First, a Happy Easter to those who celebrate. Or a pleasant Sunday evening to you.
In New York, it was certainly a mix of some rather interesting events during the course of tonight’s game, including a few minutes of downpour that sent fans for cover while the game played on, so many interference calls (most were rather questionable, to be perfectly honest), and the Yankees’ decided to go 6-0 at home by sweeping their second series this week. The Yankees haven’t been 6-0 since at home since their 1998 season, and we all know how that one turned out. Not drawing any conclusions yet, but I’ll take it.
In tonight’s finale against the Cardinals, the Yankees went in with a plan for the sweep and followed through. Thanks in part by the great pitching of Michael Pineda, despite his shaky start. In his 7 innings, Pineda threw 96 pitches, gave up 6 hits, a walk, and 2 runs, and struck out 6 batters, setting himself up for the eventual win. A 1-out single in the 2nd, moved to 2nd on a ground out, and then scored on an RBI single to get the Cards on the board. And a lead-off solo home run in the 7th doubled their score.
Meanwhile, the Yankees answered back beginning in the 2nd. Headley led off with a single and then scored on Aaron Judge’s big hit that ended up being ruled a triple on fan interference. However, there was some major confusion as to whether the outfielder would’ve gotten the ball or (what most people who weren’t umpires tonight believe) it would’ve hit the top of the outfield fence making it an automatic home run.
A little sense of justice, however, came into the game when Greg Bird hit his first big home run of the season deep into the Bleacher Creatures (section 203 in right field) to give the Yankees a solid lead. (Also, I got to whip out #BirdPower for the first time this season.) And in the 5th inning, Aaron Hicks continued his offensive streak with a 1-out solo home run just to the left of the right field foul pole.
Dellin Betances allowed a couple of baserunners, but got out of the 8th inning unscathed to secure Pineda’s win and set up the major Yankee offensive that would be the bottom of that inning. The Yankees kicked things off with consecutive walks to Headley and Judge and a single to Bird to load up the bases. Austin Romine’s double scored Headley and Judge to widen the Yankees’ lead. And Ronald Torreyes’ big hit into the left field corner was ruled a ground-rule double on fan interference (the only legitimate such call of the game, in most everyone’s minds).
After a pitching change (as there were no outs recorded yet), the new reliever got a ground out that moved Torreyes to 3rd, so that he could then scored on Aaron Hicks’ sacrifice fly. During Castro’s at-bat, he hit a long ball into the stands in foul territory by right field. As it was descending a fan did try to make the catch right at the wall, but it was ruled an out on fan interference. Though not a single person other than that umpire thought the right fielder was going to make that play, which is the only reason to rule an out. (Had he been able to make the catch, like he was right under the ball that was somehow snatched out from his grasp, it’s an out on fan interference.) But this was going into the stands and the right fielder had slowed down knowing he wasn’t going to make the play. The umpires seemed fan-interference-happy tonight, and thus was the call. Girardi argued, but with the Yankees so far ahead it didn’t seem like he should waste a challenge here.
Sending Bryan Mitchell in is usually one of those sure things. But everyone has an off-day from time to time. Mitchell, I’m sure, is glad the game wasn’t much closer or things could’ve ended up worse. He certainly struggled his way through the 9th. His lead-off batter doubled, moved to 3rd on a wild pitch, watched as the next batter walked, and then scored on a messy force attempt and throwing error all before he recorded an out. Fortunately, that must’ve shaken him enough to buckle down and make the next 3 outs fairly quickly to end the game.
Final score: 9-3 Yankees, Yankees sweep Cards 3-0.
Injury news: Matt Holliday was still out of tonight’s lineup with some lingering back soreness. Girardi doesn’t expect he’ll be on tomorrow’s lineup either because with back injuries especially you don’t want to risk a more serious injury when it’s not yet at 100%. We’ve all done that — tried to rush a healing and ended up making it so much worse, causing even more time off for healing than was necessary if you’d just let the original injury heal properly first.
Okay, the Yankees have one more 3-game series at home before they head back out on the road, and they’re doing pretty well in the Bronx so far. Perhaps they can carry that same luck into their series with the White Sox starting tomorrow night.
Go Yankees!
Yankees Life 