Clarke Schmidt Deals. Yank Offense Throws Down. NY 7 ChiSox 1

August 9, 2023 paperbacklou 2023 0
Aaron Judge hits homer #21 to make it a 7-1 game.

Clarke Schmidt was at it again — pitching another splendid ballgame — 1-run allowed with 7 strikeouts into the 6th inning. And the Yankee offense threw down — supporting him with a 4-run 4th inning to give him a royal 4-0 lead.

Michael King was filthy for 2.2 innings, especially in the 6th when he relieved Schmidt with 1st and 3rd, 1 out in a 4-1 game and struck out 2 to end the inning.

The Yankees threw down 3 more runs late on Kyle Higashioka and Aaron Judge homers, and Jonathan Loaisiga made his first appearance of 2023 — a shutout 9th.

A feel good night for the Yanks.

“That was big,” said manager Aaron Boone afterwards about the bases-clearing double in the 4th by Isiah Kiner-Falefa that put NY up 2-0. “I was telling (hitting coach) Sean Casey before the game, ‘We’re getting these runners on, I just want to see a ball roll to the wall'” and that happened. Certainly pleased with the amount of production we got from a lot of guys.”

NY improves to 59-55, pulling out of last place and now 11.5 behind Baltimore, 9.5 behind Tampa, 4.5 behind Toronto, and .5 ahead of Boston. The Yanks pull back to within 4.5 of the Wild Card — they are chasing Toronto and Seattle at this point. Chicago falls to 46-69.

1. Schmidt Terrific Again

It’s been a crazy year for the Yankees so far — with injuries and a team that has not won as many games as expected — but one of the bright spots has been the ascent of Clarke Schmidt. He started the year getting beat up in start after start, and is now one of the best starters on the team. He wins to go 8-6 4.31. At one point he was 2-5.

“Clarke was really good again,” said Boone afterwards. “Made some big pitches in situations where the game could have gone in a different direction; nipped it right there. Just pleased with the way he’s throwing the ball; another strong effort.”

Schmidt used his knuckle curve more than he normally does. “The curveball was a big pitch tonite,” said Schmidt afterwards. “We probably used it more than we do in typical situations. Increased our chase a lot on it and it was good to get a lot of swing and miss.”

“I’ve honestly had a lot of really good feel for it throughout the year,” added Schmidt. “I just don’t think we’ve used it a ton; we’ve relied on the slider a lot. It was good to put a bigger-shape breaking ball into their minds, and with the shorter slider and then the big curveball I think it kept them off balance.”

Schmidt’s one mistake was an 85-MPH sweeper to Luis Robert Jr.in the 4th that was RIPPED into the seats — John Sterling almost falling out of his chair on the broadcast.

Other than that Schmidt was terrific, pitching into the 6th, when he allowed a leadoff double to Andrew Benintendi then a 1-out infield single to Eloy Jimenez and was relieved with 1st and 3rd, 1 out.

Michael King came in and struck out Yoan Moncada and Andrew Vaughn.

2. Yanks Score 4 in 4th

Meanwhile, the Yankees faced Touki Toussant — a 27-yr-old, 6’2 righty who had found a home as a reliever with Cleveland earlier in the season before they waived him and Chicago picked him up in June. The White Sox have pressed Toussant back into the starter role that he has previously performed with mixed results in Atlanta between 2018-2021, and the Dodgers in 2022.

Toussant showed why he may be made for the reliever role — he struck out the Yankee side in the top of the 1st, then struck out the first 2 Yankees of the 2nd before yielding a single to Harrison Bader.

Toussant got through the 3rd but in the 4th the Yankees seeing him a 2nd time through the order, pounced.

Gleyber Torres led off by flying out to the wall in right center, then:

  • Next batter Harrison Bader singled in Falefa and it was 3-0 NY.

And finally, Toussant struck out Gleyber Torres to end the inning. Oddly, Gleyber made 2 of the 3 outs of the inning, despite almost hitting a homer his first time up.

3. King Filthy

After getting the big strikeouts to shut down the 1st-and-3rd-1-out threat in the 6th, Michael King struck out the first two batters in the 7th for 4 straight strikeouts.

He continued to pitch a shutout 7th and 8th. Filthy.

4. Higgy & Judge Homers Make it 7-1

The Yankee offense turned up the volume in the 7th against T Banks — a leadoff single by Harrison Bader and a pinch-hit homer by Kyle Higashioka made it 6-1 NY.

Aaron Judge followed a batter later with a bomb to left and it was a 7-1 rout.

5. Loaisiga Makes 1st Appearance of Year

The feel-good evening for the Yankees continued in the 9th when Jonathan Loaisiga — who has been out all year rehabbing from elbow inflammation — made his first appearance of the year, and pitched a 1-2-3 shutout inning: ground out, ground out, strike out for the old ballgame.

Etcetera

  • Harrison Bader went 3-5 and is now batting .269.
  • Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Billy McKinney both went 2-5.
  • Aaron Judge walked 3 times and hit a homer. He is now slashing 21-44-.284 (.413 OBP, 1.053 OPS).

The Boxscore

https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore/_/gameId/401472722

 

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