Yankees’ New Shoes Are Worn at the Heels. 3 Reasons Why Atlanta 4 NY 1 on 4-21-21

The Yankees are still broken. The giddiness of the 1-game winning streak that broke up the 5-game losing streak is over — the Yanks couldn’t score again and lost to Ian Anderson of Atlanta, 4-1. Their new shoes are worn at the heels.

1. Anderson Sings

During the 5-game losing streak the Yankees ran into some elite pitching — Hyun-Jin Ryu, Tyler Glasnow, Ryan Yarbrough and the Tampa pen, etc. And the Yankees finally broke the streak by getting past old nemesis Charlie Morton on Tuesday night. But Ian Anderson is not a known name — except the lead singer of Jethro Tull guy which is not this Ian Anderson. Yet this Anderson shut the Yankees out thru 6.2 innings on only 4 hits for his 1st win of the year, lowering his ERA from 4.70 to 3.27.

This Ian Anderson has pedigree. He was the #3 overall pick of the 2016 draft. He’s a 6’3, 170 lb athletic right hander who a scouting report says “has a plus fastball and two above average secondary pitches. He has good command of all three pitches and generates plenty of swing and misses.” The scouting reports lists “his changeup needs work” as his only weakness.

So now the Yankees know who Ian Anderson — this Ian Anderson — is.

2. Kluber’s Sperm in the Gutter in the 5th

Corey Kluber is a big name pitcher — former ace — who is attempting a comeback this year with the Yankees at age 35 after missing last year with the torn teres major muscle. As David Cone has said, Kluber “didn’t really have a rotator cuff injury — he had a teres major injury, which is below the lat muscle, below the bigger muscle. The trend with those types of injuries is that it takes a little longer to heal but once it heals, those guys come back full strength. There’s a good track record as far as that goes.”

Kluber pitched sharply for 4 innings and then lost his control in the 5th. Aaron Boone blamed it on the wind. “Obviously it being cold and windy, I think at times it was a little bit tough getting the feel; even in some of his earlier innings where some of his misses were a little bit scattered,  it may have had to do a little bit with the weather.” Boone added, “Overall I thought the stuff was good and he gave us a chance we just obviously didn’t mount enough offensively.”

Kluber didn’t blame the weather — just said he needed to make an adjustment in that 5th inning, but wasn’t able to figure it out, saying things went “sideways.”

Otherwise he said he feels great, and is getting into the flow. All is good.

Clint Frazer helped Kluber out by making a spectacular catch in the 3rd, with a strong throw to 1st to almost double off the runner (unfortunately the throw hit the runner in the face; he didn’t advance, just got a chin bruise).

This type of catch by Clint Frazier is becoming patented — he has made the same fantastic catch numerous times now — the headlong dive.

3. No Offense Taken

The Yankees got only 5 hits again. It seems every game recently they only get 5 hits. They finally scored a run in the 9th but it was way too little too late.

In the 8th they loaded the bases with 2 out, but DJ LeMahieu hit a sharp groundout to 3rd.

And you shake your head, and say it’s a shame.

Former Yankee Phil Hughes tweeted what everyone was thinking. “This Yankees offense is anemic.”

Don’t blame Aaron Judge who got a hit in that 8th, and overall went 1-2 with 2 walks. Gio Urshela, Gleyber Torres, Mike Ford, and Clint Frazier got the other Yankee hits. Aaron Hicks, batting 7th — walked twice.

Cessa Continues to Do Well

Luis Cessa pitched 2 shutout innings to lower his ERA to 0.93. Nick Nelson pitched 1.1 innings and struck out 3 of the 4 batters he faced. Brooks Kriske pitched the 9th, allowed a run and was sent down to the minors after the game.

The Boxscore

https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore/_/gameId/401227313

 

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