In the 8th - with runners everywhere, sirens blaring, the Knicks getting blasted on another channel, and Brent Headrick staggering into his 2nd frame - warming in the pen was Yovanny Cruz - a 26-year-old just up from Scranton, for what would be his MLB debut. Headrick got the out, and the Knicks somehow prevailed, but not without our heart pills.
In the 9th, down to stems and seeds, with a two-run lead, the Yankees brought in Camilo Doval, a struggling former Giants closer with a 5.40 ERA and a profound inability to hold baserunners. He walked the leadoff batter. Chaos ensued. Somehow, Dotel held the line, giving up only one run, preserving the game.
A win is a win, I guess. We should take them as they come, right? Still, night after night, the Yankees are ripping through bullpen arms like a Covid ward goes through Kleenex, using the multitudes just to survive the final three innings, and the final few weeks of May.
Monday night, they used four pitchers.
Sunday, in a horror show loss, seven.
Saturday, six.
Friday, with ace Cam Schlittler, pitching into the 7th, three.
No lead is safe, their closer is flailing, and Aaron Boone - even without home plate calls to protest - has found new ways to get tossed. Night after night, Yank fans are watching in slow motion horror the collapse of a pitching staff, with no cavalry on the way. (Cruz, who dominated in Scranton two weeks ago, was promoted despite recent shaky outings. If he can throw just one shutout inning, he'll immediately join Boone's Circle of Trust.)
Last night, the franchise announced welcome news: For the first time since Game 5 of the 2004 world series, with his eternal meme pointing to first base, Gerrit Cole will return Friday, against Tampa. Make no mistake: It'll be great to have him back. Cole is a team leader, almost a de facto coach. But at 35 and coming off of surgery, he will not be a workhorse. If he goes five against the Rays, Boone will probably pull him, leaving the final four innings for the Walking Dead. The Yankees' formula for success lately has been to score 9 runs. They'll probably need it against Tampa.
When you look at the Yankee bullpen, it's amazing to realize that we're prepping for Memorial Day, not Labor Day. And unless somebody emerges, soon, it could be Judgement Day.
We cannot go on this way. The center will not hold.
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15 comments:
Where is the commentariat?
They let Doval putch to Vladdy with 1st base open, 1 out, tying run on second. I thought it was madness. But it worked out. Then he pitched to Varsho, a lefty, with a lefty (Yarborough) available and warming. Worked out, sort of.
And in the end.
The Arms you break
Are equal to the….
Uh…
Uhm…..
like you know……
Arms you break ?
BS Boone overuses the bullpen, the Yankee way. The Yankee lineup houses low average, high strikeout hitters, the Yankee Way. Tissue Man Stanton will not be seen for a long while. The Yankee way.
Did you mean "pitch" or "putsch," Publius, in response to what is going on all around us right now?
Whither Scott Proctor?
I think we have to bring up Lagrange, mediocre as he has been in Scranton.
I took a fairly long walk yesterday to a huge hardware-type store, which didn't have what I wanted. But in getting there, I saw a sign for "Putz"...umlaut on the u..the kind of thing that always make me laugh. It means house cleaners, but still. Like "Schmuck" means jewelry, but still.
I also passed a storefront for a business called "Barf Cafe," obviously not playing to the English-speaking tourist crowd. They sold dog foods. The owner must have got tangled up in "arf" and "bark."
Oh, those Germans.
In French, la grange means "the barn." Hopefully, he can hit the broad side of one.
Btw...watching the replays of the Volpe stolen base attempt and the Jazz liner clearly showed, at least to me, that Volpe was safe and Jazz' ball was not actually caught, but trapped. Cripes, the latter was clearly on the ground when it rolled out of the glove for a brief instant. And the Volpe thing--how can the experts in Chelsea watch these replays and get them wrong, as they sometimes do?
Very simple, MLB hates the Yankees.
Perhaps another organizational fuck up?
https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/mlb/mlb-yankees-lose-the-dominican-ohtani-after-backing-out-of-multi-million-dollar-deal/ar-AA23EKBi?ocid=socialshare
JM, in reference to my post above, the next time you go into a German beer garden, go up to the bouncer and say "Versauen." Or perhaps " Scheiße bauen." Please report back, LOL :)
OH, THE HUMANITY!!!
Brain Delay
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