Who Put Heaney In? Nullifies Gary Sanchez HR’s. Baltimore 8 NY 7

September 6, 2021 paperbacklou 2021 0

Andrew Heaney came in for relief in the 7th inning and allowed 4 runs, blowing a 7-4 Yankee lead and sending them to defeat, 8-7 at the hands of the last-place Baltimore Orioles on a Sunday afternoon at The Stadium.

Who Put Heaney In?

It left Yankee Twitter apoplectic — cursing Heaney, cursing Aaron Boone, and cursing whoever put Heaney in as Boone had been ejected earlier in the game for arguing a ball/strike call — leaving Yankee Twitter to point the finger of blame in the direction of the bench coach whoever that is (Carlos Mendoza) or at Boone making decisions from the locker room.

In any case Yankee Twitter was calling for blood — the DFA’ng of Heaney, or the firing of Boone or the bench coach whoever that was.

The good news, and the bad news — was that Tampa and Boston both lost, as did Oakland. So the Yanks lost no ground — they are still 7.5 games behind Tampa and only .5 game ahead of Boston. But it was a massively missed opportunity. Also Seattle won — they are now a game ahead of Oakland, and 3.5 behind the Yanks for the 2nd Wild Card.

1. Yanks Bullpen Beat Up

Heaney was being used in relief because the Yankee bullpen is extremely beat up. Word came across the wire in the morning that the Yanks best reliever of the season — Jonathan Loaisiga — was going on the 10-day IL due to rotator cuff soreness. Rotator cuff is the nastiest injury a pitcher can face. In the meantime, the Yanks have already lost Zach Britton for the year, Aroldis Chapman is still trying to find himself, Darren O’Day never was, Justin Wilson is gone, and the Yankee bullpen now relies on guys named Wandy Peralta and Lucas Luetge. Even Stephen Ridings is on the IL in the minors.

2. Gary Grand

The Yanks jumped on top in the 2nd when they loaded the bases with 1 out, and Gary Sanchez stepped up. Gary fouled off 3 straight 2-2 pitches, then took a ball for 3-2. And then… GRAND SLAM to the 2nd deck in left for a 4-1 NY lead.

3. Kluber ‘Ok’

Corey Kluber started and cruised into the 4th with a 4-1 lead when he got in trouble. With one out, a single, double, sac fly, hit by pitch made it 4-2 and chased him from the game.

4. Rodriguez to the Rescue… And then Not

Joely Rodriguez came in to strike out the final batter in the 4th. Kluber’s line: 3.2 innings, 4 hits, 2 runs. Not bad but he ran out of gas. One expects him to get better going forward — which would be good news.

The Yanks padded their lead to 5-2 when Anthony Rizzo blooped a 2-out single for a run in the bottom of the 4th.

But Rodriguez got in trouble in the top of the 5th, walking 2 batters after 1 out and was replaced by Albert Abreu.

5. Abreu to the Rescue.. And then Not

Abreu got 2 groundouts to end the 5th, looking real good, and saving Rodriguez.

Abreu was looking good in the top of the 6th as well — getting the first 2 outs — causing David Cone to comment that ‘when Gary Sanchez came up with a bang, it kinda made Brian McCann expendable — and the Yanks traded him (to Houston) for great young arm Albert Abreu. They took a chance and that chance is paying off now.’

Almost immediately, Abreu allowed an infield single and 2-run homer to Cedric Mullins to make it a 5-4 game. The infield single was on Gleyber Torres, who took too long to throw the ball and threw badly to 1st allowing the fast Kelvin Gutierrez to reach. Afterwards, Gleyber said the grass was wet and that caused him to check his grip on the ball before throwing, but it was a play he should have made, and he needs to get better. Yankee Twitter castigated Gleyber as you might imagine.

The inning could have been worse if Giancarlo Stanton didn’t help Abreu out with a spectacular diving catch in right to end the inning.

6. Gary Again!

Not to fear — Gary Sanchez hit ANOTHER homer in the 6th — a 2-run job to left — for a 7-4 Yankee lead. It was Gary’s 20th homer of the year.

7. And then Came Heaney

And so it was on this day that Heaney was brought into the game in the 7th inning with the Yankees enjoying that comfortable 7-4 lead.

He hit Trey Mancini to start the inning, then allowed a soft-contact single to left, a single to right and the bases were loaded with nobody out.

Jahmai Jones then ripped a double to right — just over the outreached glove of Giancarlo Stanton — and it was 7-6, 2nd and 3rd, nobody out. It looked like Stanton got a bit of a bad jump on the ball and that Aaron Judge would have caught it. The whole inning might have been different.

Heaney then got a pop out for the 1st out — rising hope against hope that he could get out of the inning with a 7-6 lead. All he needed was a strikeout.

Could Not Put Away Mateo

Up stepped former Yank Jorge Mateo. An epic 12-pitch at bat followed. Mateo kept fouling off pitches — Heaney could not put him away with his 93-MPH heater. And then.. a bloop single to right for a run and tie game 7-7.

“I thought today coming out of the pen his stuff played up a little bit. He was the victim of some soft contact”, said manager Aaron Boone afterwards. “But in the end, (he) just couldn’t get out of the inning. So it’s an important role, and he’s going to have to share some of that role; he’s going to have to step up. He wants the ball; he’s going to have to take advantage of another opportunity when he gets it.”

Wandy Peralta came in and allowed a single to Kelvin Gutierrez for the 8-7 Baltimore lead. Peralta got a popup and groundout to get out of the inning but damage was done.

The Yanks got 2 runners on in the 7th and a runner on in the 8th but could not break through.

Etcetera

  • Aaron Judge went 0-5 to lower his average to .294.
  • Gleyber Torres low key got 2 hits (2 for 4) and scored 2 runs. He’s now batting .255
  • Gary Sanchez hit the 2 homes and drove in 6 runs.
  • DJ LeMahieu also got 2 hits and a walk at the top of the order. He’s at .268

The Boxscore

https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore/_/gameId/401229096

 

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