Anthony Volpe GRAND SLAM Vaults Yanks! NY 11 Oakland 3

May 11, 2023 paperbacklou 2023 0

It was already a 7-2 game when Anthony Volpe stepped up and hit a GRAND SLAM to centerfield for an 11-2 Yankee lead in the 5th — putting the game away.

Earlier, NY scored 4 in the 1st inning — highlighted by a 3-run homer that Harrison Bader “Jeffrey Maiered” into the short porch in right — the homer caught by a fan with outstretched glove — “just” above the reach of A’s right fielder JJ Bleday — but deemed by the umps to be in the vector trajecion to the top of the wall.

Oakland A’s fans — all 50 that are left — didn’t feel the same way and howled on Twitter. To no avail. Yankees 11 Oakland 3 — NY sweeping the 3-game set.

On a beautiful 75-degree Spring Wednesday afternoon at The Stadium — game start time 12:30pm.

Jhony Brito struggled and couldn’t get through 5 innings — leaving in the 5th with a 4-2 lead. Jimmy Cordero got the win in relief. In the other ‘feel good’ story of the day, former Yank top prospect Deivi Garcia pitched 3 solid innings of relief for the save.

“I was pumped to get those runs in for the team,” said Volpe afterwards.

NY improves to 21-17 — 8 games behind Tampa, still in dead last in the AL East. Oakland goes to 8-30.

1, Bader “Jeffrey Maier’s” Homer to Give NY 4-0 Lead in 1st

Oakland lefty starter Kyle Muller began the day with a record. It got immediately worse in the bottom of the 1st when with 1 out, a walk (by Aaron Judge), single (by Anthony Rizzo), walk (to DJ LeMahieu) loaded the bases for Gleyber Torres who hit a sac fly for a 1-0 NY lead.

Harrison Bader — who has been RED HOT since coming off the IL where he was all of April — came up with 2 outs and hit a long fly ball to right — a fan gloved the ball JUST BEFORE outfielder Bleday could get it — a 3-run homer to make it 4-0 NY.

The umps reviewed the play and called it a Home Run.

Oakland A’s fans were non-plussed, as can be seen in the comments to this tweet:

2. Cordero Saves Brito in 5th

Brito struggled through the 1st (a walk and single before getting two fly outs).

Staked to a 4-0 lead, Brito immediately gave up solo homers to Carlos Perez and Jace Peterson in the 2nd for a 4-2 game.

Brito got the last 2 outs to end the 2nd, then:

  • Rope-a-doped the 3rd (allowing a hit-by-pitch and double, but getting a popout and strikeout to end the inning),
  • Pitched a 1-2-3 4th inning, and then
  • In the 5th, allowed a walk and a double after getting the 1st out.

He left with 2nd and 3rd, 1 out; leading 4-2.

Jimmy Cordero came in and got Bleday to pop up, before hitting Jordan Diaz to load the bases, and getting Tony Kemp to pop out to shortstop, leaving the bases loaded. PHEW.

4. LeMahieu HR Makes It 7-2 in 5th

NY took all suspense out of the game in the 5th. If you were working — as it was a work-day afternoon — you looked at the box one minute and it was a tight 4-2 game, and then the next minute it was 11-2 NY.

That was courtesy Aaron Judge double to lead off the bottom of the 5th, followed by an RBI single by Rizzo to chase Mueller.

In came reliever Rico Garcia — and out went the baseball — DJ LeMahieu with a 2-run bomb to center for a 7-2 NY lead.

5. Volpe Grand Slam Puts Game Away

A Gleyber Torres double followed, and then after 2 outs, walks to Kyle Higashioka and Oswaldo Cabrera brought up Volpe.

Volpe had hit a triple in yesterday’s game, to begin to wake out of a mini slump that had sent his batting average under .200.

On the first pitch from Garcia — a 95-MPH four-seam fastball — Volpe rocketed one 419 feet to center.

Oakland A’s fans were non-plussed, as can be seen in the comments to this tweet:

6. Deivi Pitches Good

And then a special treat — after Jimmy Cordero pitched a shutout 6th, old friend and former Yankee top prospect Deivi Garcia came in to pitch 3 solid innings — allowing 2 hits and a run — a homer by Bleday in the 7th. In pitching the final 3 innings, Deivi got the save.

The Boxscore

https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore/_/gameId/401471572

 

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