J.A. Happ Continues To Be a Beast For The Yankees
When J.A. Happ toes the rubber you just know you’re going to get a quality start. It’s all he’s done since joining the Yankees. After today’s outing, he’s now 5-0 with a 2.39 ERA with 32 strikeouts in 30.1 innings pitched. The man doesn’t have overpowering stuff, but he knows what he’s doing out there and can locate very well. Fastball location into his off-speed stuff to keep hitters off balanced is his plan and it works. It’s beautiful to watch. At this point right now it’s a two dog race to start the wild card game between Happ and Tanaka with Severino having the next month to regain his vintage-self. Regardless, Happ has been all Cashman could have dreamt for since coming over from Toronto in exchange for a guy with a broken hand and a 4th outfielder. Where are the Yankees without J.A. Happ right now? Fighting for that wild card spot? Having Luis Cessa start baseball games? Thank God for this guy.
Offensively the Yankees exploded today. Four homers off the bats of the future AL Rookie of the Year Miggy Andujar, Brett Gardner, Aaron Hicks, and Gleyber Torres. Miggy just keeps tearing apart big league pitching and is running away with the AL ROY award.
Hicks had himself a day with three hits after an unlucky 0-5 on Friday night. Even Shane Robinson picked up a few knocks and came so close to a homer if it didn’t hook foul. Luke Voit picked up another RBI base hit as he continues to put the pressure on Greg Bird. The man is in a groove, but he will sit the second leg of the doubleheader in place of Bird. Let’s see what the ostrich has in store for us with some real breathing going down the back of his neck.
Happ had a rocky second inning and saw his pitch count climb drastically, but really settled down after that frame to get through six innings. That allowed the Yankees offense plenty of time to score tons of insurance runs and put Luis Cessa in for the final nine outs to actually pick up a save. With Sonny Gray starting in Game 2, it was imperative for the bullpen to get a breather in the day game and that they did. Let’s go sweep the double header for a change and keep the bats going.