Stanton Misses Grand Slam to Tie It by “That Much”. St Louis 6 NY 5

September 1, 2024 paperbacklou 2024 0

Giancarlo Stanton missed a Grand Slam to tie the game in the bottom of the 8th by a foot and half — his 2-out BOMB to dead center bouncing off the wall for a bases-clearing double and make it a 6-5 game.

The Yanks couldn’t get the game tying hit though — Alex Verdugo grounding out to end the inning, and then in the 9th Juan Soto hit a 2-out double off a 101-MPH fastball from Cardinals ace reliever Ryan Helsley, but after Aaron Judge was intentionally walked, Austin Wells struck out on a 3-2 slider.

Veteran 36-year-old starter Kyle Gibson was the really culprit, shutting the Yanks down with a variety of off speed pitches for 7 innings of 1 run ball.

St Louis 6 NY 5 on a beautiful Saturday afternoon at Yankee Stadium.

“I thought he did a really good job of really, really mixing,” said manager Aaron Boone about Gibson. I thought he had a presence on both sides of the plate. He was cutting the ball, sinking it, he mixed in some 4 seams; he could slow you down and both sides of the plate he had command.”

NY drops to 79-57, but remain 1.5 ahead of Baltimore, which lost later in the evening to Colorado. St. Louis improves to 68-68.

1. Wells-Volpe Combo Gets Yanks Up

The Cardinals started Kyle Gibson, the 36-year-old, 6’6 righty who has pitched well for them this year, after a 15-9 4,73 slash line last year for the Orioles.

Austin Wells got to Gibson in the bottom of the 2nd with a leadoff double, and after a Jazz Chisholm Jr. groundout moved Wells to 3rd, Anthony Volpe singled him home for a 1-0 Yankee lead.

2. Warren Hurt by the Short Porch

Will Warren looked pretty good early, pitching shutout innings in the top of the 1st and 2nd, but in the 3rd, gave up a leadoff walk, then consecutive 1-out singles to Alec Burleson and Nolan Arenado for a 1-1 tie.

And then leftfielder Brendan Donovan hit a 334-foot homer to the short porch in right — a 3-run job for a 4-1 Cardinals lead.

Warren then allowed a double to Paul Goldschmidt and a single to left by Ivan Herrera, but Alex Verdugo helped Warren out by throwing out Goldschmidt at home.

Warren pitched a 1-2-3 inning in the 4th but the damage was done.

His final slash line: 4 IP, 5 H, 4 Runs, 3 K’s.

3. Gibson Tames Yanks thru 7

Meanwhile, Kyle Gibson settled down and was stymieing the Yankees with his assortment of sinkers, curves, sweepers, and changeups, and a four-seam fastball that never reached more than 92 MPH.

Gibson pitched 7 innings of 5-hit ball, allowing the 1 run.

3. Leiter Coughs Up Consecutive Doubles

Tim Hill relieved Warren and pitched a shutout 5th, but in the 6th, Mark Leiter Jr.put the Yanks in a deeper hole, allowing consecutive 1-out doubles to Lars Nootbar and Ivan Herrara.

Leiter then threw one in the dirt, and the runner dashed to 3rd — Wells picked up and threw to 3rd but the ball went down the 3rd base line for a run. St Louis 6 NY 1.

After that Leiter struck out the last 2 batters of the 6th, and pitched a 1-2-3 inning in the 7th.

5. Mayza, Weaver Pitch Well

Tim Mayza pitched a shutout 7th and Luke Weaver pitched a 1-2-3 shutout 9th to keep St Louis at bay.

6. Stanton “Missed It by This Much”

With Gibson finally gone to start the bottom of the 8th, the Yankees pounced against lefty reliever Matthew Liberatore. Gleyber Torres led off with a single, but was erased by a double play to 2nd by lefty Juan Soto.

Four consecutive singles followed — by Aaron Judge, lefty Austin Wells, lefty Jazz Chisholm Jr. and an infield single by Anthony Volpe scoring a run and making it 6-2.

That brought up lefty Trent Grisham with the bases loaded, the tying run at the plate. The Yankees pinch hit Giancarlo Stanton — and St Louis countered by bringing in righty Andrew Kittredge.

Giancarlo countered that by hitting a BOMB to DEEP CENTERFIELD for what looked at first like a game-tying Grand Slam! But the ball bounced off the centerfield wall, a foot and a half from the top — for a bases-clearing double. St Louis 6 NY 5.

With Stanton the tying run at 2nd, Alex Verdugo grounded out to 2nd to finally end the inning — but NY was back in it.

7. Yank Rally in 9th Falls Short

The Cardinals’ ace reliever Andrew Helsley came in for the bottom of the 9th, with his 101-MPH heater.

Oswaldo Cabrera worked the count 3-2 to lead off the inning, then got called out on an automatic strike call when he didn’t get in the box fast enough. Helsley had stepped off the rubber with the count 3-2, and Oswaldo stepped out then stepped back in. Oswaldo felt he had gotten back into the box within the 8 seconds allowed but the ump ruled he was a hair late.

“You’d like to think that in certain situations in the spirit of it there is no time being held up — which clearly there wasn’t if anything it was the pitcher that was holding it up — yea that’s a better part of it,” said Aaron Boone afterwards. “But we know the rules and it’s on all of us.”

Gleyber Torres flied out for the 2nd out, but Juan Soto hit a 101-MPH fastball for a double to right and the Yanks had the tying run at 2nd with 2 outs again.

Aaron Judge was intentionally walked, and Austin Wells worked the count 3-2, before Helsley struck him out swinging on an 87-MPH slider for the old ballgame.

Etcetera

Good news: the Yanks got 12 hits including:

  • Anthony Volpe went 2-4 with a run scored and 2 RBI’s and continues to hit well lately — he raised his average to .254 (.304 OBP).
  • Austin Wells continues to hit hit hit — 2-5 raising his average to .259 (.348 OBP), and is a leading contender for Rookie of the Year.
  • Judge went 1-4 with a walk and is at .330 (.463 OBP). Bobby Witt is at .341.
  • Jazz Chisholm went 3-4 and is at .314 as a Yank.

The Boxscore

https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore/_/gameId/401570513

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.


*