Right now, 116 games into the season, we know one thing for certain about the 2017 Yankees: they are annoyingly good at coming up with a new Worst Loss of the Season. They were two outs away from a win and a 3.5-game deficit in the AL East on Sunday night. Instead, they lost 3-2 in ten innings to the Red Sox and are now 5.5 games back in the AL East.
Gritty, Gutty Montgomery
Quite a week for Jordan Montgomery, huh? He was send down last Sunday, called up Friday, hit in the dang head with a line drive during batting practice Saturday, and started against Chris Sale on Sunday. Montgomery’s final results were quite good Sunday night (5.1 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 4 K) though he was living he good BABIP life. The Red Sox had five batted balls at 98+ mph exit velocity turn into outs against Montgomery, including three at 100+. They had nothing to show for a few rockets.
It wasn’t until the fifth inning that someone finally got on the board. It started with a walk. A bad walk at that. Montgomery walked Brock Holt on six pitches with one out. Threw him a 3-2 breaking ball. Brock Holt! Montgomery had the left-on-left matchup and a pretty punchless hitter at the plate, and he walked him on a 3-2 breaking ball. Oy vey. He got what he deserved for that.
Holt advanced to second on a wild pitch because a) the Red Sox are really aggressive on the bases (he took off as soon as the ball was in the dirt), and b) Austin Romine can’t really throw. Runners are 18-for-21 (86%) stealing bases against him this year. The throw was on target, but way late. Jackie Bradley Jr. followed with a ground ball single juuust out of the reach of a diving Didi Gregorius, and that was that. Run on the board.
Overall though, hard hit outs and all, Montgomery did well Sunday night. One run on two hits and three walks in 5.1 innings? Against a team that has been scoring a boatload of runs in August (6.44 per game)? I’ll take it every time. Especially when the guy got hit in the head by a dang line drive the day before the start. Nice work, Monty. Way to gut it out.
Rally To Tie, Rally For The Lead
Hey, give the Yankees credit. As soon as the Red Sox broke through for a run, they answered right back in the next half inning. Chase Headley ripped a one-out single in the bottom of the fifth, and Romine brought him home with a triple. A triple! A triple that absolutely should’ve been scored a three-base error on Mookie Betts. He was up against the wall and the ball clanked right off his glove. It was practically in the pocket.
Either way, triple or three-base error, Headley chugged all the way around from first base to tie the game. Romine ripping a ball to the wall in an 0-2 count against Chris Sale is absolutely not something I expected to see, and I go into each game hoping to see something amazing.
In the eighth, with Sale out of the game, the Yankees took a 2-1 lead with some good ol’ fashion run-manufacturin’ baseball. Aaron Hicks worked a walk against Matt Barnes, Aaron Judge hit a single to right field, and Gary Sanchez worked another walk to load the bases with one out. Todd Frazier, as he did Friday night, drove in the go-ahead run. Friday night it was single. Sunday night it was a two-strike sac fly.
Impressively Good, Impressively Bad
The Yankees had the game all lined up exactly how they wanted it. David Robertson replaced Montgomery, finished off the sixth inning, then tossed a perfect seventh inning as well. Dellin Betances mowed down the top of the lineup in the eighth. The Yankees took the lead in the bottom of the ninth and handed a 2-1 lead over to their $86M closer. That’s how you draw it up.
Right away, you could tell Aroldis Chapman was feeling good about his fastball Sunday night. He struck out Hanley Ramirez, the first batter he faced, on three fastballs: 100.6 mph, 102.6 mph, 102.6 mph. Hanley had no chance. That brought rookie Rafael Devers to the plate, and he hammered a 102.8 mph two-strike fastball the other way into the visitor’s bullpen for a game-tying home run. Chapman missed his spot by a foot, but still, a rookie hitting that pitch the other way? Ridiculously impressive. Devers isn’t a highly regarded prospect for nothing. Fastest pitch hit for a home run since they started electronically tracking pitches in 2008. No joke.
(Another) Crushing Loss
I’m not sure why Joe Girardi asked Chapman to pitch a second inning — he did throw only 13 pitches in the ninth, so I guess that’s it? — especially since Chapman has made it no secret he doesn’t like going multiple innings, but he did, and it backfired. Chapman hit Bradley in an 0-2 count and walked Eduardo Nunez (Eduardo Nunez!) to put the Red Sox in business in the tenth. Second time this series Chapman walked Nunez. Heh.
Anyway, Tommy Kahnle came in and walked Betts on five pitches to load the bases, then served up the go-ahead single to Andrew Benintendi. Kahnle threw Benintendi four straight changeups that at-bat. Four! Love to get beat because you threw your third best pitch four straight times to a red hot hitter. Good grief. The single gave the Red Sox a 3-2 lead and that was all they needed. Craig Kimbrel, an actual shutdown closer, retired the side in order in the bottom of the tenth.
The Bottom Of The Ninth
The bottom of the ninth was so ridiculous it needs it’s own section. Addison Reed started the inning and immediately walked Headley. Once that happened, you could see the Ronald Torreyes bunt coming a mile away. Sure enough, Torreyes squared around, laid down a perfect sac bunt, and advanced Headley to second. A few things about this:
- Headley is so damn slow that it likely would’ve taken two singles to score him from second. He was not lifted for a pinch-run. Tyler Wade was the obvious choice there, but nope.
- They bunted to get to Romine. No, wait, they bunted to get to pinch-hitter Jacoby Ellsbury. Pretty cool having a three-man bench with one player (Wade) who never ever plays.
- Red Sox manager John Farrell at one point tried to remove Reed for Kimbrel. The problem? The pitching coach had already gone out to talk to Reed during that batter. Can’t make two mound visits during one at-bat. Farrell was on his way to the mound and had already signaled to the bullpen when the umpires told him to go back to the dugout. Kinda funny.
So anyway, Torreyes bunted Headley up, and Ellsbury predictably grounded out to the second baseman on the first pitch. Classic Ellsbury. Rolling over on the first pitch to second base is his thing. Kimbrel was then able to come in, and he struck out Brett Gardner to end the inning. The Yankees had a chance — an imperfect chance given the personnel involved, but a chance nonetheless — to end the game right there, but couldn’t.
Leftovers
The Yankees only had five hits on the night, one of which shouldn’t even have been scored a hit (Romine’s triple). Judge, Sanchez, Headley, and Hicks had singles. Hicks also made two great defensive plays in center field to take away extra-base hits behind Montgomery. Hicks, Judge, Sanchez, Headley, and Torreyes drew the five walks. Judge also stole a base. I hate when he does that. When he slides, it’s like two freight trains colliding head on. That’s a lot of human crashing down.
The home run Chapman allowed to Devers was only the second home run he’s allowed to a left-handed hitter in his career. Luke Scott got him way back in 2011. Coming into this game, left-handed batters were hitting .127/.245/.164 (.203 wOBA) with a 47.1% strikeout against Chapman in his career.
Box Score, WPA Graph & Standings
Head on over to ESPN for the box score and updated standings, and MLB.com has the video highlights. Don’t miss our Bullpen Workload page either. Here’s the loss probability graph:
Source: FanGraphs
Up Next
The Subway Series. Two games at Yankee Stadium and two games at Citi Field. I’m pretty sure Luis Cessa will start Monday night’s series opener in place of the injured Masahiro Tanaka, though I suppose it could be Caleb Smith since he’s already on the roster. We’ll see. Rafael Montero will be on the bump for the Mets. RAB Tickets can get you in the door for any of the Subway Series games, at either ballpark.
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