The Yankees Finally Get Something Going

  Yankee fans, if you didn't watch last night's game, then sorry to say that you missed an interesting game. Despite the YANKS beating up on the Baltimore birds at Yankees Stadium to get some momentum and almost sweeping them, this team's start to the season has been so inconsistent to start the year, but last night's game one of a four game set against the Cleveland Indians was one you didn't want miss.
  

  Yes, it has been torture to see the Yankees play so badly that they fell to last place in the A.L East, but last night the team's fan base saw them go to work at Progressive Field.

  To be honest, the first inning was pretty much spelling the word "trouble" in bold faced, giant letters. Like his last two outings on the major league level, Domingo German was pitching a little shaky baseball and it could have gotten him and the Yankees into early trouble, but let's talk about that a little later.

  Let's first talk about the exciting part of the night, because the Yankees' offense finally woke up and were capitalizing with runners-in-scoring-position. Let's talk about that a bit in depth and the talk about German, shall we?

  First off, for those who saw the lineup before the game, I can guarantee that a handful of you thought the night would end in disaster. A lineup with Brett Gardner batting first, DJ LeMahieu in the two hole, Aaron Judge in the DH spot, and Mike Ford occupying the first base and with Kyle Higashioka in for Gary Sánchez.

  For those who didn't watch the game, let it be said as a reminder that LeMahieu was brought aboard for two reasons:1. His versatility in the infield on defense. 2. His ability with drive in runs.

  With that said the 2 hole made sense to a certain extent, if Gardy gets on base and it serves as a way to have a lefty-right combo.

  To put it point blank, it was one of those games that had fans saying, "Boy, am I glad I stuck around."

  It all started off early in the game, the Yanks gave us a glimmer of hope in the top of the first. Gardner drew a leadoff walk and Judge followed, with the two Yankee outfielders displaying a very patient approach in the early going at the plate, particularly in two-strike counts. With Stanton getting the day off for some odd reason, Judge traded in his right fielder's glove for bat to take the DH spot. Gleyber Torres decided to end that trend quickly, whiffing on a 3-2 cutter at chin-height, though thankfully, his night got better from there. That was a scary moment given the injury bug issue that Yankee dealt with for multiple season now, but thankfully Torres escaped a trip to the injured list..

  Now, for the story of German's night. Compared to his last two outing, which ultimately got him sent to the alternative site, last night was his best outing thus far. At first, it had seem that he picked up right where he left off, just giving up at-bats, but thankfully he figured out how to settle in after a rough 1st inning. Man, it was looking very shaky there for a moment to start off German's night. He gave up a one-out single to Cesar Hernandez, a double to José Ramírez, and a single to Eddie Rosario that plated Hernandez. A shaky defense didn't even make his start to the night better, it just added insult to injury. Hernandez’s single bounced off Gardner’s sliding catch effort, Rosario’s sharp grounder caromed off Mike Ford’s glove, and Germán was unable to field a Franmil Reyes comebacker. Josh Naylor singled to the right side, scoring Rosario from second. Four hits, one error, and 26 poorly-located pitches later, Cleveland saw themselves get on the scoreboard with a a 3-0 first inning lead. That was a huge issue with a reasonable amount of fear because in the previous games, the Yanks' offense hasn't been clicking, especially with runners-in-scoring-positions.

  Surprisingly though, the Yankees' unorthodox lineup got them back in the game. Higashioka doubled to right and was singled home on a LeMahieu single to left. At best, those two at-bats have been reliable through this ugly start to this team's offensive season.

  Yes, you read that right, the Yankees actually had yet another RISP opportunity of the season, well could it be?

  Yes it was, and the Yanks weren't done yet. Mike Ford stepped into the batter's box and worked a walk, then Gleyber Torres joined the party by hitting a clutch single toward right fielder Josh Naylor. Naylor, who had to get the ball in from right- center field, which gave the Yankees a break because he booted the ball all the way towards the center-field wall. What a break that was for Aaron Boone and his team!?!

  That mistake by the Indians brought the Yanks right back into the game.

  LeMahieu and Ford were able to score, clearing the bases a bit for Torres to advance to third. Just like that it was 3-3 and the Yanks were once again playing with an offense that had life again.

  After the Yankees went 1-2-3 in the second, German found his spots in Higgy's glove and were pitching to them. Finally, German was looking like the pitcher that his team knows he could be. He buckled down and powered through,as he was navigating around a leadoff single by Andrés Giménez. In the third, Reyes crushed a long fly ball off the left-center field wall which Aaron Hicks misplayed, allowing Reyes to advance to third. After the display on defense, Naylor found himself struggling in the batter's box as well, striking out on a pitch over his head, allowing Germán to escape the inning.

  From there, the Yankee bats went quiet for the time being, but the Cleveland offense matched them step-for-step.

  It was just that type of baseball game.

  Hicks singled in the sixth knocking Civale out of the game and that gave the Yankee dugout a rare look at his A-swing from the left side. Frazier and Higashioka worked back-to-back walks to load the bases for Brett Gardner, but he grounded out to hold all three runs in place.

  That would have been a huge scoring opportunity.

  Germán retired seven in a row starting with Ramírez to end the fourth, and became only the third Yankees starter after Gerrit Cole and Jordan Montgomery to go at least six innings this season. It looks like him being sent down to the alternate site really helped him, because he pitched a five -plus inning game for the first time this season. Now, that isn't to say that he pitched a whole lot better in the first inning against Cleveland than his last two starts, but at least he last longer this time out. In weird way, Cleveland's offense bailed German out because his final stat line of the night showed that he went: six innings, seven hits, three runs (two earned), one walk, and six strikeouts.  

  In the midst of all the intense baseball on the field, Yankees' T.V broadcaster/reporter Paul O'Neil said something intriguing towards the end of the top of the fifth inning. He said that when he thinks about the other good teams and the standing, it seems to look like they are all in last place as well.

  Makes you wonder as a Yankee fan, "Are we just overhyping the struggles that Yankees' are facing so early in the season ?" Some of you might say "Yes, it is way to early in the season to worry about the standings, and then there are those who would say, "No, without a doubt", simply for the fact that this team has struggled for multiple seasons now.

  Either way you look at it, baseball is baseball. Anything can happen.

  With the seventh inning eventually rolling around, the Yanks once again found themselves in a loaded bases situation. Aaron Hicks walked, then he moved from 1st-base to 2nd-base, as Judge also worked a walk to get on base. With the two Yankee outfielders' on bases, shortstop Gleyber Torres notched his first multi-hit game of the season by hitting a single. From there, another clutch moment took place, Rougned Odor came through by  grounding a single up the middle to plate Judge and Torres, which gave the Yankees a 5-3 lead over the Cleveland Indians. Unfortunately,  James Karinchak put a stop to the Yanks' furthering their  RISP opportunity by striking out Clint Frazier in his very next at-bat with a 3-2 fastball right down the heart of home plate. Boone brought Mike Tauchman in as his defensive replacement and honestly, you can’t blame the Yankee manager for that move.

  Aarone Boone also made the decision to go with the bullpen arms in the seventh inning and why not do that after German gave you much need length in this outing?

  Jonathan Loaisiga came in for the seventh trying to preserve the Yankees’ hard-fought two run lead. He continued his quietly-dominant start to the season. Although, he did give Hernandez his third hit of the game, but that was the only mistake he made. It is something that fan base has to hope that it has to do with his development into a high-leverage arm in the back end of the bullpen. For now though, Yankee fans have to be happy to see him toss a scoreless inning.  

  Higgy is just becoming more impressive as he is showing that he is developing into a complete player on both sides of the baseball. No knock on Gary Sanchez, but unlike Gary, Higgy is showing extreme preformance behind the plate and with the bat. Whereas, while Gary has been great behind the catcher's mask, he hasn't quite figured out his bat stroke as yet. Higgy squashed a 420-foot shoot that left his bat at 105.6 mph, which gave him his third of the year and the Yankees a 6-3 lead. Chad Green worked a clean, ten-pitch bottom of the inning to hold the Yankee lead.

  From there, Torres collected his third hit of the night as a way of responding to his haters. The Yankees then loaded the bases for the third time in the game with Odor’s second single of the game and a Tauchman infield single. It was exciting to see the Yankee offense do there thing, but, a Higgy strikeout and Gardy pop out left them stranded.

  All and all, the Yankees' offense did their job, because their flame throwing left handed closer got some work in the ninth inning. Boy, that must've given all Yankee fans watching, a chance to breathe a sigh of relief.

  Aroldis Chapman, a.k.a, "The Cuban Missile" was his usual flame throwing self. He stroke out the side with a devastating slider to Perez, and delivered overpowering 100 and 101-mph fastballs to Luplow and Hernandez. When Chapman was done, he accumulated six strikeouts on ten splitters thrown, which is just insane, and bumped his overall strikeout rate over 70 percent.

  Once again, the Yankees' bullpen arms prove to feature some of the best pitching arms in the business.

  Tonight, in game two against the Tribe, LHP  Jordan Montgomery is set to face LHP Logan Allen.

  As the game is set for a 7:10 P.M start, Allen will have to take his turn against this awakened offense. In his first two starts, he was shaky in his first two innings, but then he settled in. as the outing went along. In his last time out, the opposite happened, as he found himself cruising along through the first two frames, but he gave up five runs without recording an out in the third against the Reds on Friday. 

  Jordan Montgomery will oppose the Tride's lefty, as he is coming off a loss against the Rays in which he suffered four runs on just two hits---both came via the home run ball. On the bright side though, Monty has continued to limit hard contact this year, as he is managing to hold opponents to a 30.2% hard contact rate.