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Game 16: Just a game between two sub-.500 teams

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(Presswire)

So, who had the Yankees and Red Sox being a combined eight games under .500 when they met for the first time this season? Not me, certainly. The Yankees are 6-9 and the Red Sox are 6-11. This is the first time the Yankees and Red Sox have met with sub-.500 records this deep into the season (at least 15 games) since 1992. Neither team’s season has gone according to plan.

“I don’t really get caught up in what (the rivalry) means. I certainly understand it. I’m doing everything I can to get us in the right place to go out and get a W,” Aaron Boone said this afternoon. “… I know we’re up against a good team that’s off to a tough start, similar to us. We know what they’re capable of and we know we have to play well to beat them.”

There would be no better way to snap out of this early-season slump than a quick little two-game sweep over an AL East rival. That applies to both teams. The Yankees want to keep burying the Red Sox and start climbing up the standings. You know Boston wants to do the same. One game at a time though. Gotta win the first one before you can win both. Here are tonight’s lineups:

New York Yankees
1. 2B DJ LeMahieu
2. RF Aaron Judge
3. 1B Luke Voit
4. SS Gleyber Torres
5. DH Clint Frazier
6. 3B Gio Urshela
7. CF Brett Gardner
8. C Austin Romine
9. LF Mike Tauchman

LHP James Paxton

Boston Red Sox
1. RF Mookie Betts
2. SS Xander Bogaerts
3. LF J.D. Martinez
4. DH Steve Pearce
5. 1B Mitch Moreland
6. 2B Eduardo Nunez
7. 3B Rafael Devers
8. C Sandy Leon
9. CF Jackie Bradley Jr.

LHP Chris Sale

It has been a beautiful day in New York. A little on the chilly side, but the sky is clear. It won’t last. There is rain in the forecast later tonight, around 11pm ET or so. Hopefully the game is over before the rain starts. Tonight’s game will begin at 6:35pm ET and you can watch on WPIX locally and MLB Network nationally. Enjoy the ballgame.

Injury Updates: In case you missed it earlier, Greg Bird has been placed on the 10-day injured list with a torn plantar fascia. He will be in a walking boot for two weeks, then be reevaluated. The Yankees expect him to miss at least a month. Saturday was the first time it really became a problem, apparently … Aaron Hicks (back) will remain with the Yankees through the end of the homestand before heading back to Tampa. He feels 100% and did more running, throwing, and hitting today. He’s a day or two away from taking batting practice … Miguel Andujar (shoulder) has increased his hitting and throwing. He’s still early in the process and they aren’t much closer to answering the “surgery or no surgery?” question than they were two weeks ago … Dellin Betances (shoulder) is no longer stuck in Tampa. He’s with the Yankees in New York. Nothing new to report though. He’s still early in the shutdown phase following last week’s cortisone shot … Troy Tulowitzki (calf) hit in the cage and did some running on the field today. It’s the first time he’s done any real baseball activities since landing on the injured list.

The injury bug and a flashback to 2007

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(Presswire)

Twelve Yankees currently reside on the injured list. Twelve! It’s put a pretty big damper on the start of the regular season, to say the least. Sure, a few players on the shelf aren’t surprises: Didi Gregorius and Jordan Montgomery, to name a couple. The Yankees had time to plan for their absences. However, they could have never anticipated the myriad of injuries that have happened since spring training began. It’s a bit reminiscent of 2007, when a handful of Yankees suffered hamstring strains early in the season. This year, there have been various health issues, but a fair amount of them have been muscle strains, stiffness, or soreness.

Prior to 2007, the Yankees hired Marty Miller as the team’s director of performance enhancement. He lost his job by early May. Injuries piled up within a month of the season beginning and it proved to be Miller’s undoing. Hideki Matsui, Mike Mussina, Chien-Ming Wang, and Phil Hughes all suffered hamstring strains. Johnny Damon played through a calf strain and Andy Pettitte powered through back soreness from a weight lifting mishap. This season, there have been two calf strains (Troy Tulowitzki and Gary Sanchez), Giancarlo Stanton’s biceps strain, Aaron Hicks’s back stiffness, and Luis Severino’s lat strain. Those seem to be related to strength and conditioning issues. To add insult to injury, there have been some bad luck and pitchers break issues too. Miguel Andujar tore his labrum sliding back into third, Severino had shoulder inflammation before his lat strain, and Dellin Betances has a shoulder impingement and bone spurs.

Aside from the litany of maladies, communication has been a problem as well. Hicks, Betances, and Severino have all had setbacks. How many times have we heard that Aaron Hicks is close to ramping up baseball activities? He was suppose to get back into the swing of things before camp ended. The Yankees downplayed Betances’s velocity in spring training, and now we find out that he’s had a bone spur for years. There was no mention of that when he was initially diagnosed with an impingement. Severino, somehow, suffered a new injury (lat strain) while trying to recover from shoulder soreness.

Matt Krause has been the team’s director of strength and conditioning since the 2014 season. Are all of these muscle injuries his and his team’s fault? Who knows. One thing’s for sure: the optics are bad. Back in 2007, the way things looked almost certainly contributed to the team cutting Miller lose. Even so, Cashman declined to blame Miller for the parade to the disabled list:

Last month, when a rash of muscle-related injuries felled five key players in four weeks, Cashman did not blame Miller or his assistant, Dana Cavalea.

“I’m constantly evaluating everything we do,” Cashman said in a telephone interview at the time. “But do I blame Marty and Dana for this? No.”

Cashman had said there were many reasons the injuries to key Yankees could have occurred, apart from Miller’s new strength and conditioning program, in which some players had declined to participate.

That last sentence is telling, though. Players declining to participate in a team’s strength and conditioning program is not a good look! If that wasn’t the final straw, it was definitely alarming.

This year, Cashman hasn’t placed blame on the training staff. Nonetheless, his reaction to Severino’s lat strain makes it easy to wonder if its starting to become the subject of his ire.

Cashman certainly sounds annoyed that the team has no idea how the ace succumbed to a new injury. On one hand, I could see him questioning if Severino did something extraneous to the “protocol” that caused the injury. That would be a hefty and damning accusation to make, though. On the flip side, it’s the training staff’s responsibility to get players back on the field as soon as possible. The fact that they’re in the dark about how this happened, or perhaps the idea that it was never caught in the first place, is significant. Not only is it a physical issue, but it is also a communication deficiency. These kind of mistakes can (and already have) throw the season way off course.

To give the conditioning team the benefit of the doubt, a few of the players who have gotten hurt have a reputation for being injury prone. Tulowitzki and Hicks, in particular. Further, maybe Severino’s ailments are just a symptom of being a pitcher. Whoever or whatever is to blame, it’s been nothing but bad news all around. Fortunately, like that 2007 team, all of these instances have happened very early on in the season. That squad still won 94 games when it was all said and done. For this team to accomplish that, it needs to get its house in order. Part of that is some better fortune moving forward, but also identifying the source of the numerous muscle strains, setbacks, and communication breakdowns.

Update: Dellin Betances shut down with bone spur in shoulder

by

(Presswire)

10:19pm ET: Betances has a preexisting bone spur in his shoulder that is causing inflammation, Brian Cashman announced. He will receive a localized anti-inflammatory injection tomorrow and be shut down four weeks, which means he’s seven or eight weeks from returning to the Yankees.

4:52pm ET: It had been a few hours since the Yankees last suffered an injury, so they were due for another one this afternoon. Dellin Betances has returned to New York for tests after yesterday’s simulated game in Tampa did not go well, Aaron Boone announced. Betances did not feel good and the Yankees didn’t like the way the ball was coming out of his hand.

From the sound of things, Dellin is having his tests sometime this afternoon/evening, and I suppose that means we could get an update following tonight’s game. Yesterday’s simulated game was the second time Betances faced hitters since being shut down last month. Even with good news, it would seem there’s little chance he’ll be back this month.

The bullpen without Betances has struggled quite a bit. Adam Ottavino has been great, but Zack Britton and Chad Green have not, and Aroldis Chapman is missing velocity. What was supposed to be an overwhelming strength has instead been a bit of a liability, or least not as reliable as expected. Baseball can be a real jerk sometimes.

Betances is set to become a free agent after the season, so the injury comes at a terrible time for him. Even if he gets healthy and finishes the season strong, the injury takes a bite out of his free agent stock. You know teams will use it against him. Bummer. Hopefully everything checks out okay and Dellin makes it back relatively soon.

The Yankees have a Dellin Betances-sized hole in their bullpen

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Miss you Dellin. (Michael Reaves/Getty)

At some point today, likely this morning in Tampa, Dellin Betances was scheduled to throw a simulated game. It is his second time facing hitters since being shut down with shoulder inflammation on March 19th, and, if all went well, it is reasonable to think he could begin a minor league rehab stint shortly. “We feel like he is making progress,” Aaron Boone said earlier this week.

The bullpen without Betances has yet to live up to its Super Bullpen billing. Adam Ottavino has been excellent, and Luis Cessa as been quietly solid in low-leverage mop-up innings, otherwise the bullpen owns a collective 3.97 ERA (3.28 FIP) through 12 games. The group’s 24.6% strikeout rate is a good five or six (or more) percentage points below the expectation coming into the season.

Through 12 games, there is a Betances-sized hole in the Yankees bullpen. The Yankees feel short one high-leverage reliever, someone who can face the other team’s best hitters with the game on the line. Right now, Ottavino seems to be the only guy qualified to do that. Consider:

  • Zack Britton is laboring. More baserunners (12) than swings and misses (10) is impressively bad.
  • Chad Green has a 55.6% hard-hit rate and has struck out one of the last 19 batters he’s faced.
  • Aroldis Chapman is missing velocity and has been quite hittable in the early going.
  • Tommy Kahnle has regained some velocity but he’s not back to his 2017 form.
  • Ottavino is on pace to appear in 81 games and warm up in 14 others.

The starting pitchers haven’t helped matters and the Yankees definitely need those guys to start pitching more effectively and pitching more in general. The four non-Masahiro Tanaka starters are averaging 4.1 innings per start in the early going. That can’t continue. The relievers can’t pick up that many innings each game.

Anyway, getting Betances back would not help Britton throw strikes or Green miss barrels. It would lessen the team’s reliance on them, however, at least to some degree. Dellin reclaiming the eighth inning frees up Ottavino for higher leverage work earlier in the game, and remember, the Yankees just lost two games in Houston because seventh inning leads were blown with Not Ottavino on the mound.

There are two questions with Betances. One, when is he coming back? It’s impossible to say right now. Even if today’s simulated game went well — today’s an off-day, so we won’t get a Dellin update until tomorrow — returning for next week’s Red Sox series is unlikely. Could he be back for the start of the West Coast trip on April 22nd? That would seem to give him enough time for three minor league rehab appearances. Maybe four.

And two, how effective will Betances be once he returns? Sometimes shoulder inflammation is truly nothing and the guy comes back with no ill-effects. And sometimes it lingers all season and the pitcher is never quite right. Betances coming back as something less than the high-leverage monster he’s been throughout his career would be bad news for the Yankees. Real bad news given the state of some of the other relievers in the bullpen.

Knowing the Yankees, they’ll ease Betances into things once he returns. Two or three lower leverage spots just to get his feet wet before thrusting him into big situations. I have no problem with that. A healthy and effective Betances allows the Yankees to use Ottavino earlier in the game, and also shelter Britton and Green until they turn things around. Of course, they might’ve already turned things around by time Dellin returns, but I digress.

The Yankees lost ten games when leading after five innings last season. They’ve already lost three such games this year, and their relievers have taken four losses overall. Here are some bullpen win probability numbers through 12 games:

  • WPA: -0.79 (+7.83 last year)
  • Shutdowns: 10 (153 last year)
  • Meltdowns: 11 (72 last year)

(Shutdowns are relief appearances that increase win probability at least 6%. Meltdowns are the opposite. They’re relief appearances that decrease win probability at least 6%.)

The bullpen has not only not performed as expected thus far, it is actively hurting the Yankees. Betances is one man and he alone can not fix things. The Yankees need Britton and Green to right the ship as well, but a healthy Dellin would have helped these last 12 games, and there’s an obvious need for him going forward. Clearly, there is no such thing as too many good relievers. The sooner Betances comes back and is effective, the better the Yankees will be.

Game 11: Bounce Back in Houston

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(Getty)

Gosh, did last night’s loss stink, or what? That’s a game the Yankees really have to close out. They emerged from the Masahiro Tanaka vs. Justin Verlander duel with a two-run lead after six innings and the bullpen couldn’t hold it. Everyone did their part except the team’s supposed strength. Annoying.

“(Tanaka) worked pretty hard in the sixth. We were pretty convicted that was it, and set up there to roll out (Zack) Britton there, and obviously (Adam Ottavino) with their righties at the top of the order and then (Aroldis Chapman). So it set up pretty well for us,” Aaron Boone said to George King and Kevin Kernan following the game. “… Yeah it stings a little bit.”

Oh well, can’t do anything about last night’s game now. The Yankees have a chance to even the series at a game apiece tonight and win for the fourth time in their last five games overall. All they have to do is win a game in which their seventh starter is matched up against one of the five best pitchers in the American League. What’s that they say about baseball, Suzyn? Here are tonight’s lineups:

New York Yankees
1. CF Brett Gardner
2. RF Aaron Judge
3. 1B Luke Voit
4. DH Gary Sanchez
5. SS Gleyber Torres
6. 2B DJ LeMahieu
7. LF Clint Frazier
8. 3B Gio Urshela
9. C Austin Romine

RHP Jonathan Loaisiga

Houston Astros
1. CF George Springer
2. 2B Jose Altuve
3. 3B Alex Bregman
4. DH Michael Brantley
5. SS Carlos Correa
6. 1B Yuli Gurriel
7. RF Josh Reddick
8. C Robinson Chirinos
9. LF Tony Kemp

RHP Gerrit Cole

Nice warm night in Houston. Warm enough that the Minute Maid Park roof is closed and the air conditioning is on. Tonight’s game will begin at 8:10pm ET and you can watch on the YES Network locally and ESPN nationally. Enjoy the ballgame.

Injury Updates: Luis Severino (shoulder) had his MRI late this afternoon and the Yankees don’t have an update yet. They’ll probably have one after the game … Miguel Andujar (shoulder) will play catch tomorrow for the first time since behind shut down. That’s a significant test given the nature of the injury … Dellin Betances (shoulder) faced hitters yesterday and he’s tentatively scheduled to throw a simulated game Thursday.

Game Eight: Beat the Birds

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(Getty)

All the home opener nonsense is over. The Yankees are through the celebratory portion of their schedule and can now, finally, begin the daily grind that is the regular season. They’ve had a bumpy start to the season, to be sure, but they won Thursday and tonight they have a chance to win back-to-game games for the first time this year.

“Had a little bump in the road on our opening homestand and getting hit obviously with injuries here early, but such is the nature of the big league season,” Aaron Boone said to George King on Thursday. “We just happened to get hit with a little bit early. We will be better for having gone through this and we will come storming out of this.”

Tonight J.A. Happ will make his second start of the season and his second start against the Orioles, and gosh, it sure it would be nice to see him keep the ball in the park. He’s allowed eight homers — eight! — in 15.1 innings this year between Spring Training and the regular season. Here are today’s lineups:

New York Yankees
1. CF Brett Gardner
2. RF Aaron Judge
3. DH Luke Voit
4. 1B Greg Bird
5. C Gary Sanchez
6. SS Gleyber Torres
7. 3B DJ LeMahieu
8. LF Mike Tauchman
9. 2B Tyler Wade

LHP J.A. Happ

Baltimore Orioles
1. 2B Jonathan Villar
2. RF Joey Rickard
3. 1B Trey Mancini
4. DH Renato Nunez
5. LF Dwight Smith Jr.
6. 3B Hanser Alberto
7. C Pedro Severino
8. SS Richie Martin
9. CF Cedric Mullins

RHP Dylan Bundy

After raining all day yesterday, it is partly cloudy and mild in Baltimore today. There’s no more rain in the forecast and that’s the most important thing. Today’s game will begin at 7:05pm ET and the YES Network will have the broadcast. Enjoy the game.

Injury Updates: CC Sabathia (knee, heart) will make a rehab start for High-A Tampa tomorrow, and as long as he makes it through okay, he will join the Yankees next weekend. He’s eligible to be activated off the injured list Saturday … Luis Severino (shoulder) is still long-tossing and is getting closer to throwing off a mound. He’s throwing at distances greater than 120 feet … Dellin Betances (shoulder) will face hitters Monday for the first time since being shut down. I’m assuming it’ll be live batting practice or a simulated game rather than a minor league rehab appearance … Aaron Hicks (back) is progressing with his throwing program and will begin swinging a bat in the coming days … Miguel Andujar (shoulder) is taking grounders. He has not swung a bat or thrown yet, which are the big tests.

Rotation Update: Domingo German starts tomorrow, then it’ll be Masahiro Tanaka, Jonathan Loaisiga, and James Paxton in Houston in that order. The Yankees flipped Tanaka and Loaisiga, though Tanaka will still make that start with one extra day of rest. Thursday’s an off-day, which sets Happ up to start Friday’s series opener against the White Sox and Sabathia to take German’s spot Saturday. Or it could be that German stays in the rotation and Loaisiga goes back to Triple-A. We’ll find out soon enough.

Misc. Notes: In case you missed it earlier, the Yankees called up Gio Urshela and sent down Thairo Estrada. “(Urshela’s) a guy — with our roster situation right now — is going to play. He’ll play a lot of third base for us. Probably in there tomorrow. I would say he’ll be in there quite a bit while he’s here,” Aaron Boone said to Bryan Hoch. That presumably means LeMahieu goes to second base and Wade goes to the bench.

Game Five: Win it for Miggy

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(Mark Brown/Getty)

Despite the win, yesterday was a tough day for the Yankees. They lost Giancarlo Stanton and Miguel Andujar to injuries, and the Andujar injury is especially serious. He has a “small” labrum tear and may need season-ending surgery. Andujar and the Yankees will see how he responds to treatment and rehab over the next few weeks before making the surgery decision.

“That’s a tough one, especially the labrum. Anything in the shoulder is pretty complicated. We’ll see how it turns out. He’s a tough individual. He’ll fight through it, no matter how long it is and come back stronger than ever,” Aaron Judge said to Bryan Hoch and Coley Harvey yesterday. “Guys just step up. That’s it. We got a deep farm system, a deep organization, and when guys go down, everyone’s ready to step up and fill their spot.”

The Yankees have a ready-made replacement for Andujar in DJ LeMahieu. Stanton will be replaced by Clint Frazier, who wasn’t available to replace Judge last year. That was a big missed opportunity for Clint. Hopefully he capitalizes on Stanton’s absence and solidifies his long-term place with the Yankees. Here are tonight’s lineups:

New York Yankees
1. CF Brett Gardner
2. RF Aaron Judge
3. 1B Luke Voit
4. SS Gleyber Torres
5. 3B DJ LeMahieu
6. LF Mike Tauchman
7. DH Clint Frazier
8. 2B Tyler Wade
9. C Austin Romine

RHP Masahiro Tanaka

Detroit Tigers
1. 2B Josh Harrison
2. RF Nick Castellanos
3. DH Miguel Cabrera
4. 3B Jeimer Candelario
5. 1B John Hicks
6. LF Christin Stewart
7. CF Dustin Peterson
8. C Grayson Greiner
8. SS Jordy Mercer

RHP Jordan Zimmermann

It is cold and cloudy in the Bronx and there are some light showers in the forecast later this evening. Doesn’t look like anything that will significantly delay or impact the game. They might play through some rain drops in the late innings, if anything. First pitch is scheduled for 6:35pm ET and you can watch on the YES Network. Enjoy the game.

Injury Updates: CC Sabathia (knee) threw four innings in an Extended Spring Training game yesterday. He’s going to throw five innings with High-A Tampa on Sunday, and if all goes well, he could make his next start after that with the Yankees … Dellin Betances (shoulder) threw a bullpen session today and will face hitters next … Luis Severino (shoulder) is still long-tossing and hasn’t thrown a bullpen session.

Misc. Notes: Greg Bird took ground balls at third base this afternoon, something he’s done many times in the past, though Aaron Boone confirmed Bird is the emergency guy at the hot corner with Andujar down. “It’s not that far-fetched,” said the skipper … As expected, Jonathan Loaisiga will start tomorrow’s series finale. He’ll be the corresponding move when Sabathia is activated off the suspended list and placed on the injured list.