At Least Yanks Made It Interesting in 9th. Philadelphia 4 NY 1

April 5, 2023 paperbacklou 2023 0

Well you can’t win them all.

It was a happy day in Yankee Twitter universe — NY with a 3-1 record and so many fans in a giddy mood, posting their Nestor Cortes Jr imitations on Twitter after YES posted a video of other Yankees doing the same (see Etcetera section at end of article).

But pitching is 70 to 90 percent of baseball and Matt Strahm and the Philly bullpen did a JOB on the Yanks — shutting them out on 1 hit through 6 innings, and 2 hits through 8 innings.

Down 4-0 in the 9th, the Yanks launched a comeback — getting a run on a homer by DJ LeMahieu — and singles by Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton put the tying run to the plate with 2 outs. Alas Josh Donaldson popped up on a 1-2 pitch for the old ballgame.

1. Volpe Got the Lone Yankee Hit through 6 Innings

The story of the game was the Philly pitching:

The only good news through 6 innings was that Andrew Volpe had a hit — the lone Yankee hit. Despite Volpe’s early success, his average was at .180 coming in — so the 1-3 performance raised it to .214 (.389 OBP).

2. Gleyber Got an Infield Single

And in the 7th Gleyber Torres got an infield hit so he remains hot — he also walked and went 1-3 overall; his average is at .333 (.534 OBP).

3. German Good; Vexed by Volpe Not Turning DP in 5th

Domingo German looked good — he allowed 4 runs in 4.1 innings but pitched much better than that.

Sporting a new number — 0 (zero) — he allowed a homerun on the first pitch of the game — to Matt Schwarber — and allowed a homer to Brandon Marsh leading off the 3rd.

But other than that he pitched well. He struck out 8.

It was only a 2-0 game in the 5th when German struck out the leadoff batter, allowed a single to former Yankee Jake Cave, and then got a softly-hit, double play grounder to shortstop that Volpe tried to backhand — to only get the runner at 2nd.

Not turning the double play allowed the inning to continue, and a single by Garrett Stubbs sent German to the showers.

“That’s a play that’s got to be made, and we’re off the field there,” said Volpe afterwards. “It’s as simple as that.”

4. King Shaky

Michael King came in and allowed consecutive RBI singles to Trea Turner and Matt Schwarber — Philly 4 NY 0.

King got the first 2 outs of the 6th before allowing consecutive singles — then got the final out.

King’s line: 1.1 innings, 4 hits, 0 runs — but he didn’t do German or the Yanks any favors. He still looks rusty in his comeback from the elbow injury and procedure last year. He looked great in Spring training, but his velocity is down since then.

His shaky performances so far are cause of concern for NY.

“I haven’t been getting it done. Mechanically it feels like my timing is a little off,” said King afterwards. “I’d much rather give up my own runs than spoil a pretty good start — and it blew the game open — so, I didn’t get it done.”

When asked about his lower velocity, he said “I think that goes back to the mechanics. Trying to generate power early in my mechanics instead of having late hand speed — I feel that affects the velo a little bit but also affects the late movement of it. Not getting it right now; Blake and I talked a little bit about it and we’re going to go into a deep dive into the mechanics and figuring it out.”

5. Abreu & Cordero Pitched Shutout Ball

Albert Abreu pitched 2 shutout innings, striking out 1 and allowing only 1 hit, and Jimmy Cordero pitched a shutout 9th (2 K’s).

The rollercoaster ride of Abreu continues — great to see him pitching well after he did so poorly last August — after NY traded him then got him back from Texas. The Yanks love his arm.

6. Yanks Made a Run at It in 9th

All looked hopeless in the 9th — NY down 4-0 with only 2 hits so far in the game.

But Craig Kimbrel was pitching for Philadelphia and the Yanks love hitting him. DJ LeMahieu hit a 1-out homer for a 4-1 game.

Then Judge walked, and after Torres flied out, Stanton singled to bring up Josh Donaldson with 2 outs and the tying run at the plate. But Donaldson popped up into foul territory on a 1-2 pitch for the old ballgame.

Etcetera

This started the Nestor Cortes Jr windup and delivery immitation:

And then the fans joined in. This was a lot of fun:

If we missed any let us know in the Feedback below and we’ll add to the post.

The Boxscore

https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore/_/gameId/401471092

 

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