Gleyber Ruins Everyone’s All Star Break. Cubs 7 Yankees 4

July 10, 2023 paperbacklou 2023 0
Anthony Volpe hitting 2-run homer in the 6th that put NY up 3-1.

Domingo German pitched Great, and the Yankees had a 4-1 lead in the top of the 7th, looking like they were about to win the final game before the All Star break, and take 2 of 3 against the Cubs. A feel good game.

Runners on 1st and 2nd, 1 out in the 7th — double-play grounder to 2nd to end the inning. Gleyber Torres boots it. Everyone safe. Bases loaded. And then the Cubs scored 3 runs to tie the game.

Ron Marinaccio didn’t help — coming in for the 8th and allowing all 3 batters he faced to get on — single, walk, walk. Clay Holmes came in with bases loaded nobody out, and a sac fly and wild pitch later the Cubs were up 6-4. Nick Ramirez allowed a run in the 9th and the Cubs won easily, 7-4.

A Feel Bad game, and the Yanks and Yankee fans have to sit on it thru the All Star game break.

On a grey, warm and humid, Sunday afternoon at Yankee Stadium. Thunderstorms threatening throughout.

“We’re not where we want to be,” said manager Aaron Boone afterwards. “But as I just told the group — these guys are competing their butts off. And that’s been evident since Day 1. We’ve faced a lot of adversity so far. We’ve been pretty banged up, and guys have stepped up. And we’re walking into the 2nd half with everything in front of us.”

“As Reggie always said”, Boone continued, ‘We hold the pen’. We’re in control; we haven’t dug ourselves a hole or anything like that. It’s certainly not the way we wanted the 1st half to go — but we’re in position to do something special and achieve all our goals.”

The loss puts the Yanks at 49-42, and dumps them back into 4th place a game behind Toronto, 8 behind Tampa, 6 behind Baltimore, and now only 1 game ahead of the Red Sox. The Cubs improve to 42-47, 7 games behind Cincinnati.

1. German Great

Good news: Domingo German‘s curveball was curving and he was light’s out again. He allowed only 1 hit on the afternoon — a solo homer to Seiya Suzuki just over the left field wall leading off the 5th to tie the game 1-1 at the time. German struck out 9.

When the Yankees scored 3 in the bottom of the 6th to take a 4-1 lead, German was in line for the win. He started the 7th, and walked the first batter Ian Happ.

German was only at 74 pitches but Boone pulled him for Ian Hamilton.

2. Gleyber Scores 1st Run

The Yankees got their 1st run thanks to Gleyber Torres — he led off the 2nd with a single off Kyle Hendricks, went to 2nd on a groundout, and scored on an Anthony Rizzo double.

Gleyber would go 2 for 5 on the day. He could’ve been a hero.

3. Volpe and Higgy Go Back to Back!

It was a 1-1 tie into the bottom of the 6th when the Yankees finally broke thru against Kyle Hendricks. Billy McKinney got a 1-out single, and with 2 outs, Anthony Volpe hit a 384-foot homer to left for a 3-1 Yankee lead.

Kyle Higashioka went back-to-back with a homer to right center and it was 4-1 NY, sending Hendricks to the showers.

4. Gleyber Fucks Up

After German walked the 1st batter of the 7th and was lifted at only 74 pitches,

Ian Hamilton came in and got the 1st out, but a single by Clay Bellinger put 1st and 2nd, 1 out.

That’s when Hamilton got Christopher Morel to hit the double play to Gleyber Torres at 2nd to end the inning. But Gleyber Fucked Up.

Tommy Kahnle relieved Hamilton with bases loaded now and the 1 out — and got a groundout that scored a run.

Then a 2-out single by Yan Gomes tied the game.

“I tried to reel it faster than the normal,” said Gleyber afterwards. “I know that Morel is a really fast runner. So I tried to rush a little. I feel like in those types of situations I need to be a little more secure. I made that mistake and I cost the game.”

5. Gleyber’s Defense

Gleyber’s defense is much like his baserunning — he can make spectacular plays but also often commits mental errors.

Afterwards, manager Aaron Boone was asked about Gleyber’s defense — and his ability to make spectacular plays, but also his propensity to make bad errors like the one in this game. “I don’t think he’s made an outlandish number of errors at 2nd base, necessarily — I don’t know what the number is but I don’t think it’s overly high. It’s part of the game — especially as an infielder — you’re going to make some errors every now and then. Some guys keep that number low. Gleyber makes a lot of dynamic plays too. Look — he makes that play all the time. He didn’t today. It can happen.”

Gleyber currently leads the American League in errors with 9. Brandon Lowe has 7 but Gleyber has over 100 more total chances than Lowe. Marcus Semien and Emmanuel Valdez of Boston have 6. Current fielding percentages of 2nd basemen with 162 or more chances in the American League:

  1. Michael Massey, KC: 201 TC, 1 E, .995
  2. Adam Frazier, Balt: 240 TC, 2 E, .995
  3. Christian Arroyo, Bos: 218 TC, 2 E, .991
  4. Andres Gimenez, Clev: 372 TC, 5 E, .987
  5. Marcus Semien, Tex: 390 TC, 6 E, .985
  6. Kolten Wong, Sea: 192 T, 3 E, .984
  7. Whit Merrifield, Tor: 163 TC, 3 E, .982
  8. Tony Kemp, Oak: 203 TC, 4 E, .980
  9. Gleyber Torres, NY: 312 TC, 9 E, .971
  10. Brandon Lowe, Tampa: 211 TC, 7 E, .967

PS: Jeff McNeil, Mets: 255 TC, 2 E, .992

6. Marinaccio Fucks Up

Ron Marinaccio started the 8th, and allowed single, walk, walk — his pitches not close. After walking the second guy and clearly not having it, he had to stay in due to the pitchers-have-to-face-3-batters rule. With bases loaded, Boone yanked him for Clay Holmes — who allowed sac fly and then threw a wild pitch for a 6-4 Cubs lead.

After that Holmes struck out Bellinger and got a groundout to end the inning.

7. No Redemption

Gleyber Torres had a chance to redeem himself in the bottom of the 8th, with Higgy on and 2 outs — representing the tying run at the plate — but lined out to shortstop.

Nick Ramirez allowed a run in the 9th (single, sacrifice, RBI double) to doom the Yanks and put them down 7-4.

The Yankees went down 1-2-3 in the 9th against Adbert Alzolay for the old ballgame.

The Boxscore

https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore/_/gameId/401472367

 

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