Carrasco & Yankee Lefty Bombers Solve Lugo. NY 4 KC 1

April 15, 2025 paperbacklou 2025 0
Jazz Chisholm Jr with his MLB-leading 6th homer, tying the game at 1-1.

38-year-old man Carlos Carrasco — the former Ace who threw 97-MPH but whose fastball barely hits 91 MPH these days — out-pitched former Met reliever turned super Ace Seth Lugo, and the Yankee lefty bombers unleashed 4 solo homeruns to win 4-1 on a Monday night at Yankee Stadium.

Lugo, who famously sports 9 quality pitches, has become one of the toughest pitchers to hit in the American League, going 16-9 3.00 last year (and 1-1 3.24 coming into this game). But the Yankee bombers solved him with solo homers by Jazz Chisholm Jr. in the 4th, and Trent Grisham, Ben Rice, and Austin Wells in the 5th. All lefty batters.

The Yankee bullpen did the rest, with 4 shutout innings by Fernando Cruz, Tim Hill, Luke Weaver, and an agita save by Devin Williams.

Carrasco, rebounding off a poor start, allowed 1 hit — a solo homer to Bobby Witt Jr. in the 3rd inning. And that was it.

“Solo homers; a handful of good swings by our lefties that were able to jump him and be the difference tonite,” said manager Aaron Boone afterwards about how the Yanks solved Lugo. “I thought we battled well against him, but also he pitched well against us.”

“Just moxie man,” added Boone when asked about Carrasco’s performance. “I thought his change was really good; had good bottom to it. He was working thru his breaking balls as the night went on and executed some good ones there. But his changeup was really good. He was in and around the strike zone enough; got a little chase with it too. First inning was long on him, and even the 2nd inning, but was pretty efficient after that. A big 5 innings from him.”

NY improves to 9-7. KC falls to 8-9.

1. Carrasco Out-Pitches Lugo

The 38-year-old Carlos Carrasco was invited to Spring training by the Yankees as a “sure, why not” insurance move — but pitched well and was added to the starting staff after injuries to Gerrit Cole, Luis Gil, and Clarke Schmidt.

Carrasco was a dominant Ace for Cleveland up through 2018, when arm troubles derailed his 2019-2021 campaigns. He had a great comeback year for the Mets in 2022, going 15-7 3.97 — but had a huge falloff in 2023 (3-8 6.80 with the Mets) and in 2024 (3-10 5.56 with Cleveland).

At age 38 his career seemed over when the Yanks invited him to Spring training.

He pitched pretty good in his 1st start of the year for the Yanks, but got BOMBED his 2nd start and came into this game with a 1-1 7.71 record.

Matched against super Ace Lugo, the Yanks didn’t seem to have much chance. And when Carrasco walked 2 of the first 3 batters in the game, it looked like it might be a long night.

But Carrasco struck out Salvador Perez and got a fly out to end the 1st, then pitched a 1-2-3 inning in the 2nd and got the first 2 outs of the 3rd before Bobby Witt Jr. ripped a 388-foot homer to left center for a 1-0 KC lead.

Next batter Vinny Pasquantino ripped a 90-MPH fastball from Carrasco to deep right but Aaron Judge made a terrific catch on it at the wall and Carrasco had escaped further damage.

And then Carrasco went back to work — using his 85-MPH changeup and 85-MPH slider, and 90-MPH four-seam fastball to great effect, getting lots of groundouts, flyouts, and line outs.

He worked a 1-2-3 inning in the 4th (line out, fly out, groundout) and 5th (fly out, strike out, foul out) and left with a line of: 5 IP, 1 hit, 4 K’s, 2 walks, 1 run.

Meanwhile the Yanks scored a run in the 4th and 3 in the bottom of the 5th for him, so he walks away with the win to go 2-1 5.94.

2. Yanks Solve Lugo with Solo Bombs

Meanwhile the Yanks were up against the very tough Seth Lugo — with his 9 elite pitches (10 if you count his 2 speeds of curveballs):

  1. 89-MPH sinker
  2. 89-MPH cutter
  3. 86-MPH slider
  4. 80-MPH curve and 71-MPH slow curve
  5. 92-MPH four-seam fastball
  6. 79-MPH slurve
  7. 87-MPH changeup
  8. 80-MPH slurve
  9. 84-MPH splitter

Lugo pitched a 1-2-3 inning in the 1st and it looked like it was going to be a long night. The Yanks got 2 baserunners on him in the 2nd inning — a leadoff infield single by Paul Goldschmidt and 2-out walk by Jasson Dominguez — but Lugo got the final out.

The Yanks also got 2 singles off Lugo in the 3rd — a leadoff single by Oswaldo Cabrera, erased by Ben Rice hitting into a double play, and a 2-out single by Aaron Judge — but again Lugo got the final out.

The Yanks were down 1-0 in the bottom of the 4th, when with 1 out, lefty-swinging Jazz Chisholm Jr. stepped up and Launched an 86-MPH changeup 411 feet to center for a 1-1 tie. It was Chisholm’s 6th homer of the year — tying Judge, Mike Trout, and Wilmer Flores for the MLB lead.

Lugo got the last 2 outs of the 4th, but in the bottom of the 5th, lefty swinging Trent Grisham hit a 91-MPH four-seam fastball 384 feet to right center for a solo homer and 2-1 Yankee lead.

A batter later, lefty swinging Ben Rice hit an 89-MPH cutter 381 feet to right center for a solo homer and 3-1 Yankee lead.

A batter later, lefty swinging Austin Wells hit a first-pitch, 93-MPH fastball 361 feet down the rightfield line for a solo homer and 4-1 Yankee lead.

The Yankees had solved Lugo — “left-handed power hitters”!

3. The Martian Great D in Left

Jasson Dominguez — who was switched from centerfield to left field in Spring Training, and was very rough at the start — turned in some terrific catches in this game.

4. Fernando Filthy

Blessed with a 4-1 lead, Fernando Cruz relieved Carrasco for the top of the 6th and was filthy — pitching a 1-2-3 inning, and striking out 2 swinging at his nasty 80-MPH splitter.

Fernando also struck out Salvador Perez swinging on a nasty splitter to start the 7th, then was relieved by lefty Tim Hill.

5. Hill & Weaver Good

Tim Hill got the last 2 outs of the 7th (groundout, fly out).

Luke Weaver pitched a shutout 8th — getting the first 2 outs, walking a batter, then going 2-2 in a tough 8-pitch at bat against Jonathan India, who fouled off several pitches before popping out to 2nd. It was a Huge out for Weaver as Bobby Witt Jr. was sitting on deck as the tying run.

 

6. Devin with Agita Save

Devin Williams came in for the save in a 4-1 game, and immediately allowed a single to Bobby Witt Jr. and a 1-out walk to Salvador Perez, bringing the tying run to the plate.

But he got Michael Massey to pop out and Garcia to line out to Jasson Dominguez in left for the old ballgame.

The Boxscore

https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore/_/gameId/401695145

 

 

rebounded off a poor prior start to shut down the Royals for 5 innings, allowing just a solo homer

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