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Yankeemetrics: Summer slam, Yanks beat Sox (June 29-July 1)

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(AP)

CC The Stoppah
The Yankees kicked off the Most Important Series of the Season with a cruise-control win, 8-1. It was the first time this season Boston lost a game by at least seven runs; prior to Friday, they were the only MLB team that hadn’t suffered a loss of more than six runs.

Gleyber Torres ignited the offense with a his first career triple to lead off the second inning. Congrats to him for being the youngest Yankee to hit a triple in a game against the Red Sox since a 20-year-old Mickey Mantle on September 25, 1952.

Miguel Andujar and Greg Bird turned the game into a rout, belting consecutive homers in the fourth inning to put the Yankees ahead 5-0. It was the sixth time this season the Yankees went back-to-back, tied with the A’s for the most in the majors (through Friday), and more than halfway to their 2017 total (11).

Bird’s dinger was a 392-foot rocket to left-center field, a rare type of homer for the pull-heavy lefty. It was just his second career opposite-field shot and the farthest left that he’s gone deep in his career.


Aaron Judge joined the dinger party in the seventh inning, muscling a chest-high fastball over the wall in right-center. It was his 50th longball at Yankee Stadium, as he became the fastest player in MLB history to hit 50 homers at home, doing so in his 259th career game.

CC Sabathia delivered a masterful performance, and it was no surprise that he was absolutely brilliant on the biggest stage. He is now …

  • 12-0 with a 2.47 ERA in 18 regular season starts following a Yankee loss since the start of 2017.
  • 3-0 with a 2.34 ERA in six starts this season against teams with a .500 record or better.
  • 6-0 with a 1.83 ERA in his last seven starts vs. the Red Sox dating back to September 2016.

Sabathia is the first Yankee to win six straight decisions against the Red Sox since Ron Guidry also went 6-0 in eight starts against them spanning the 1977-79 seasons.

(Newsday)

Nightmare on River Avenue
Twenty-four hours after celebrating one of their most satisfying wins of the season, the Yankees produced one of their most miserable losses on Saturday night.

They were blitzed, 11-0, tied for the worst shutout loss ever by the Yankees against the Red Sox in the Bronx (also lost 11-0 on Sept. 6, 2003). And the only other time that the Yankees suffered a worse shutout loss to the Red Sox was a 13-0 defeat on May 30, 1941. Saturday’s disaster was the Yankees fourth time being shut out this year (all of them since June 10!), one more than they had for the entire 2017 season.

Chris Sale plowed through the Yankees lineup, overpowering them and making them look silly with his fastball-slider combo. He gave up one single and struck out 11 over seven scoreless innings, nearly matching the 1-hit, 10-strikeout performance he had against them in 2014. Sale is the only pitcher in MLB history to have multiple career games with double-digit strikeouts and no more than one hit allowed against the Yankees.

While Sale was doing his best peak-Pedro impression, Sonny Gray was in full Carl Pavano/A.J. Burnett mode. He was destroyed early and often by the Red Sox, coughing up six runs on seven hits before getting pulled with one out in the third.

Given this matchup — at Yankee Stadium, against the Red Sox — Gray’s awful outing was hardly surprising. The gory details:

  • Gray is the first Yankee ever to pitch consecutive games versus the Red Sox allowing at least six earned runs and throwing no more than three innings (remember April 12?).
  • He is now 0-4 with a 9.35 ERA in four starts against the Red Sox as a Yankee. The only pitchers in franchise history to have a worse ERA in this rivalry (min. 4 starts) are Jose Contreras (16.43) and Andy Hawkins (14.44).
  • His ERA at Yankee Stadium this season ballooned to 8.25 in eight starts. That would be the highest ERA at home for any Yankee pitcher in a single season (min. 5 starts), ahead of Jaret Wright (7.86 in 2005) and Phil Hughes (7.83 in 2011).
  • Gray’s overall ERA is 5.44, putting him on pace to own the worst qualifying ERA in a non-strike season in Yankees history. The current record-holder is Bump Hadley (5.30 in 1937) followed by A.J. Burnett (5.26 in 2010).

Okay, that’s enough ugly stats, here’s something positive: The bullpen, despite allowing five runs in 6 2/3 innings, finished June with a 1.32 ERA. That was the lowest ERA (min. 40 IP) by a Yankee bullpen in any calendar month in the Divisional Era (since 1969).

Home Run Derby in the Bronx
One night after getting embarrassed by their rival, the Yankees got their revenge in style, routing the Red Sox 11-1 to improve to 54-27 at the midpoint of the season. Since the American League went to a 162-game schedule in 1961, this is just the second time that the Yankees have won at least 54 of their first 81 games. The other season was 1998, when they started 61-20.

(NJ.com)

Aaron Hicks was the star of the home run derby with a trio of longballs in the second, fourth and eighth innings. He is just the third Yankee to hit three homers in a game against the Red Sox, joining Mark Teixeira (May 8, 2010) and Lou Gehrig (June 23, 1927), and the first one to do it in the Bronx. Hicks also became the first Yankees leadoff batter ever to go deep three times in a game.

Gleyber Torres broke the game open with a three-run opposite field blast in the first inning to put the Yankees ahead 4-0, his 15th career homer. Playing in his 60th big-league game, he is the first AL player age 21 or younger to hit 15 home runs this early into his career. It was also his sixth homer with at least two men on base this season, the most of any player in MLB.

Kyle Higashioka crushed a homer in the fourth inning for his first career hit; he had been hitless in his first 22 MLB at-bats, the longest hitless streak to start a career by any Yankee to debut in the Live Ball Era (since 1920).

It was deja vu all over again for the Yankees against their perennial punching bag David Price, who allowed a career-high five homers and eight runs before getting the hook in the fourth inning. Let’s recap the cold, hard facts:

  • Price is the first Red Sox pitcher to surrender at least five longballs and eight or more runs at Yankee Stadium (old and new).
  • He is the only pitcher in MLB history to have three games against the Yankees of fewer than four innings pitched and at least eight earned runs allowed (he also did it in 2014 and 2015 with the Tigers).
  • Price’s ERA in nine starts against the Yankees since joining the Red Sox in 2016 is 8.43, easily the highest of any player with at least four starts against them in the last three seasons. And his 10.44 ERA in five starts at Yankee Stadium with the Red Sox is also the worst of any pitcher that has made more than one start there since 2016.
(NJ.com)

The Yankees had their ace on the mound and Luis Severino tossed a gem, allowing just two hits across 6 2/3 scoreless innings. He’s given up no more than three runs in 15 straight starts, matching the Yankees longest such streak in the Live Ball Era (since 1920), set by Ron Guidry during his 1978 Cy Young-winning campaign.

Since the start of 2017, he has allowed one run or fewer in more than half (25) of his 49 regular season starts.

Yankeemetrics: Bounceback Bombers in Philly (June 25-27)

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(AP)

Rebound in Philly
One day after suffering through a nightmare weekend at the Trop, the Yankees headed north and snapped their three-game skid with a 4-2 win over the Phillies on Monday night.

With the victory, the Yankees improved to an MLB-leading 24-9 (.727) against teams with a winning record. Sounds impressive, eh? Yup, it would be the best winning percentage by a team in the Modern Era (since 1900) in games versus opponents with a better than .500 record; the 1906 Cubs (31-12, .721) currently hold the top mark.

Jonathan Loaisiga was brilliant as he retired the first 12 batters (including seven via strikeout) and took a no-hitter into the sixth inning before giving up a leadoff single to Jorge Alfaro. He finished his stellar outing with one hit allowed and eight strikeouts in 5 2/3 scoreless innings.

At the age of 23 years and 235 days old, he became the second-youngest pitcher in franchise history to allow no more than one hit, strike out at least eight batters and not give up a run in a game. The only guy younger was a 22-year-old Al Downing when he threw a one-hit, 10 strikeout shutout against the White Sox on July 2, 1963.

And this performance combined with his five-inning scoreless debut on June 15 earns him our #FunFact of the series: He is the first pitcher in franchise history to go at least five innings, allow three hits or fewer and zero earned runs in two of his first three career games.

How dominant was Jonny Lasagna? Not only did he strike out nearly half (8) of the 19 batters he faced, but Alfaro’s single was the only ball that left the infield. Of the eight batted balls that went fair, just one was hit harder than 96 mph.

One of the keys to his excellent performance was his ability to execute with two strikes and putaway batters. 13 of the 19 batters went to two strikes on Monday, and Loaisiga retired 11 of them, with one hit and one walk allowed. In his first two starts, nine of the 26 batters (35%) that got into two-strike counts against him reached base.

Aaron Judge gave the Yankees a 2-0 cushion in the fifth with a screaming line drive homer to left field.

It was his 20th longball of the season, the second straight year he reached that milestone this early into the schedule (team game number 76). He is the first right-handed batter in team history to do that in consecutive seasons, and the list of all Yankees to do it back-back years in a short one:

Aaron Judge (2017-18)
Curtis Granderson (2011-12)
Roger Maris (1960-61)
Mickey Mantle (1956-58, 1960-61)
Lou Gehrig (1929-32)
Babe Ruth (1920-21, 1923-24, 1926-28, 1930-33)

Thank you, Cy Sevy
The Yankees continued to build momentum following their miserable series in Florida as they beat up on the Phillies for a second straight night on Wednesday. The 6-0 blanking was their biggest Interleague shutout win on the road in a decade, since they whitewashed the Mets 9-0 at Shea Stadium in the second game of the two-stadium doubleheader on June 27, 2008.

Aaron Hicks jump-started the offense with a lead-off homer on the third pitch of the game. It was his first lead-off shot in pinstripes (er, road grays), and the first by any Yankee in an Interleague game since Derek Jeter hit one on June 20, 2012 against the Braves.

Didi Gregorius capped off the scoring with his 15th home run of the season in the fifth inning, the third season in a row he’s reached that mark. The only other MLB shortstops with at least 15 dingers in each of the last three years (2016-18) are Trevor Story and Francisco Lindor.

(USA Today)

The best Yankee performance of the night was delivered by Luis Severino, who tossed seven scoreless innings with nine strikeouts. He was in complete control of nearly every at-bat, aggressively attacking hitters early as he threw first-pitch strikes to 23 of 26 batters, a career-best rate of 88.5 percent.

His electric, high-octane fastball was in peak form — its average velocity of 98.6 mph was the second-highest of his career — as he used it both to get ahead in the count and finish off batters. Of the 23 first-pitch strikes he threw, 21 came with his four-seamer. He also ended four of his nine strikeouts with 99-plus mph fastballs, and now has 20 strikeouts with pitches of at least 99 mph. Every other starting pitcher in MLB combined for 22 strikeouts on pitches 99 mph or faster (through Tuesday).

Despite the near-triple-digit radar readings on his fastball, the pitch wasn’t a swing-and-miss weapon for Severino. Instead, the excellent movement and deception of the pitch (especially relative to his sharp-breaking slider), combined with his ability to pound the zone, consistently fooled the Phillies batters. He got a career-best 20 called strikes with his four-seamer and only a couple of them were on the edges of the zone:

This was his fifth scoreless start with at least seven strikeouts in 2018, the most of any pitcher in the majors this season. He’s also the first pitcher in franchise history to throw five such starts in the first half of a season.

And, in case you need some visual proof that Severino belongs on the list of baseball’s most elite pitchers, our favorite stat ….

No runs, no win, no sweep
There would be no sweep in Philly as the Yankees offense went M.I.A on Wednesday night and sleepwalked through a listless 3-0 loss.

They’ve now been shut out three times this season, matching their entire total from 2017. All three blankings have come in June and all three have come on the road. The only other time since 1990 that the Yankees suffered three road shutouts in a single calendar month was when they had five(!) in September 2016.

(AP)

Kyle Higashioka got his first start of the season but is still looking for his first career big-league hit after going 0-for-2. His streak of 20 hitless at-bats to start a career is tied with Dusty Cooke (1930) for the longest by a Yankee position player who debuted with the team in the Live Ball Era (since 1920).

After starter Luis Cessa was shelled for three runs in three innings, a trio of bullpen arms — Giovanny Gallegos, Jonathan Holder and Domingo German — held the Phillies scoreless the rest of the game. Holder now has gone 23 straight outings without allowing an earned run, dating back to his recall from Triple-A on April 21. That’s puts him in some pretty impressive company:

Yankeemetrics: Nightmare at the Trop (June 22-24)

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(Getty)

Terrible at the Trop, Part I
The Yankees hit the road this weekend but left their bats at home, opening the series in Tampa with a pathetic 2-1 loss. They were held to just five hits, extending their recent clutch-hitting slump. Friday’s 1-for-9 RISP performance made then 12-for-94 (.128) over their last 15 games dating back to June 6 against the Blue Jays. That was the worst batting average with RISP of any MLB team in that span (June 6-22). Prior to June 6, the Yankees were hitting .275 with RISP, the third-best mark in MLB at that point.

But … the Yankees still went 11-4 over those 15 games, the second-best record by any MLB team from June 6-22. The answer to that riddle isn’t too hard to figure out:

Yankees June 6-22
Stat MLB Rank
Opp BA with RISP .144 1st
BA with RISP .128 30th
Team W-L 11-4 2nd

There was really nothing spectacular to highlight from this game, so let’s have some fun with a few Obscure Yankeemetrics.

  • This was just the second time in the last 20 years that the Yankees lost a game in which they allowed at least 10 hits but no more than one earned run (it also happened on May 18, 2004 at Anaheim).
  • The only other time in franchise history they were held to one run or fewer by at least six different pitchers — and none of them got more than 10 outs — was when they were no-hit by the Astros staff on June 11, 2003. Thanks, #TheOpener.
  • Brett Gardner’s GIDP in the top of the ninth sealed the Yankees loss. It was the first time in his career he grounded into a game-ending double play with the potential winning or tying run on base.

Ok, that’s the end of #FunFacts for this series.

(Getty)

Terrible at the Trop, Part II
As a wise Hall of Fame catcher used to say … it was deja vu all over again for the Yankees on Saturday afternoon. Yet somehow it was even worse than Friday, as they were blanked for just the second time this season and held to four hits in a 4-0 loss.

It’s the first time ever that the Yankees have scored no more than one run and had no more than five hits in consecutive games within a series against the Rays. It’s also the first time they lost back-to-back games to any team this season since May 22-23 at Texas. In that month-long span since then, every other team had lost at least two games in a row.

Tropicana Field has been a legit house of horrors for the Yankees this decade. After dropping the first two games of this series in Tampa Bay, they fell to 30-43 (.411) at the Trop since 2010, their worst record at any AL ballpark in that span.

(AP)

Terrible at the Trop, Part III
The Yankees capped off their worst stretch of the season with a horrible 7-6 loss in 12 innings to the Rays. There were a bunch of firsts in this game, all of them forgettable:

  • First three-game losing streak of season; they were the only MLB team this season without a losing streak of three or more games. This was the farthest the Yankees went into a season with losing more than two games in a season since 1954 (games 122-124).
  • First time swept in a series of at least two games; the only other teams this season that haven’t been swept in a multi-game series yet are the Red Sox and Astros.
  • First walk-off loss of season; they were the only MLB team this season without a walk-off loss. This is just the fourth time in last 80 years that the Yankees had zero walk-off losses in their first 74 games. The other seasons? 2005, 1999, 1998. #SilverLining?

It hardly seemed like the Yankees would even have a chance to play free baseball on Sunday based on the first few innings when Domingo German was pummeled by the Rays. He gave up six runs on nine hits, six for extra bases, before getting pulled with no outs in the fourth. Only three other pitchers in franchise history have allowed at least six earned runs and six extra-base hits in a game: Mike Mussina (2002), Dave Eiland (1991), Doyle Alexander (1982).

Giancarlo Stanton was in full beast-mode, the lone offensive star in this game. He went 5-for-5 with two doubles and a game-tying homer. He’s the first Yankee with a five-hit game in more than six years, when Curtis Granderson did it on April 19, 2012 vs Twins. Since that date, every other MLB team has had at least one player get five hits in a game.

It was also his fourth game with at least four hits this season, tied with Jose Altuve for the most in MLB; the rest of the Yankees have combined for four four-hit games (no one else has more than one).

The Yankees bullpen held the Rays scoreless for eight innings after German’s early implosion, until … Mr. DFA (uh, Chasen Shreve) entered in the bottom of the 12th and gave up a solo homer to Jake Bauers on the very first pitch he threw.

(Hey everyone, free meatball subs in the breakroom!)

Gross. It’s no secret that Shreve has been awful recently. In his last nine appearances, he’s pitched eight innings, given up nine runs on 13 hits, including four homers. The more insane stat might be that he’s literally been the lone weak link in the Yankees bullpen over the last three weeks:

Yankeemetrics: Bomber Brooms, Seattle Sweep (June 19-21)

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(Getty)

Domingo+Dingers=Win
After a quick trip to the nation’s capital, the Yankees were back at the friendly confines on Tuesday night and opened their series with an easy 7-2 win over the Mariners.

Domingo German was absolutely brilliant in his eighth career start. After giving up a run (unearned) in the first inning, he retired 19(!) straight batters before Nelson Cruz tagged him with a solo homer in the seventh. He pitched a career-high seven innings, surrendering just two hits while striking out nine and walking none.

It was the second time this season he’s allowed no more than two hits and gotten at least nine strikeouts, earning our #funfact of the series: Since his first start on May 6, the only other MLB pitcher to have two games with those stats (2 or fewer hits and 9 or more strikeouts) is Chris Sale.

German’s dominance has peaked in the last two weeks. Over his last three starts, 28 of the 51 outs (55%) he’s recorded have come via strikeout. And for the season, he’s shown elite swing-and-miss stuff, with a 15.7 percent swinging strike rate that is the second-highest among all pitchers with at least 40 innings pitched.

Highest Whiff Rate This Season (Min. 40 IP)
Whiffs/Pitches %
Max Scherzer 16.6
Domingo German 15.8
Jacob deGrom 15.7
Shohei Ohtani 15.7
Noah Syndergaard 15.0
Chris Sale 15.0

Giancarlo Stanton ignited the Yankees home run derby with a game-tying solo shot in the bottom of the first inning off Mariners southpaw Marco Gonzales. He entered the game with a .435 ISO (Isolated Power) against lefty pitchers, the highest mark in the AL (min. 50 PA).

Miguel Andujar made sure the fans at Yankee Stadium would go home happy, crushing a career-long 427-foot home run in the fifth inning that put the team ahead 3-1. Aaron Hicks added a few insurance runs with his own two-run bomb later in the fifth, going deep in back-to-back-to-back games for the first time in his career.

Finally, Gleyber Torres capped off the dinger party with monster blast in the eighth inning, his 14th of the season. It wouldn’t be a Gleyber Day without the obligatory Mickey Mantle/Joe DiMaggio comparison:

The newest True Yankee
The Comeback Kids were back in the Bronx on Wednesday as the Yankees staged yet another improbable rally to beat the Mariners, 7-5, after trailing 5-0 in the fifth inning. It was their biggest comeback win of the season; before Wednesday, they were 0-6 when trailing by at least five runs in a game. It’s been a couple weeks since their last walk-off victory, so let’s recap and update some of the statistical goodness that’s defined this never-say-die 2018 Yankees season:

  • Sixth walk-off win of the season, one more than they had all of last year and tied for the most in the AL. The last time the Yankees had six walk-off wins this early into the schedule (71st game) was 2009.
  • Third walk-off homer of season, tied for the most in the AL and the same number they had all of last year. The last time they had three walk-off dingers this early into the season was 2009.
  • 23rd comeback win of season, the most in the majors. By the way, the 2009 team also had 23 comeback wins in their first 71 games.

Hmmm … sensing a trend there.

(Getty)

Gary Sanchez was the first hero of the night, tying the game in the eighth with a massive 439-foot two-run homer. It was his team-best third home run in the eighth inning or later that either tied the game or gave the team a lead; he had never hit one of those before 2018. The Yankees are now 11-0 in games that Sanchez goes deep this year.

Giancarlo Stanton then capped the rally with a two-out, two-strike mammoth shot over the wall in left-center. It was his fourth career walk-off longball and first as a Yankee. The poor baseball went a projected 453 feet, the longest walk-off home run recorded by Statcast (since 2015).

(USA Today)

Based on his season-to-date numbers this season, Stanton might have been the last guy you’d think would have been drenched in Gatorade at home plate after his at-bat. His splits entering Wednesday as he faced righty Ryan Cook:

BA Slug Pct AB/HR
Home .213 .411 17.6
High Leverge .208 .250 0.0
Late & Close .132 .184 0.0
vs RHP .217 .379 24.8

And to celebrate his first True Yankee Moment, let’s give Stanton our Obscure Yankeemetric of the Series: Over the last 30 years (when we have reliable pitch data), he is just the second Yankee to hit a two-out walk-off homer in an 0-2 count. The other was Jason Giambi on June 5, 2008 against the Blue Jays off reliever B.J. Ryan in the bottom of the ninth.

Nifty Fifty
Because this team simply refuses to lose … the Yankees completed the sweep of the Mariners on Thursday afternoon, holding on for a 4-3 win.

They are now 19-18 when scoring four runs or fewer this season; every other team is at least three games under .500 in that situation. Looking ahead, the last MLB team to finish with a winning record in games when scoring no more than four runs was the 1979 Astros (57-56), and the last AL team to do it was the 1954 Cleveland Indians (41-39).

(Newsday)

The Bronx Bombers did all their scoring in the first inning, as Aaron Judge and Miguel Andujar both smashed two-run homers to give the Yankees an early 4-0 advantage.

Andujar’s blast was his 10th of the season, making the Yankees the only team in MLB with seven double-digit homer players in 2018 (Red Sox have six). The only other time in the last 15 seasons that the Yankees had seven players hit at least 10 dingers before July 1 was 2009.

The third baseman joined Gleyber Torres in the 10-homer club, producing yet another pinstriped record: they are the first set of Yankee rookie infielders to hit at least 10 homers in the same season. The last pair of Yankee rookie teammates at any position to do it were Gil McDougald and Mickey Mantle in 1951.

Finally this was also their 50th win in 2018, an important milestone considering this stat: It’s the eighth time that the Yankees have reached the 50-win mark in their first 72 games, and here’s how the previous seven seasons ended:

Yankeemetrics: Three more wins, bats still frozen (June 14-17)

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(Newsday)

Gley-Babe
The Fighting Spirit returned for one game, at least, as the Yankees survived yet another early-inning deficit and rallied to beat the Rays 4-3 on Thursday night. Domingo German put the Yankees quickly in a hole when Matt Duffy took him deep on the first pitch he saw. It was first time a Yankee pitcher surrendered a homer on the very first pitch of the game (i.e. top of the first inning) since Masahiro Tanaka served one up to Jose Reyes on June 17, 2014.

After that early hiccup, German settled down and pitched six strong innings, allowing just two more runs while striking out a career-high 10 batters. When German is locked in, he might have the nastiest stuff on the team with a biting curveball and filthy changeup that can make hitters look like little-leaguers at the plate.

He got 26 swings-and-misses, tied for the fourth-most by any pitcher in a game this year, and seven more than any other Yankee pitcher this season. Half (13) of those misses were with his curveball; the only other pitcher this season with more curveball whiffs in a game was Carlos Carrasco (14) on May 9.

The curveball is more than just a whiff machine, though, he also netted four called strikes with the pitch. That nasty combo of swinging strikes (41% whiff/swings) and looking strikes (36% called strikes/takes) puts German among the elite curveball artists this season. Among pitchers that have thrown at least 100 curves, German and Charlie Morton are the only guys with a Whiffs per Swing rate of at least 40 percent and a Called Strikes per Take rate of at least 35 percent.

(Getty)

Gleyber Torres made sure that German would get his first MLB win, crushing a 96-mph fastball from Blake Snell into the left field seats in the fifth inning, and turning a 2-1 deficit into a 4-2 advantage. It was his 13th career homer, and eighth that either tied the game or gave the Yankees a lead. Through Thursday, those eight go-ahead/tying homers were three more than any other Yankee had hit since his debut on April 22.

Incredibly, what he is doing — relative to his age, experience and position — is nearly unprecedented. The only other rookie second baseman age 21 or younger to hit at least 13 homers in a season was Hall-of-Famer Joe Morgan with 14 in 1965.

And, of course, it wouldn’t be a Gleyber Day without a reference to Mickey Mantle. His 13 homers are already tied for the fourth-most by any Yankee in his age-21 season or younger:

Yankees Most HR in Age-21 Season or Younger
Year Name HR
1936 Joe DiMaggio 29
1952 Mickey Mantle 23
1953 Mickey Mantle 21
2018 Gleyber Torres 13
1951 Mickey Mantle 13
(Newsday)

J-Lo? Jonny Lasagna? J-Siggy?
The Yankees overflowing pipeline of young talent was in the spotlight again on Friday night as Jonathan Loaisiga delivered a super-impressive debut performance in the 5-0 win over the Rays. It was their third shutout in eight games; they had just two shutouts in the first 58 games of the season.

Loaisiga struggled with his command (four walks) but dominated hitters with his electric three-pitch mix (18.7% swinging strike rate) as he tossed five scoreless innings while striking out six. He also showed incredible poise, a bulldog mentality and an uncanny calmness on the mound, holding the Rays to one hit in 10 at-bats with runners on base.

His changeup, which he threw only 13 times (per Brooksbaseball.net), might have been his nastiest offering of the night. The Rays swung at seven of those changeups, making contact twice (one foul, one groundout) while whiffing five times. Mallex Smith had no idea what to do with this ridiculous changeup from Loaisiga:

He is the first pitcher in franchise history to allow zero earned runs and strike out at least six batters in his first career major-league game. And he is just the second Yankee pitcher ever to make his MLB debut at Yankee Stadium as a starter and not give up a run. The other was Sam Militello on Aug. 9, 1992 against the Red Sox.

Gary Sanchez broke the game open with bases-loaded three-RBI double in the eighth inning. That had made him 12-for-23 (.522), including three sac flies, and 25 RBI with the bases loaded since the start of 2017. He has the highest bases-loaded batting average over the last two seasons among players with more than 20 plate appearances (through Friday).

(Getty)

Severino cheat code
Another home series vs. the Rays, another series win; another Luis Severino start, another Severino gem; another power outburst, another Yankee victory. Just like clockwork, the Yankees cruised to a 4-1 win over the Rays on Saturday thanks to the familiar Bronx Bomber formula of power pitching plus power hitting.

The victory clinched their 12th straight home series win against Tampa Bay, the Yankees longest such streak since winning 17 in a row in the Bronx against the Washington Senators from 1952-57.

Luis Severino battled through a rocky first few innings, but still delivered a masterful eight-inning, nine-strikeout, scoreless performance. He dominated the Rays with an electric fastball that averaged a season-high 98.6 mph and topped out at 100.2 mph (per Statcast).

Six of his nine punchouts came on pitches clocked 99 mph or faster, matching the most in any game by a pitcher since pitch velocity tracking began in 2008 (Stephen Strasburg also did it in his MLB debut on June 8, 2010). Severino now has 15 strikeouts on pitches 99-plus-mph this season; all other MLB starters have combined for 18 (through Saturday).

Severino has been a beast in the Bronx this year, earning our #FunFact of the series: He has allowed no more than two runs in each of his first eight home starts in 2018, the longest such streak by any Yankee pitcher at Yankee Stadium (old or new) to begin a season.

And, of course, because it’s another Sevy Gem, we get to include our favorite leaderboard:

Hot day, cold bats
There would be no sweep of the Rays in the Bronx, as the Yankees punchless offense couldn’t rally from another early deficit, losing 3-1.

(New York Post)

Their deep hitting slump with runners in scoring position continued with an 0-for-7 performance on Sunday; in their last 12 games, dating back to the second game of the June 4 doubleheader versus the Tigers, the Yankees are 8-for-76 (.105) with RISP. Yet, they are 8-4 over this stretch thanks a pitching staff and defense that has given up just 24 runs in those 12 games. Sunday was the first game they lost this season at Yankee Stadium when allowing no more than four runs; they were an MLB-best 22-0 in those games.

There was little to cheer about in the this game aside from the solid effort by CC Sabathia, who battled back after some early-inning struggles and lasted into the eighth inning while striking out a season-high 10 batters. It was just the second double-digit strikeout game for Sabathia in the last five seasons (the other was Aug. 17, 2017 vs. Blue Jays), as he became the oldest Yankee with at least 10 strikeouts in a games since a 40-year-old Andy Pettitte on April 24, 2013 against … the Rays.

Yankeemetrics: Dinger derby, Yankees split (June 12-13)

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(Newsday)

#DidiDingers
Two days after suffering their first shutout loss of the season against the Mets, the Yankees bounced back on Tuesday night with a 3-0 victory over the Nationals in the Bronx. It was their fourth shutout win of 2018, more than halfway to their total in 2017 (seven).

The win also guaranteed that they’d keep their “haven’t-lost-three-games-in-a-row streak” alive for at least a few more days. It is the Yankees’ longest such streak to start a season since 1954, when they didn’t lose back-to-back-to-back games until August 22 in their 124th game on the schedule.

(AP)

CC Sabathia produced a second straight superb outing, pitching into the sixth inning without giving up a run. He put a lot of traffic on the bases (four hits, three walks, hit batter) but was tough-as-nails when the pressure was greatest, pitching out of jams in nearly every inning to keep the Nats off the scoreboard.

This type of gutty performance is nothing new for Sabathia, who has limited batters to a .439 OPS with runners in scoring position this season, the second-best mark among AL pitchers and sixth-best in MLB (min. 50 batters faced).

And he did it in typical re-invented Sabathia form, by generating weak contact. As you can see below, only two balls in play against Sabathia were hit with solid contact (the pink/red zone in the chart):

The big lefty also notched a few milestones on Tuesday night. With his 124th regular season win as a Yankee, he broke a tie with Mike Mussina for 12th place on the all-time franchise list. And his fourth-inning strikeout of Michael Taylor was the 1,500th of his Yankee career, the fifth pitcher in team history to reach that mark and the fastest to do so.

*Number of games to reach 1,500 K
Strikeouts Games*
Andy Pettitte 2,020 338
Whitey Ford 1,956 381
Ron Guidry 1,778 303
Red Ruffing 1,526 560
CC Sabathia 1,500 267

Didi Gregorius, slowly emerging from his miserable May slump, snapped his power drought in style. He launched two home runs in his first four plate appearances, after going deep just once (on May 23) in his previous 143 plate appearances dating back to the last week of April.

It was his third multi-homer game in 2018, the most by any shortstop in a single season in franchise history, and his fourth as a Yankee. He’s already tied with Frankie Crosetti for the second-most career multi-homer games by a shortstop; only Derek Jeter, with 10 in his 20 pinstriped seasons, has more.

(Getty)

Teenage kryptonite
The Comeback Kids came up just short on Wednesday night, losing 5-4 in a wild, back-and-forth game. The loss also dropped them to 8-8 all-time at home versus the Nationals/Expos franchise. The only other franchise that has a .500 or better regular-season record in the Bronx against the Yankees is the Braves (10-7).

Despite my best efforts to fix/reverse-jinx him, Sonny Gray’s struggles at Yankee Stadium continued. He entered the game with a 7.22 ERA in six starts in the Bronx this season, the second-worst home ERA in the AL (min. 25 IP), and exited with the same 7.22 ERA after giving up four runs in five innings. Looking ahead … the highest single-season ERA at either version of Yankee Stadium by a Yankee pitcher (min. 10 starts) is 6.32 by Phil Hughes in 2013.

(New York Post)

Three of the four runs allowed by Gray came via a home run by Juan Soto, who hit a 338-foot wallscraper to left field in the fourth, and also launched a tie-breaking solo shot in the seventh off Chasen Shreve. Amazingly, this was Yankees first loss this season when tied at the start of the seventh inning; they were a perfect 8-0 in that situation before Wednesday.

At 19 years and 231 days old, Soto became the youngest player to homer against the Yankees since Andruw Jones (19 years, 180 days) in Game 1 of the 1996 World Series, and the youngest to do it in the regular season since Ken Griffey Jr. (19 years, 190 days) on May 30, 1989. All three of those guys — Soto, Jones, Griffey — hit two homers in their historic games.

Gleyber Torres did his best to match the teenage phenom, flexing his clutch gene with a career-long 435-foot blast in the fifth inning that briefly tied the game 4-4. It was his 12th homer, a new single-season Yankees record for a No. 9 hitter. Seven of the 12 have either tied the game or given the Yankees a lead — and those seven game-tying/go-ahead homers are two more than any other Yankee has hit since his debut on April 22.

With 19-year-old Soto and 21-year-old Torres both going deep in the game, STATS dug up this gem:

The Yankees had plenty of chances to put this game away with 10 baserunners (eight hits, two walks), but their slumping bats again failed in key scoring situations. After going 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position on Wednesday, they are 1-for-28 (.036) with RISP over their last six games, and 3-for-47 (.081) with RISP in their last eight games dating back to the second game of the June 4 doubleheader versus the Tigers.

Yankeemetrics: Bittersweet Subway Series Win (June 8-10)

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(Newsday)

Gardy goes Yardy FTW
Good pitching beats good hitting? Not so fast, my friend. The Yankees took the first game of the Subway Series, scoring three runs off Mets ace Jacob deGrom, en route to a 4-1 win on Friday. deGrom had given up a total of three runs over 47 1/3 innings in his previous eight starts combined before facing the Bronx Bombers lineup.

The bottom half of the first began with a bang as Brandon Nimmo crushed the second pitch he saw from Masahiro Tanaka into the rightfield seats. It was the first leadoff homer allowed by the Yankees this season. Going deep against Tanaka is hardly rare, though, as he’s now surrendered at least one homer in six straight games — the first time he’s done that in his MLB career — and 11 of 13 starts this season.

After surrendering the #obligatoryhomer, Tanaka settled down and was fantastic, retiring 12 straight and 14 of his final 15 batters faced. He didn’t allow another hit or a run, while striking out eight over five strong innings. It was the first time in 122 MLB starts that he didn’t give up more than one hit.

Tanaka is the third Yankee starter to have at least eight strikeouts and one or fewer hits allowed in a game this season, joining Domingo German (May 6 vs Indians) and Luis Severino (April 16 vs Marlins). This is the first time in franchise history they’ve have three starters do that in a single season … and its the first week of June.

Aaron Judge tied the game on a sac fly in the sixth, as Tanaka “raced” home from third after getting on base via an Adrian Gonzalez error a few batters earlier, but then left the game with sore hamstrings and was placed on the DL. To lessen the blow of this injury, let’s have some fun and give him our Obscure Yankeemetric of the Series:

Tanaka is the first Yankee pitcher to reach on an error and score a run in the same game since Mel Stottlemyre on September 1, 1972 against the White Sox.

The game remained knotted at 1-1 until the eighth when Brett Gardner launched a tiebreaking two-run shot off deGrom. Gardner doesn’t go yard often, but when he does, he makes it count. Since the start of last year, he has five homers that either tied the game or gave the Yankees the lead in the eighth inning or later, the most of any Yankee in that span.

Gley-bae and Miggy Show
It was deja vu all over again on Saturday night for the Yankees, who again fell behind early in the first inning to the Mets, rallied to tie the game in the sixth, and then won it with a dramatic eighth-inning homer.

Including Aaron Judge’s 13th-inning blast to beat the Blue Jays on June 6, that’s three straight games with a go-ahead homer in the eighth inning or later, the first time the Yankees have done that in more than four decades. From August 29-31, 1977, they beat the Royals and Mariners (twice) on late homers by Chris Chambliss, Mickey Rivers, and Graig Nettles.

And if you go back to the June 5 win in Toronto, its four straight games with a homer in the seventh inning or later, the first time in franchise history they’ve ever had a streak like that. Through Saturday, they led MLB with nine go-ahead homers in the seventh inning or later this season.

(New York Post)

Saturday’s victory also improved their record when tied at the start of the seventh inning to a perfect 8-0, the best in MLB; last year they went 7-10 (including playoffs) in that situation. And they also won their sixth game when tied at the start of the eighth inning, one more win of that type than they had all of last year.

Like Tanaka the night before, Domingo German battled through a rough first inning (three runs, two homers, a triple) but then was excellent in the next five frames. After the first, he allowed two hits and no runs while striking out nine, and for the first time as a starter, he didn’t walk a batter.

Postgame, Aaron Boone mentioned that he sharpened his fastball command after the first inning and the stats back that up. He threw just four of his 12 fastballs (33%) in the zone to open the game and then filled up the zone with 21 of his 42 fastballs (50%) in innings two through six.

The ability to command his fastball helped him stay out of the hitters’ sweetspot and paint the corners, keeping the Mets lineup off-balance for the rest of the night. Overall, 44% of his 96 pitches were on the edges of the strike zone (per Statcast), his best rate as a starter.

The comeback began in the third inning when Gleyber Torres rocked a 406-foot homer to left-center field for the Yankees first run of the game. At 21 years and 178 days old, he became the youngest player to go deep in the Subway Series rivalry (for either team). His fellow Baby Bomber, Miguel Andujar, then made it 3-3 in the sixth with a 404-foot shot to left-center. Four of his eight career homers have either tied the game or given the Yankees the lead, but this was his first career hit that either tied the game or gave the Yankees the lead in the sixth inning or later.

Aaron Judge played the hero role on Saturday, delivering a moonshot over the left-center field wall in the eighth. With an exit velocity of 96.9 mph, it was the softest-hit home run of Judge’s career — but it still counts for a run, of course. That was his second go-ahead blast in the eighth inning or later in the last three games; in his first 239 career games, he had one go-ahead homer in the eighth inning or later.

(Newsday)

No runs, no win
You know the saying …. all good things must come to an end … and the Yankees proved that to be so true on Sunday night. They had their four-game win streak snapped in gut-wrenching fashion, getting blanked by their crosstown rival, 2-0.

It was the first time they didn’t score a run this season — the Yankees were the last team in the majors to be shut out — and ended a string of 110 consecutive regular-season games scoring at least one run dating back to August 11 last season. That matched their longest scoring streak in the last 40 years; they also had a 110-gamer in 2005.

The Yankee bats were silenced by curveball artist Seth Lugo, who struck out eight and gave up just two singles over six scoreless innings. He is the first Mets pitcher ever to pitch at least six innings while allowing zero runs and no more than two hits in a game against the Yankees.

Luis Severino was worked hard by the Mets lineup early, throwing 31 pitches in the first inning and 93 total, before exiting after five innings during which he allowed two runs on five hits. In two previous appearances against the Mets (one start, one in relief), Severino had pitched 10 2/3 innings without allowing an earned run, and in his three previous career Interleague starts on the road, he had given up just one earned run over 19 1/3 innings. Cue John Sterling: “That’s baseball, Suzyn.”

Sevvy’s signature slider was nasty at times (tied season-high with 11 whiffs), but his location was inconsistent and a rare mistake with the breaking pitch resulted in the tie-breaking homer by Todd Frazier. Entering the game, Severino had thrown 490 sliders this season and only one of those was hit for a homer, by Blue Jays outfielder (and noted Yankee killer) Teoscar Hernandez on April 22.