The Yankees Swept Toronto, Scored a Billion Runs, But Lost Didi Gregorius In The Process
The Yankees figured out that blowing teams out of the water is actually a good strategy. 28 runs in three games will lead to a nice three game sweep and this team certainly need that kind of weekend after losing two of three to Tampa. After Toronto got one off Happ in the first, the Yankees’ bats answered immediately in the bottom of the the first, plating six runs without recording an out. The big blast, of course, came off Greg Bird’s bat with the bases loaded. Instead of fouling out to the visiting team’s dugout, Bird sent a titanic shot into the second deck for a no doubter grand slam.
He was basically face fucking me when he hit that. But this is what Bird does. He is the worst hitter on the team, everyone gives up on him, and then he hits a few bombs to make people forget he’s a terrible hitter in the first place. Don’t let the grand slam hide the fact he went two for ten on the weekend and is hitting .210 on the year. If he gets hot for even two weeks then we can talk, but don’t be a fucking moron and tweet me and Old Takes Exposed because Bird did “something.” The Greg Bird apologists had their moment, but let’s see him do “something” for a whole month before we all get carried away.
With all the run support he could ask for, J.A. Happ settled in nicely and gave the Yankees five and a third of two run ball, while striking out eight and walking one. His pitch count got a little up there which resulted in the shortened outing, but he gave the team just what they needed once again: a solid start. It’s all he’s done since putting on the pinstripes: 4-0 24.2 IP 2.22 ERA with opponents batting .179. Right now, you could make a strong argument that he’s starting the wild card game, especially when you factor in his postseason experience. J.A. Fucking Happ.
Miguel Andujar picked up six more hits this weekend and continued to assault major league pitchers. Every time he’s up he’s basically driving in runners. It’s all he cares about. Gleyber Torres I thought really started to come around this weekend as well, picking up five hits. He was working counts much better than the previous few weeks when he pretty much was held hitless. Even when he was getting out this weekend he was upset with himself. It’s almost like Marcus Thames got into him good before the series and told him to wake up. Gleyber was a different player this weekend and that is a very good sign.
The bad news of the day was the injury Didi Gregorius suffered in the bottom of the 1st. Didi grounded a ball into short right field and as he beat out the throw, collided with Morales and injured his heel.
It’s being called a badly bruised heel and Boone said the swelling was getting worse since the end of the game. It hasn’t been announced yet, but a DL stint is probable I would think. This won’t kill the team because Gleyber can just slide over to short while Ronny Torreyes can man second in the mean time. Let Didi rest and get him back for the gigantic west coast road trip in the first week of September (Oakland and Seattle). It looks like Gary Sanchez has a good chance to get back for that trip as well, as he’ll begin playing in rehab games either Wednesday or Thursday. Judge will likely be longer than that, but I’d rather he take his team and avoid re-injuring his wrist. Just get back by mid-September and we’re fine.
We recapped the whole weekend on today’s episode of The Short Porch. We answered a ton of DMs at the end as well.