher and manager Aaron Boone had Giancarlo Stanton — who looked like he was getting hot the last game — as the DH.

Higgy made Boone look like a soothsayer by hitting a homer in the 2nd to put NY up 2-0 at the time.

4. Voit Again! Triple..

Luke Voit hit a ball off the top of the wall that looked like it might be a homerun in the 7th but was a triple. Tyler Wade went in to run for him and scored on a wild pitch to put NY up 3-2 and it looked like Cole was going to get a win.

5. Loiasiga Singled to Death

Jonathan Loaisiga came in to pitch the 8th and for only the second time this season, he didn’t have it. He allowed a leadoff single, a double to Carlos Santana, got a big strikeout — but then an infield single to O’Hearn scored the tying run.

With 1 out pinch hitter Jarrod Dyson hit an easy grounder to Tyler Wade at 2nd in a drawn-in infield — Wade threw home but missed getting the runner by a hair for the go-ahead run. Yankee Twitter considered this the play of the game; some felt it was a good play to try to get the lead run; others felt he should have made the sure out.

Loaisiga got a strikeout for the 2nd out — but then allowed consecutive 2-out singles for 2 more runs and a 6-3 KC lead.

Afterwards, Loaisiga said his sinker didn’t have its usual sharp movement; it was staying up in the zone. When asked if it had anything to do with not using sticky substances for grip, as this was the first game where umpires were checking pitchers throughout the game — he said “I’m used to pitching without using anything,” and the new rules “did not impact me in any way.”

6. Yanks Come Back

DJ LeMahieu hit a 2-run homer in the bottom of the 8th off Kyle Zimmer and the Yanks were right back in the game at 6-5.

The next batter, Aaron Judge, hit the big fly to left that looked like a game-tying homer — until it hit off the wall and was in play for a double.

He was left stranded at 2nd as Rougned Odor popped out and Giancarlo Stanton grounded out.

In the 9th, Gio Urshela got on with a leadoff bloop single, and got to 2nd with the tying run when Gary Sanchez walked with 2 out. Brett Gardner came up with an opportunity to tie the game with a single, but popped out to 3rd for the old ballgame.

Etcetera

  • The 5 Yankee batters at the top of the order all got on base 2 times — Aaron Judge, DJ LeMahieu (.263), and Luke Voit all got 2 hits, Giancarlo Stanton walked twice, and Gio Urshela (.273) got 2 hits
  • Aaron Judge went 2-4 with a double and a walk and is batting .283 (.380 OBP)
  • Gleyber Torres went 0-4 with 4 strikeouts and a walk. He is batting .248 (.328 OBP).
  • Clint Frazier went 0-5 with 3 strikeouts. He is batting .187 (.305 OBP).

This was the first night where umpires were required to check pitchers throughout the evening to make sure they weren’t using any sticky substances for grip. In Philadelphia, manager Joe Girardi asked umps to check Washington’s Max Scherzer a 3rd time, which led to this hilarious confrontation:

The Boxscore

https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore/_/gameId/401228144

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