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The 2021 season has been filled with a set of interesting circumstances for the New York Yankees thus far, the team has found themselves on an up and down roller coaster ride that has allowed them to see hot streaks and some very rocky outings. The 2021 season has allowed this team to win series after series to turn around their struggling efforts that they experienced in the first month of baseball's regular season, which allowed them to accumulate 10-plus series victories that started at the end of April and carried over into the second month of baseball.
Recently, Aaron Boone and his team have found themselves scratching their heads to find a way to get another hot streak going after being swept at the hands of the Detroit Tigers and then their pesky A.L. East divisional rivals, the Tampa Bay Rays, took game 1 of the four-game set that their currently battling in at Yankees Stadium.
By now, everyone should be aware that the Yanks snapped their four-game losing streak by evening out the series at a game a piece by edging out the Rays in an 11-inning baseball competition that allowed them to come away with a 2 TB-5 NYY victory over their divisional foes.
It was a win the Yanks desperately needed and they will need to build off it to get another hot stretch going to stay in the midst of the top teams in their division.
It was one of those matches that probably had every Yankee fan on the edge of their couch cushion.
It took until the 11th-inning, but in that inning, the ball rocketed off Clint Frazier's bat to find a home in the first rows of the left-field seats. It wasn't until then that the Yankees finally had a moment to celebrate. He jogged down the first-base line and thought about the festivities that awaited him in the clubhouse: “Club 161,” as he put it.
The Yanks are a team that seem to always have the lurking production capability that could come from anywhere on their roster. Amid all the efforts from everyone on the team that were victims of sleepless nights, Frazier filled the role of "hero" twice in the second game of the four-game set. The outfielder couldn't stop himself from grinning after making a highlight-reel catch, and then belted a walk-off two-run homer that lifted the Yankees to a 5-3, 11-inning win over the Rays at Yankee Stadium.
“It’s a feeling that I'm sure that I won't forget, just because of what we've been going through as a team and what I've been going through individually,” Frazier said. “We needed that win. We’ve got to build off of it, show up tomorrow and try to get another ‘W’ that’s a little bit easier than that one.”
Frazier destroyed an Andrew Kittredge slider for his fifth home run of the season, allowing him to give the Yankee organization their fifth walk-off win of the year -- it was certainly the spark that the team needed.
“We needed that....", Yankees manager Aaron Boone told the media yesterday after the game. He also said yesterday that, “....Some better things across the board -- not close to where we need to be, but it was an important day today to pull that one out, and a great AB there by Fraz to finish it off."
Three innings earlier, Frazier had preserved a 3-3 tie by contributing a diving inning-ending catch in right field, which stole a hit from Joey Wendle that would have brought home two runs. With Chad Green on the mound, Wendle got a a weak fly ball that he lofted towards the Yankees infielders, which seemed as if it was a play for Rougned Odor to make. Frazier had had other ideas, as he charged the baseball and dived for it at the last possible moment.
Jun 1, 2021
“I've really worked hard at my defense and tried to make it something that people can't talk about for the wrong reasons anymore,” Frazier said. “That was a big play for me. Rougie and I were in a unique situation going at it, but I'm the one coming in on the ball. I'm just glad that the ball was able to stick in my glove.”
Frazier’s diving hustle allowed for New York’s bullpen to combined for six scoreless and hitless frames behind starter Domingo Germán. German's outing consisted a permitting of three runs and three hits over five innings. It was Luis Cessa who pitched a perfect 11th to pick up the victory.
According to manager Aaron Boone, he said this of the Yankee pitching staff:
“They've been great all year...It's no secret that our pitching has carried us. The starters have been really strong for us, but the bullpen has been there from Jump Street. It's allowed us to close out most of the games we should and are supposed to win.”
Taking the Monday series-opening loss, the Yankees were in familiar territory by the midway point of the first inning. Austin Meadows’ two-run homer put them down before a turn at bat, but they scraped for three runs against Rays ace Tyler Glasnow.
With a bases-loaded, two-out opportunity in the third, New York capitalized by using the momentum to tie the game without hitting the ball. Aaron Judge worked a bases-loaded walk and DJ LeMahieu wasted no time to race home on a wild pitch. Miguel Andújar got in on the action by giving the Yanks a lead in the fourth, slugging his second opposite-field homer in as many games.
Jun 1, 2021
Andujar said this through an interpreter:
“I think that energy started by the time we arrived today here at the Stadium,... We could feel the energy, we could feel how much we wanted to play this game. We showed it during the game in the dugout, and I think that was the key tonight -- the high energy that we brought.”
Andújar’s homer had a hang time of up to almost all of four minutes, but then Kevin Kiermaier connected for a game-tying home run off Germán.
Germán said through an interpreter that:
“I cannot allow that to frustrate me, because you have to understand that home runs are a part of the game,...That being said, I’ve got to keep on working and keep following my routine.”
When Frazier made his diving grab in the eighth, no one seemed happier than Gary Sánchez, who hugged his teammate enthusiastically in the dugout. By all means, the Yankees catcher knew, it was an eventful game by any standards.
Sánchez was especially happy for Frazier because the Yankee catcher experienced the feeling of preserving the game earlier in the contest. Sanchez had caught Meadows lingering off first base in the sixth, which prevented a Tampa Bay rally, but then he made the team’s Major League-leading 27th out on the bases in the seventh by trying to advance from second base to third on a grounder in front of him. Sánchez also air-mailed a throw into center field on a stolen-base attempt.
“Some of the mistakes he's made on the basepaths, we’ve got to clean up and get better at...” -Boone said.
As we look to tonight's clash between the A.L. East rivals, game three will once again have Yankee fans looking for their team to start another winning stretch. Will the Yankee give their fans what they want to see?
