Hey look, first win streak of the season! After several innings of chasing the lead (and tying the game), Yankees won Thursday’s game on a decisive Mark Teixeira three-run homer in the bottom of seventh. After dropping the season opener, New York won the next two to also the series as well.
Selectively Nasty Nate
Nathan Eovaldi flashed some nasty stuff: fastball hitting 100, slider and splitter at around low-90’s. Even when the weather wasn’t optimal for pitchers today, he flashed that mid-season heat that would make some forget about the frigid weather in Bronx for the last few days.
But all that didn’t stop from Astros’ bats fro scoring runs off him. In the top of the second, 1B Tyler White hit his first career home run. He had allowed a double to Luis Valbuena on a 89 mph slider and White hit a 87 mph splitter out of the park. With the next batter, against Preston Tucker, Eovaldi gave up another dinger and Houston led 3-0. If you are a Yankee fan, it’s not what you want, especially considering that Eovaldi isn’t exactly known for gopher balls (0.58 HR/9 last year).
That was not all for Eovaldi either. The fourth inning sort of summarized his outing: hard stuff, hard hits. He allowed three hits – one of them a deep double by Carlos Gomez – but also struck out two. Nate showed flashes of being an overpowering pitcher while allowing hard-hit balls without completely breaking down overall. Eovaldi’s final line – 5 IP, 6 H, 5 ER, 0 BB, 7 K’s and 2 HR’s allowed – should reflect that. It’s not the prettiest start from Nasty Nate but there are positives.
Fighting for the lead, one at a time
The Yankees had a chance to score in bottom of second with one out and runners on corners. Chase Headley hit a sac fly to drive Teixeira in from third to make it 3-1. It didn’t seem like Headley drove the ball that well but the wind pushed the ball back further. Next up was Starlin Castro, who has been hitting cover off the ball this series. He got another hit but got thrown out on the second trying to stretch the double to end the inning. Off the bat, the ball was hit hard enough to be a home run but it just wasn’t high enough to clear the fence. Castro didn’t really bust out of the batter’s box either.
New York tacked on another run in the third when Jacoby Ellsbury doubled to deep right to score Didi Gregorius for a 3-2 score. They had even bigger hits in the fourth to continue the chase. Brian McCann took the first pitch from Mike Fiers in his second at-bat deep to cut the deficit to 5-3, and Castro followed it up with a solo homer of his own to make it 5-4.
Speaking of whom, how about Starlin Castro? We’ve gushed over his hot start here in RAB and today added more for us to admire. Sure, it’s too early to call it a success after three ML games but he *has* hit for a 1.833 OPS and played vital roles in offense for all of them. he’s a young player who’s clearly talented – he just has to maintain that success consistently.
It wasn’t just Castro who was hot today – the top five of the lineup (Ellsbury, Brett Gardner, A-Rod, Teixeira and McCann) combined for 9-for-21 today, which is always what you want.
Tex message to the other way
New York tied the game up 5-5 in the bottom of fifth with A-Rod’s first base hit of the year driving in Ellsbury. Two innings later, they took a lead against two impressive Astros relievers – Will Harris and Ken Giles. Harris had a great 2015 campaign with a 1.90 ERA in 71.0 IP while Giles was one of the most dominating relievers in ML, striking out 11.19 batters in 9 IP with a 1.80 ERA.
Harris got Ellsbury to ground out to start the frame. Gardner followed it up with a single, which prompted A.J. Hinch to bring in Ken Giles to minimize the damage. Giles, facing A-Rod, challenged him with two very hard fastballs – Rodriguez swung and missed on both, looking a little bit late. However, on the next pitch – another heater – A-Rod caught up to it and singled to center to put two runners with one out.
Teixeira was the next hitter. On a 1-0 count, Tex hit an outside 98 mph fastball that cleared the left field fence (just barely) for a three-run homer, giving Yankees their first lead of the day. I do not know if that would have been a home run in many ballparks but I will say this: it was hit hard and would have brought in at least a run or two in neutral parks. Giles, by the way, only allowed two home runs in all of 2015. In this series, he allowed two in two appearances. Baseball can be weird like that.
The scripted finish
Today, Dellin Betances looked like the Dellin Betances we’ve all come to know. At his best, he can make hitters look silly by making them chase at a curve down the dirt, and that’s exactly what he did to both Carlos Correa and Colby Rasmus.
Following Betances was, as always, Andrew Miller. Miller didn’t exactly have a squeaky clean outing, allowing two hits in the ninth inning. He did, however, strike out the side to wrap the game up and earn his first save of the year. His stuff looked pretty good, not showing any ill effects from chipped right wrist.
Leftover
Speaking of relievers – Kirby Yates made his Yankee debut today in the sixth and I’d say he did well – in a scoreless frame he allowed a hit but struck out two. I don’t know how he will perform moving forward but if he can register and outing like that frequently, he can be a nice piece throughout the season.
Here are the box score, highlights, and WPA graph:
Source: FanGraphs
Yankees go onto their first road trip of the year tomorrow, playing the Detroit Tigers for a three-game weekend series in Comerica Park.
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