Yanks Take Care of Business, Beat A’s. Roger Wilco 10-4

June 30, 2023 paperbacklou 2023 0
Josh Donaldson BLASTS a 492-foot RAIN MAKER to left center for the game winner in the 5th.

The Yankees were losing 3-2 in the 6th inning of this rubber game against the Oakland A’s on a Thursday afternoon in Oakland, a 3:30pm start time on the East Coast, with many people watching or listening on the sly while they worked.

An important game for the Yanks to win — to take the series against the 21-61 Oakland A’s.

And then if you turned away to take a work meeting for 10 minutes and checked the game again the Yanks were up 10-3 — exploding for 8 runs in the 6th inning to turn the game into a laugher and easy win.

Josh Donaldson started the charge, with a MASSIVE 492-foot, 2-run homer to left centerfield for a 4-3 Yankee lead and eventual game winner. Then came a barrage of singles and a double. All making Clarke Schmidt the winning pitcher.

The Yanks took care of business. Roger Wilco message received. 10-4 and out.

“Definitely feels good to throw up some crooked numbers”, said manager Aaron Boone afterwards.

“Isiah got us going — getting us right back into the game with the homer was big,” added Boone. “I thought the guys were really energetic; almost euphoric. Coming off the high of Domingo. I thought the energy was really good early on.”

“And then just a lot of good at bats,” continued Boone. “Obviously a big homerun by JD to give us the lead. And then against their reliever (Lucas) Ercg who is pretty nasty — I really liked the way our right handed hitters were able to a) control the zone against him, and when he was in there (the zone) were able to continue to add on against a pretty good arm.”

NY improves to 45-36, still 9.5 behind Tampa, now 4 behind Baltimore, and still .5 ahead of Toronto. Oakland is 21-62.

1. Schmidt Gets the Win

Clarke Schmidt has been pitching great ball the last month and a half — but soon may be hearing footsteps if Carlos Rodon and eventually Nestor Cortes rejoin the rotation from injury, not to mention Frankie Montas possibly later this year. So every start for Schmidt is one to compete for a job in the rotation — like it or not — with Domingo German — and German just pitched a Perfect Game the night before.

Schmidt was not great in this start, but good enough — which is important. He is noted for having more trouble against lefties than righties — and Oakland loaded their lineup with 7 lefty batters.

  • Schmidt allowed a run in the 1st on a leadoff single by Tony Kemp, who stole 2nd base and went to 3rd on a throwing error by Jose Trevino, and scored on a sac fly.
  • In the 3rd, Schmidt walked the first 2 batters; a single scored a run and a sac fly scored another to make it 3-1.
  • Schmidt then retired 9 batters in a row — pitching 1-2-3 innings in the 4th and 5th, and getting the first out of the 6th before yielding a double and being relieved at 93 pitches.

“I think he was kind of around the zone; a little bit of nibbling,” said manager Aaron Boone afterwards. “A couple of lefties got some pretty good swings off on him. Going thru a lineup of 7 lefties. What I like about it is, it was one of those lineups that was not necessarily perfect for him. And what we’ve seen over the last 6, 7 starts from him is a lot of really good — and 1 or 2of these where the end result is good, but it’s not all perfect — and you have to be able to navigate on those days too. I thought stuff wise he was good. I thought they took some really tough at bats against him, and made him work. But he stayed away from damage again.”

Schmidt pitched 5.1 innings, allowing 5 hits, 3 earned runs and won to go 3-6 4.37.

2. Kiner-Falefa Gets NY their Early Runs

Oakland’s starter was TBA hours before the game — and then they threw out Hogan Harris, a 6’3 lefty.

The Yanks were down 1-0 in the top of the 2nd when Isiah ripped a homer to center that center fielder Esteury Ruiz tried to catch by leaping over the wall, but the ball took his glove and sent it over the wall as well.

In the 4th Harrison Bader led off with a double, went to 3rd on a ground out by DJ LeMahieu, and scored on a sac fly by Kiner-Falefa. Oakland 3 NY 2.

3. Donaldson RAIN MAKER

Harrison Bader led off the 5th with a single and Josh Donaldson hit a RAIN MAKER 492 feet to left center for a 4-3 Yankee lead.

4. You Get a Single, and You Get a Single

Harris got Kiner-Falefa to fly out but Anthony Volpe singled and Harris was yanked. In came Lucas Erceg. He hit Jose Trevino with a pitch and walked DJ LeMahieu. Gleyber Torres singled in 2 runs. Yankees 6 Oakland 3.

Erceg hit Anthony Rizzo with a pitch, and Giancarlo Stanton RIPPED a double to right center over the right fielder Conner Capel‘s  head to score 2 more. NY 8 Oakland 3.

Harrison Bader came in for the 2nd time in the inning, and singled in a run. NY 9 Oakland 3.

Erceg exited stage left; in came former Yankee prospect Ken Waldichuk. Isiah Kiner-Falefa singled in another run and it was 10-3 NY.

5. Volpe Is “Really Good Man”

Anthony Volpe — coming off a 3-for-4 night — went 2 for 4 with a walk. He is now slashing 10-28-.212 (.290 OBP).

“He’s going to be really good man,” said Boone afterwards. “The bats have been really good. He’s taken away some holes. I feel like he’s making some really solid adjustments to how the league is pitching him. He’s been impacting the ball and playing really well at short. That play he made there in the 8th to the backend was a pretty good play.

6. Bullpen Good

  • Ron Marinaccio got the last 2 outs of the 6th after Schmidt had allowed the 2-out double.
  • More good news: Ian Hamilton was back and he pitched a shutout 7th.
  • Nick Ramirez pitched a shutout 8th, escaping trouble allowing 2 hits.
  • Albert Abreu pitched a perfect shutout 9th, striking out 2.

The Boxscore

https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore/_/gameId/401472232

 

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.


*