Yankees GBU – Boy this team is fun

The New York Yankees took care of business before their big trip to London, sweeping the Toronto Blue Jays and ending their ten game home stand with a 9-1 record.  During those ten games they swept the Tampa Bay Rays, took three of four from the Houston Astros and swept the Jays.

The Toronto Blue Jays aren’t world beaters but they have plenty of young talent on the team.  On Wednesday afternoon, the Yankees came back from a 5-0 deficit to walk it off with a Gleyber Torres single.  Now before we start the GBU, big shoutout to Gleyber Torres.  It was his third career walk-off hit and he’s only 22 years old.  He had a 3-for-5 day on Wednesday and catapulted the Yankees to a six game lead in the A.L. East over the Rays.  However, because there are many Yankees to get to Gleyber will have his own little blurb here.

The Good

Judge and Lemahieu have been unconscious

It’s a little bit unfair to lump Aaron Judge and D.J. Lemahieu into the same category but Judge was excellent in this series.  He was 5-for-8 with 3 RBIs and looked to regain some of that composure he had before he got injured.  He’s getting his timing back and he’ll be back to the old Judge in no time.

As for D.J. Lemahieu, he’s putting himself into a stratosphere of his own with the way he’s been hitting.  Forget about Yankee MVP, Le Machine is making a case of being the American League MVP.  He has 13 hits in his last 18 at bats, four home runs and 8 RBIs.  He was 8-for-12 in this series alone and has hit a home run in four of his last seven games.

Everyone loved the Lemahieu signing but no one knew where he would play.  Considering he can play every position, it’s a blessing that you literally cannot take him out of the lineup even if you wanted to.  There’s no overthinking from Aaron Boone because DJL is as good a hitter as there is in the Majors right now.

C.C. gets back on track

Well it wasn’t as easy a win as C.C. Sabathia had hoped for (we’ll get to that in a bit) but Sabathia looked great in Monday’s 10-8 win over the Jays.  Sabathia went six innings while only giving up six hits and two runs.  The highlight of his start was his nine strikeouts.

Sabathia had much more composure than most of his other starts this season and hopefully it’s a sign that good things are coming soon.  As mentioned before, he’ll never be the ace of the staff but if he can ride off into the sunset with a solid season and a World Series ring, life wouldn’t be so bad for C.C.

The unassuming yet brilliant young lefties

Nobody thought that the Yankees would be 20+ games over .500 and have major contributions from Nestor Cortes Jr. and Stephen Tarpley, but here we are.  Cortes Jr. looked like Ron Guidry out there on Tuesday, pitching a semi-clean 4 2/3 innings of two run ball.  He wasn’t perfect but he was exceptionally crafty, mixing in different arm angles and movements into his repertoire.

Tarpley was just recalled from AAA after Jonathan Holder’s meltdown on Monday, and he got the job done both Tuesday night and Wednesday afternoon.  Tarpley pitched a gem and got his first career hold with a scoreless inning.  He salvaged the depleted Yankee bullpen with another scoreless inning on Wednesday.  Also, David Hale deserves credit for picking off Randall Grichuk and keeping the game close when James Paxton struggled.

The streak becomes historic

It wasn’t really a streak that meant anything at the beginning but the Yankees now find themselves a part of Major League history as the team with the most consecutive games with a home run.  They broke the record set by the Texas Rangers on Tuesday with their 28th straight game with a home run, then continued the streak on Wednesday with their 29th straight game.

You would think that the Yankees would have hit a lot of home runs (obviously) but it’s something special when you set a record for a game that’s been played for over 100 years.  They’ve gotten contributions from literally everyone on the team to keep it alive and it’s something to be proud of.  Also add that they haven’t been shut out in an entire season and it’s been a good streak on both fronts so far.

The Bad

James Paxton needs his sports psychologist back

Yeah James Paxton wasn’t great on Wednesday afternoon, and he’s been up and down since coming back from his knee injury.  He went 4 1/3 innings of eight hit, six run ball and the long ball was his downfall against the Blue Jays.  Giving up three home runs to the Jays isn’t great but he also walked four and only struck out three.

We don’t know what’s going through his head right now but hopefully Paxton doesn’t turn into Sonny Gray.  He looked to have been a great pickup after the Yankees traded for him but quite honestly he’s been extremely disappointing.  Maybe Paxton just needs this trip across the pond to clear his mind, or he needs to see his sports psychologist again.  Some people can’t handle the pressure of New York and hopefully James Paxton doesn’t turn into Kevin Brown.

A blown save for Zack Britton

Zack Britton got the win but he barely hung on to keep the game tied after a rough ninth inning on Wednesday.  He became the de facto closer after Aroldis Chapman saved both Monday’s game and Tuesday’s, and he didn’t do much to keep that spot.

He gave up two hits and a run and even though Aaron Boone said a lot of his misfortunes came at the mercy of the dreaded soft-hit ball, he still needs to be better.  Britton was a historically good closer in his second-to-last season with the Orioles and while he’s been good this year, he hasn’t had that dominant stuff he had in Baltimore.

The Ugly

Jonathan Holder gets sent down to AAA

Let’s put it this way;  When anyone out of the stands can come into a 10-2 game and can do as well as Jonathan Holder did in relief on Monday night, it’s not a good sign.  Holder auctioned off his ticket to London with that performance in what should have been a laugher.

Holder turned an eight run lead into a three run lead and made the Yankees’ top guys come into a game they shouldn’t have been in.  He immediately gave up a home run, then loaded the bases and gave up a grand slam to Freddy Galvis.  He recorded zero outs and was immediately sent down after the game.

We rag on Holder and clearly he isn’t as bad as he’s pitched lately, but he needs to figure it out before he’s ever put in the Yankees bullpen again.  They have enough guys where they don’t need him on the team and he can hone his craft again in AAA like Chad Green did.