Sonny Gray Was Once Again Shelled at Home While Chris Sale Baffled The Yankees
The writing was on the wall that tonight would not go the Yankees’ way. Sonny Gray entered this evening with a horrendous 7.22 ERA in seven home starts in 2018. In seven career starts against the Red Sox, his ERA was sitting at a terrible 5.97. But maybe tonight would be different? After a nice and easy 8-1 victory on Friday night maybe Sonny would work quick, get ahead in counts, and attack Red Sox hitters? Maybe for once he would get the best of the Red Sox? For two batters it seemed like maybe he was going to be a different animal tonight.
Gray got Betts to fly out and Benintendi to ground out to start the game. In those two at bats he worked quick, threw first pitch strikes, and got outs. Well, that was the end of the Sonny Gray mirage.
J.D. Martinez worked an eight pitch at bat and reached on an infield single up the middle.
Mitch Moreland then worked a seven pitch walk where Sonny nibbled like a motherfucker.
Xander Bogaerts then singled to right on the first pitch he saw.
That brought up Rafael Devers with the bases loaded and still two out. Gray once again got ahead in the count 1-2 but decided to hang a breaking ball over the outer third of the plate. Devers jumped on it and sent it over the left field wall.
Despite retiring the first two batters of the ball game, Sonny managed to give up a grand slam in the first. Disaster. You’re facing Chris fucking Sale and it is IMPERATIVE to match zeroes with him as long as you can. Maybe you play small ball at some point and squeak across a run or two? That’s how you beat Sale. When you spot him four runs before he even steps on the mound you might as well stop watching the game. If there was any hope of clawing back in the game after the first, those optimists were put to bed in the 2nd when Gray trotted back out there and immediately gave up two more runs to make it 6-0. Awful. Sonny was horrendous on Saturday night and could not put one single batter away when he needed to. He never gave the Yankees a chance to win and instead allowed Sale to pitch with zero pressure which is one of the scariest things imaginable. When you’re on lists that make Carl Pavano and Jaret Wright look better than you, then we’ve got a problem folks.
Gray is a disaster against the Red Sox and even worse at Yankee Stadium. He’ll probably say after the game that he had good stuff, just the results weren’t there.
Update: He actually was honest tonight.
It’s infuriating to watch him pitch while he wears pinstripes at Yankee Stadium. Sure, he’s a better pitcher on the road, but you have to pitch well at home, man, especially in a crucial game against the Sox. We’ve got a soon to be 38 year old CC Sabathia reinventing himself and posting a 2.54 ERA at home and you can’t even come close to that? It’s inexcusable is what it is. I don’t know what you do with him.
On the other side of the ball, Chris Sale was untouchable tonight, as he usually is against New York. After giving up a single to Stanton in the first inning, he did not allow another hit the rest of the night. In fact, after walking Romine in the 2nd Sale didn’t allow another base runner, ending his outing retiring 16 in a row. He was locked in from the start striking out 11 Yankees in total as he was able to pitch with a big lead and attack hitters from the get-go. Even Gleyber Torres, who rarely looks overmatched at the plate, was baffled by Sale’s stuff tonight. Not only did I have to deal with Sale making my guys look silly at the plate, but also Jerry Carrabis sitting with Marlins Man playing umpire behind the plate. It wasn’t a fun night folks, but it’s not like we didn’t see this coming. I wrote this in today’s morning blog.
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Tonight, however, might not go in our favor. Chris Sale goes up against Sonny Gray, who has been a disaster at home this year. Winning Friday night was big because it’s almost like we’re playing with house money tonight. If we win that’s amazing, if we lose it’s something we’re not surprised at and we turn our attention to Sunday Night Baseball with Severino on the mound.
Sure we didn’t see 11-0 coming, but it’s the same as 1-0 in the record books. CC won on Friday. Sale evened the series up tonight. Now it’s time for a showdown on Sunday night between Luis Severino and Davey Tingle Fingers as long, as there’s no Fortnite tournaments in the area. Flush this game away and gear up for a fucking battle tomorrow night. Barstool at the Ballpark, I’ll see everyone at 6:00.
Fuck Sonny Gray
Update:
Actual bad news. Austin Romine exited this game with tightness in his hamstring. If he were to be sidelined for any amount of time and we’re stuck with Kyle Higashioka we’re in trouble.