JUDGE GRAND SLAM! DREAM WEAVER! NY 5 Boston 4

September 14, 2024 paperbacklou 2024 0
Aaron Judge Grand Slam to give the Yanks a 5-4 lead in the 7th.

The Yanks were down 4-0 in the 7th inning when they staged an amazing rally capped by an Aaron Judge GRAND SLAM to put them ahead 5-4!

Then Luke Weaver finished the job with 2 FILTHY innings of relief — striking out 5 batters — as NY beat Boston 5-4 on a beautiful and PLAYOFF ELECTRIC Friday night at Yankee Stadium, game-time temp 70 degrees and dipping into high 60s.

The win moved the Yanks to 3 games over Baltimore, which lost, with 14 games to go.

“Obviously, a huge at bat,” said manager Aaron Boone about Judge’s homer. “And a lot of great at bats in front of him. Volpe starting it off with a walk; Verdugo with a walk. Gleyber with the base hit. Another walk to Soto setting the table. And that’s how you got to do it. You dig a little hole and have the deficit; you just have to kind of grind yourself back in and hope you hit the money ball with some runners on and the Captain sure did.”

NY is now 86-62; Boston is 74-74.

1. Schmidt Excellent

Clarke Schmidt made his 2nd start since the long IL stint that kept him sidelined since May and looked terrific again.

Boston uses a running game — trying to steal at every opportunity as the Yanks saw earlier this season. And they were at it again after Jarren Duran led off the game with a single. But Rookie of the Year candidate Austin Wells nipped it in the bud by gunning down Duran trying to steal 2nd.

After that Schmidt stifled the running game by not allowing baserunners. He used his 95-MPH sinker, 92-MPH cutter, 85-MPH sweeper, and 83-MPH knuckle curve to mow down the Red Sox — pitching 1-2-3 innings in the 2nd and 3rd, and getting 3 straight outs after walking Rafael Devers to start the 4th.

Schmidt got the first 2 outs of the 5th before allowing a single to Trevor Story, but then immediately got Ceddanne Rafaela to ground out.

Schmidt started to tire in the 6th, allowing another leadoff single to Jarren Duran — who stayed put as Schmidt got 2 flyouts — the 2nd one a shot to the wall in left by Tyler O’Neill that Alex Verdugo tracked down.

But then Schmidt left a cutter up to Masataka Yoshida, who put it over the fence in right for a 2-run homer and 2-0 Boston lead.

“He was great,” said Boone of Schmidt. “Might have ran out (of gas). O’Neill hit that ball pretty good and I think he missed over the heart of the plate with some cutters to him. Back to back pitches and obviously Yoshida got him. We were short down there, today, so I wanted to get him through there if I could. I was really excited he was so pitch efficient; I wasn’t going to go over 80-85 with him to get through 5. But he was so efficient going through that 6th, with us being short down there; was hoping he could get through, but made a mistake with Yoshida. But on balance he was excellent.”

2. Fitts Gave Yanks Fitts

Meanwhile Richard Fitts — who came up through the Yankee system but was traded to the Red Sox this winter for Alex Verdugo — was giving the Yankees fits.

Fitts was 11-5 3.48 for NY last year in AA, and was 9-5 4.17 for the Red Sox this year in AAA before being recently called up. He throws a 95-MPH four-seam fastball, set up by an 82-MPH sweeper, an 85-MPH slider, and an 89-MPH splitter.

Fitts was on the ropes early against the Yanks, but then rope-a-doped them with 5 innings of shutout ball:

  • He got the first 2 outs of the bottom of the 1st, but then walked Aaron Judge, Austin Wells, and Giancarlo Stanton to load the bases — before getting Jazz Chisholm Jr. to fly out to deep right center.
  • Fitts allowed a leadoff single to Anthony Rizzo in the 2nd, but then got 3 straight fly outs.
  • He then started to roll — pitching a 1-2-3 inning in the 3rd, allowing just a 2-out double to Rizzo in the 4th, and throwing down a 1-2-3 inning in the 5th.

3. Leiter Coughs Up Another HR

Mark Leiter Jr. relieved Schmidt and got the last out of the 6th, but in the 7th coughed up the homer ball again — allowing a 1-out single to Triston Casas, and a 2-run bomb to right center by Trevor Story and it was Boston 4 NY 0.

It was starting to look like a Yankee loss.

4. Yank Rally Topped by Judge SLAM

But in the bottom of the 7th, the Yankees rallied. Anthony Volpe worked a walk to start the inning against Zack Kelly.

Alex Verdugo fell behind 0-2 then worked a big walk. And then Gleyber Torres singled in a run. Boston 4 NY 1. And hope.

Cam Booser was brought in to pitch, and threw 4 straight balls to Juan Soto to load the bases. That brought up Aaron Judge — who had gone 16 straight games without a homer, his longest stretch in his career. Yankee Stadium was on its feet — chanting MVP MVP.

Booser went 2-0 on Judge, then threw a 95-MPH four-seam fastball and Judge didn’t miss — GRAND SLAM to left! Yankees 5 Boston 4 !!

5. Dream Weaver

Then it was up to the Yankee bullpen as we went to the 8th. And out came Luke Weaver who was absolutely filthy. He struck out 3 batters in the 8th, sandwiching a 1-out single to Yoshida.

Then in the 9th, Weaver struck out Triston Casas, got Trevor Story to pop out to 2nd on the 1st pitch, and struck out Ceddanne Rafaela for the old ballgame.

Another look:

The Boxscore

https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore/_/gameId/401570670

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.


*