Virtual Baseball: Thairo a Lightning Bolt of Hope in Yanks' Darkening Skies.

In Virtual Baseball today, the New York Yankees got a much needed jolt of joy, when Thairo Estrada pinch-hit a three-run homer that thwacked off the left field foul pole, and gave the Yanks a stunning, 3-2 victory over the Cincinnati Reds at the Stadium.

Rookie Kyle Holder got the start at shortstop today and played well, making several dazzling plays in the field and laying down two successful sacrifice bunts.  In the bottom of the ninth, though, after Gio Urshela and Brett Gardner singled with two outs, Manager Ma Boone sent up Estrada to pinch-hit for Holder.

"I just had a hunch—uh, I mean, that's what the sabremetrics were telling us, all the way!"  Boone said afterwards.  "No way I would EVER depart from those."

Estrada missed the first two pitches for strikes, barely fouled off two more, and then took a ball, before getting the barrel of his bat on a fastball from Reds closer Raisel Iglesias.  He hit a high pop fly that certainly had the distance, but looked as though it might curve foul.  Instead, it thwapped off the foul pole, sending the Bronx crowd into deliriums.

"Well, of course they both did great, and I think they both have terrific futures ahead of them," Boone said about his two new shortstops after the game.  He then hooked a thumb toward Estevan Florial where he sat at his locker, although Florial had not played for the second game in a row:  "I mean, it's not like they have a ceiling as high as that guy, or anything.  But it was good to see."

Mike King pitched six strong innings in what was another encouraging start for the Yankees, although he was on the wrong end of a 2-0 score when he left the game.  Adam "Mr. Zero" Ottavino got the win for New York.

It was the welcome end to a grim day for the Bombers.

First, reports circulated that longtime radio god John Sterling was still in the hospital, and that his condition was serious.  The new Yankees' spokesman, Tommy Finagling, denied that was the case.

"Nah, there's nothing wrong with the man!" insisted Finagling.  "Why, he just had some indigestion, very natural indigestion, too!  From eating Yankee fran—uh, from eating some bad shellfish!  Yeah, that's the ticket!  Some bad crabmeat.  You know how those eccentric artistic types are!"

Finagling also denied that the Yankees were pursuing what could only be called an unorthodox regimen of treatment for Gerrit Cole's ailing right arm.

Asked about rumors that Cole had been spotted in the Village last night, Finagling told the press:

"What?  What village?  No, never—oh, you mean that one!  Sure, sure he was in the Village.  At the hospital, you know, getting the old soup bone looked after!  Yes, at St. Vincent's Hospital, that's the ticket!"

Told that St. Vincent's was made into condos years ago, Finagling finally admitted that Cole had in fact been taken for a "preliminary assessment" at Madam Cleo's Psychic Emporium, on Bleecker Street.

"Sure, sure, what's wrong with that?  Why, it's perfectly fine homeopathic medicine!"

"No it's not."

"It's crystals!  She ran crystals over his arm—that sometimes works all by itself!"

"No, it doesn't."

"Don't be so ethnocentric!  Why, this is medicine made by the music of the spheres—"

After several more hours of dodging and feinting, Mr. Finagling admitted that Cole would go for a real MRI today.