Jameson Taillon Outduels Alek Manoah. NY 4 Toronto 0

June 19, 2022 paperbacklou 2022 0

This one was a piece of cake! As predicted by Yankee fan John Morra.

Even Alek Manoah, the most awesome pitcher in all of baseball right now who came in with an 8-1 record and 1.67 ERA, could not tame the Yankees.

Fans around baseball checking the scores mid afternoon had to be shocked to see NY 3 Toronto 0 in the 4th, and then NY 4 Toronto 0 in 6th with Alek Manoah knocked out. That’s how awesome the Yankees are right now.

And on the hill for the Yankees, Jameson Taillon — former #2 pick in the entire June draft — pitching shutout ball into the 6th to outduel Taillon and win the game to go 8-1 2.70.

And the Yankee hitting hero who got the big 2-out, 3-RBI double to make it 3-0 NY in the 4th? Aaron Hicks — a professional major league hitter who knows how to work a pitcher and put the ball in play. In this case, a line drive down the right field line to empty the bases.

“It was a good day,” said Aaron Hicks afterwards. “I was just looking for a pitch I could drive. I swung at a change-up my first at bat, and kind of rolled over it. So I wanted to make sure I stayed inside of it; I got a fastball down the middle, and I put it in play and hit it hard.”

“When a guy’s been grinding like me,” added Hicks, “you definitely want to enjoy the opportunities when you do something good.”

On a brilliant-sunshine June Saturday at Rogers Center in Toronto; game start 3 pm.

1. Hicks Breaks Manoah

Aaron Hicks has been this year’s Piggy of Yankee Twitter’s “Lord of the Flies” — ripped and ridiculed for his sub-par performances. He started hot but went into a funk that he has come out of the last 3 weeks.

Manoah blew through the Yankees the first 3 innings but in the top of the 4th, he walked Anthony Rizzo with 1 out, and then Gleyber Torres singled to center. Joey Gallo hung in for a 3-2 count but struck out.

Isiah Kiner-Falefa also worked the count — to 3-1 — before hitting a routine slow-hit ground ball to Bo Bichette at shortstop near 2nd — but Falefa BUSTED it with LIGHTNING SPEED down the line and was SAFE at 1st with an infield single to load the bases with 2 outs. See the play midway thru the highlights here.

Aaron Hicks, batting lefty, also worked the count 3-1 before Ripping a shot down the right-field line for a bases-clearing double and 3-0 NY lead!

Manoah got the final out of the 4th and pitched a 1-2-3 5th but in the 6th, Gleyber Torres (that name again) led off with a double that at first left fielder Raimel Tapia — on the run and leaping at the wall — appeared to catch — but Torres immediately knew it had slipped out of his glove, hit the outfield wall, and then bounced back into Tapia’s glove. So Gleyber stayed at 2nd and the play was reviewed — and Gleyber was right.

With 1 out Isiah Kiner-Falefa doubled to left to make it 4-0 and send Manoah to the showers.

“They’ve seen Alek Manoah enough that if he’s a little bit off, they know what to go after,” said Suzyn Waldman on the radio about the Yankee batters.

2. Taillon Outduels Manoah

Meanwhile Jameson Taillon was throwing it down. His 96-MPH fastball had pinpoint accuracy. He turned to his 87-MPH slider in big spots, and used his 94-MPH sinker and 90-MPH cutter to keep batters off kilter. Catching him was Jose Trevino.

Taillon knew he had a good slider and turned to it. “I thought — they showed the metrics here — I thought I had a pretty good amount of horizontal movement on it,” said Taillon afterwards. “I saw that early and I was around the zone with it and sequencing it well, so I went to that in big spots. Sometimes I have a good day with the slider, I feel my mechanics are in a good spot so I can aggressively rip it. But yea, the horizontal was definitely up from previous starts so I saw that and kind of just trusted it.”

Taillon said he watches his metrics on the scoreboard, “I like to look and if I see something kind of off, I know how to fix some little things on the fly.”

Taillon got into a little trouble in the 2nd — 1st and 2nd with 1 out off 2 singles — but got Matt Chapman to popup and struck out Santiago Espinal.

He pitched a 1-2-3 3rd and 4th inning, allowed a leadoff double to Raimel Tapia in the 5th, but then struck out the next 3 batters.

In the 6th Taillon allowed a leadoff walk and then single, but got Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to fly out easily to left and got Kirk on a fly out to center. The Kirk fly to Hicks in center moved the runner from 2nd to 3rd — making it 1st and 3rd with 2 outs — and was lifted for Michael King.

3. King and Holmes a Great Tag Team

Michael King dueled Teoscar Hernandez with 2 outs, runners on 1st and 3rd — and struck him out looking with a 98-MPH fastball — a HUGE strikeout to keep the score 4-0 NY.

King pitched a shutout 7th, and then allowed a leadoff walk in the 8th but struck out Bo Bichette and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. when he was relieved by Clay Holmes.

Holmes got Alejandro Kirk on a groundout for the final out.

In the 9th, Clay Holmes wowed Toronto some more with his filthy sinker — strikeout, groundout, and lineout to DJ LeMahieu at 3rd (who had just been put in for defense) — for the old ballgame.

It was Clay Holmes‘ 29th straight scoreless appearance — the longest streak in Yankees history, breaking Mariano Rivera‘s record. Yankee fan Morty became the first that we saw to suggest Clay Holmes is putting himself into contention for the Cy Young.

Etcetera

The last out of the game was interesting — as manager Aaron Boone (a former 3rd baseman) put in DJ LeMahieu for defense in the 9th at 3rd, replacing Matt Carpenter (who had started against Manoah over Josh Donaldson — to put in Carpenter’s lefty bat against Manoah the strong right-hander).

It means Boone feels LeMahieu’s defense at 3rd is better than Carpenter’s. We wrote about “Who’s at Third” the other day.

The Boxscore

https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore/_/gameId/401355216

 

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