Good News All Round: Jhony Brito & Pen Shuts ‘Em Down. NY 4 Baltimore 1

April 9, 2023 paperbacklou 2023 0

It was good news all around on a Saturday night in Baltimore:

  • Rookie Jhony Brito threw down another excellent start,
  • Rookie Anthony Volpe broke out of his slump with a triple — banging one off the wall to the opposite field and then using incredible speed to fly to 3rd base,
  • Michael King pitched 2 shutout innings of relief, looking like his old self,
  • Giancarlo Stanton ripped a MISSILE of a homer to left,
  • Aaron Judge extended his now 41-game consecutive on-base streak, and
  • Wandy Peralta and Clay Holmes looked dominant closing up.

Even Aaron Hicks got a hit and an RBI — a clutch 2-out hit that tied the score at the time.

Happy Easter and Passover to you too.

The Yanks improve to 5-3, which is a 100-60 pace — and fuck Tampa while we’re at it, who went to 8-0 by winning their game.

1. Brito Brilliant

Rookie Jhony Brito had an excellent first start, and was then stashed back in AAA so he could keep pitching as the Yanks didn’t need a 5th starter for a while. Some Yankee fans were displeased that Clarke Schmidt was still in the rotation at the expense of Brito — but here was Brito again for his 2nd start, after Schmidt got ripped the day before.

Brito did the things that Schmidt hasn’t in his two starts — he worked the strike zone; used location and command to control the count. And used filthy changeups to get the Orioles out.

Brito also minimized damage — the game didn’t start out well for him as Cedric Mullins led off with a single, and Adley Rutschman got on with an infield single to put 1st and 3rd, nobody out. But Brito got tough — allowing a sac fly to Anthony Santander and then two groundouts to end the inning.

After that Brito got groundout, groundout, groundout in the 2nd, and worked around a walk in the 3rd and 4th with more groundouts and a couple of fly outs.

“I mean it wasn’t perfect by any means,” said manager Aaron Boone about Brito afterwards. “He pitched behind in the count some, but he never gives in, and he doesn’t ever get flustered. It’s a great attribute to have. Even there in the 5th inning — he’s 3-0 on Terrin Vavre and a hitter away from being out of that game, he comes back on makes pitches to Mullins, makes pitches to Rutschman to finish off a gutsy 5-inning, 1-run outing to pick up the win and set us up down there in the pen. That’s a good example of it doesn’t always have to be perfect; you don’t always have to necessarily be at your best, but he made a lot of big pitches when he needed to.”

“You got to control what you can control,” said Brito afterwards, as the Bee Gee’s “Staying Alive” was playing in the background.

Brito was helped by the Yanks’ fantastic defense:

In the 2nd, DJ LeMahieu made a Gold Glove play at 3rd for one of those groundouts:

In the 4th, Oswaldo Cabrera made a tremendous catch for one of those fly outs:

Staked to a 4-1 lead, Brito finished strong — allowing a leadoff hit in the 5th, but then strikeout, groundout, strikeout.

2. Hicks Clutch Hit

Meanwhile the Yanks got Brito runs.

Anthony Rizzo and Gleyber Torres worked walks off Orioles’ lefty starter Cole Irvin in the 4th, and the much-maligned Aaron Hicks got a Clutch 2-out RBI single to tie the game at 1-1.

3. Volpe Triple

Anthony Volpe — who had struck out 3 times in an 0-4 the day before and was in a horrid early-season slump, struck out his first time up in this game — but in the 5th, ripped a pitch off the top of the right-center field wall — the opposite field the way Derek Jeter used to hit them.

Volpe TURNED ON THE JETS around 2nd and flew to 3rd in an instant — showing “oh wow” speed.

DJ LeMahieu then doubled home Volpe, went to 3rd on a wild pitch, and scored on an Aaron Judge sac fly — NY 3 Baltimore 1.

4. Giancarlo BLAST

And then Giancarlo Stanton RIPPED a MISSILE to left for a homer — over the now-almost-impossible-to-hit-a-homer-into left-field seats — Baltimore having moved the left field fence back 30 feet before last season.

Only a few players have hit a home run there since they moved the fences — and as Suzyn Waldman pointed out on the radio broadcast, it ruined Trey Mancini‘s year last year as he always hit homers to left; Baltimore traded him at the trade deadline in July 2022.

5. King Looked Like Old Self

More Great News for NY — Michael King pitched the 6th and 7th shutout ball — and looked like his old filthy self — striking out the last two batters he faced.

6. Wandy & Holmes Close It

Wandy Peralta — who has become the ROCK of the Yankee bullpen, pitched a shutout 8th.

And then Clay Holmes pitched a shutout 9th — walking a batter — but threw mostly strikes and his filthy cutter for the easy save.

Buona Pasqua and Mazel Tov.

Etcetera

  • Aaron Judge walked in the 1st inning to extend his consecutive on-base streak to 41 (the record is held by Ted Williams with 84; the Yankee record is Joe DiMaggio with 74). Judge also hit the sac fly in the 5th for a run and doubled in the 7th.

The Boxscore

https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore/_/gameId/401471136

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