Love this team, you guys. The Yankees won a wild back and forth game Tuesday night, eking out a 10-7 win over the defending World Series champion Royals. The game was closer than the score indicates. The Yankees have now won five of their last seven games. Cool cool.
Score Early, Score Often
You could tell right away Kris Medlen was not long for this ballgame. The Royals righty had two pitches working: meatball down the middle and something way outside. That’s all he threw Tuesday. The Yankees loaded the bases with one out in the first inning on three singles, and they scored a run on Dustin Ackley’s sacrifice fly. You’d like to get more there, sure, but Medlen was fooling no one.
In the second inning the Yankees scored a quick run on a Didi Gregorius double and a Chase Headley single. They added two walks later in the inning, but a Ben Gamel double play short-circuited the rally. That’s alright. It happens. In the third, the Yankees again loaded the bases, this time with no outs. Carlos Beltran doubled to center, then Ackley and Aaron Hicks drew walks. The Royals were up 3-2 at the time, but the Yankees were in business.
Medlen was out of the game at this point, so in came lefty Brian Flynn to face Gregorius. Smart move by the Royals. It just didn’t work out. Gregorius managed another one of his half-swing bases clearing doubles, though it was really a single the Kansas City outfielders played into a double with general indifference. Third base coach Joe Espada read it and was sending Hicks all the way. Medlen was charged with four runs on six hits and three walks in two innings. The Yankees were up 5-3 after Didi’s double.
The Return of Home Run Tanaka
The long ball was a big time issue for Masahiro Tanaka last year. He allowed 25 homers in 154.1 innings. That’s real bad. So, in an apparent attempt to keep the ball in the park, Tanaka has been throwing more sinkers this season, and it working pretty well up until Tuesday. He allowed only two home runs in his first 39.1 innings. Small sample of course, but encouraging nonetheless.
The home run problems came back Tuesday. Tanaka served up three dingers to the Royals in seven innings, and two of the three were bombs. (The third was a cheap Yankee Stadium shot.) Cheslor Cuthbert hit a two-run shot in the second, Lorenzo Cain hit a solo shot in the third, then Cain hit a three-run job in the fifth. That last one was rather deflating. The Yankees had taken the lead two innings earlier and Tanaka followed it with a dominant 1-2-3 inning. He looked like he was ready to take over.
Tanaka finished the night with six runs allowed in seven innings, making this easily his worst start of the year. He allowed ten earned runs total in his first six starts. The Royals are an aggressive team that swings early in the count, which mean Tanaka couldn’t get to his trademark splitter at times. In fact, he threw only 16 splitters on the night, the fewest of the season and the third fewest in his 51 starts in pinstripes. Sometimes good pitchers have bad games.
Three Big Breaks
Things are definitely starting to break the Yankees’ way. With the Royals up 6-5 in the seventh, Brian McCann dropped a one-out single into left, then moved up on a Joakim Soria balk. The balk negated what would have been strike three to Beltran, and while Carlos went on to ground out, the balk put the tying run at second with two outs. Ackley came through with a little broken bat single to left that somehow scored McCann to tie the game.
The balk was the first break. The second: Alex Gordon airmailing the throw home on Ackley’s single, allowing Ackley to advance to second. Gordon is a great defensive left fielder with a great arm. His throws are usually right on target. This one was way high — shout out to Soria for not backing up the play either — and Ackley moved into scoring position. Hicks drove him in with a single to left to give the Yankees a 7-6 lead.
One-run lead after seven? The Yankees are designed to win these games with ease. It was not easy Tuesday though. New eighth inning guy Andrew Miller allowed yet another home run Cain, his third of the game. The solo shot tied things up at seven apiece. Blargh. Miller went on to hit a batter and allow a single later in the inning, but did escape without allowing any more runs. Obviously he can’t handle the pressure of the eighth. Doomed.
The third break came in the bottom of the eighth. Against Kelvin Herrera, Gamel slapped a ground ball to the usually sure-handed Alcides Escobar at short, and Escobar straight up booted it. It should have been two outs with the bases empty. Instead, the Yankees had a runner on first with one out. The good at baseball Brett Gardner made Escobar and the Royals pay with a double to the left-center field wall. Gamel and his long flowing locks scored all the way from first.
Even with arguably the most dominant closer in the game waiting, the 8-7 lead did not feel safe. It was that kind of game. Thankfully, McCann followed Gardner’s double with a double of his own, this one a two-run job to give the Yankees a 10-7 lead. Starlin Castro was hit by a pitch between doubles. Huge hit. Huge huge huge.
Aroldis Chapman walked a batter — he’s known to do that — in an otherwise uneventful ninth inning for his first save as a Yankee. He struck out one and got Cain to pop up for the final out. Four home runs would have been something, huh? Especially if the Royals lost. The worst Cain could have done there was cut the lead to 10-9. Doesn’t matter now.
Leftovers
Aside from Headley, the three worst hitters on the Yankees this season have probably been Ackley, Hicks, and Gregorius. Those three went a combined 5-for-10 with two walks, three doubles, four runs scored, and six runs driven in Tuesday. McCann and Gardner had some big hits. It was the second tier guys who really did damage in this game though.
Cain’s home run was the first — and still only — run allowed by Miller this season. Chapman managed to allow a run before Miller. Crazy, huh? Dellin Betances, meanwhile, warmed up but did not pitch for the second straight night. That’s going to be a thing now, isn’t it? Dellin warming up a bunch but not appearing in the game? I hope not.
And finally, Cain is the first player with a three-homer game against the Yankees since … J.D. Martinez last season. I don’t remember that at all. Before that you have to go back to Chris Heisey in 2011. That I remember. The last Royal with a three-homer game against the Yankees was Bo Jackson in 1990.
Box Score, WPA Graph & Standings
Go to MLB.com for the video highlights and ESPN for both the box score and updated standings. Also make sure you don’t miss our Bullpen Workload page. And I guess our Announcer Standings page too. Here’s the win probability graph:
Source: FanGraphs
Up Next
Same two teams Wednesday night, when Michael Pineda and Yordano Ventura will be on the mound for the third game of this four-game series. There are five games left on the homestand, and if you want to catch any of them live at Yankee Stadium, check out RAB Tickets.
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