The Tag Team Of Dellin Betances And Aaron Boone Lose The Yankees Their First Baseball Game Of The Year
Well, that was quite the kick in the dick. The game started out with the same storyline we’ve used the last few weeks. Injuries. Just one out into the Jays lineup Josh Donaldson connected on a ball to deep left field. Billy McKinney, who just made his MLB debut yesterday, reached out and collided hard with the wall as the ball fell in for a double. Immediately I thought he was concussed since his head slammed into the wall hard. But the injury ended up being to his shoulder, the AC joint to be exact. He initially stayed in, but after a weak throw back into the infield on a single, Aaron Boone had seen enough and pulled the rookie. He’s already been placed on the DL, making that now FOUR outfielders sidelined before April 1st. Just crazy stuff. For the near future, Brett Gardner, Aaron Judge, and Giancarlo Stanton will be the three outfielders for this team with Tyler Wade seeing some time to spell whoever needs a breather. There was concern with Judge in center going into today, but to be honest he looked completely fine out there and I’m not as worried as I was at about noon today. At the end of the day he’s so athletic he’ll have no problems. You just worry about your superstar playing out of his normal position for a long period of time. He seemed pretty pumped about the idea though so that’s awesome to hear.
CC Sabathia had a rocky first, but settled in quite nicely in the middle innings until the 5th. After one out walks and singles to Donaldson and Smoak, it quickly became Aaron Boone’s first real decision of whether to pull the big fella. He opted not to, in probably a smart move because CC would’ve fought him, and it paid off as CC induced an inning ending double play ball to end his night. CC picked up right where he left off from last year, giving the Yankees five solid innings, working in and out of trouble, and turning the game over to the pen in a tied 1-1 game. That’s all you can ask from the 37 year old.
Tyler Austin provided today’s offense as Marco Estrada was excellent to every other batter all day. For some reason he thought he could get a fastball past Austin in his two at bats and both times he was greatly mistaken.
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Besides Austin though, the bats were silent which I suppose will happen from time to time, but not often.
The always shaky Dellin Betances came into the game in the 7th in a tie game and every fangave a giant gulp the moment they saw him out there. He immediately showed zero control, falling behind to Granderson only to surrender a lead off single. Betances is maybe the slowest pitcher in all of baseball to the mound. It’s nuts he hasn’t worked on this at all because if he’s in a big game, he’s just going to allow countless stolen bases. Granderson got a gigantic jump to second and should’ve been standing up safe it was that large of a lead. The only thing stopping him was the arm of Gary Sanchez.
Gary got this ball out of his hand in lightning time. I mean it was insane. Back in the studio, Flaherty tried to time it and got around 1.75 seconds, which is just otherworldly. A perfect throw by most catchers doesn’t get Granderson there. But Gary isn’t most catchers. Yeah he has issues blocking the ball but that man has a fucking cannon and his pop-up speed is second to none. Snipe city.
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Betances escaped the seventh thanks to his battery mate. But even though Chad Green was warming and ready to rock, Aaron Boone decided to stick with Betances for a second inning. This will be the move that reporters question heavily after the game as it was Boone’s first decision that blew up in his face. Betances was awful in the 8th, serving up a quick lead off homer to former Yankee Yangervis Solarte. Following a strikeout, he gave up a single to Kevin Pillar. The Blue Jays center fielder then took second and third base with ease, taking advantage of Betances’ ridiculously slow delivery. With the Jays number nine hitter at the dish and two outs, Boone opted to not hold on Pillar at third allowing him to dance about halfway down third base seemingly taunting Dellin. It seemed like Betances had no idea Pillar was even on third to begin with. Pillar was not done stealing bases.
All you have to do is step off and throw the ball to the plate, you big idiot. Nope, can’t even ask that of Betances these days. A wild pitch wouldn’t have been in time to catch the sprinting Pillar even if it had been on target. Such a joke. I got second-hand embarrassment from that entire inning. How does that happen to a Major League pitcher? One specifically that used to be so dominant. I don’t know what’s happened to this man since last September but he’s not the same guy. He has zero confidence, zero control, zero intimidation factor when on the mound. You can’t be throwing Betances in the 8th inning of a tie ball game. Hopefully this was part of the learning curve for Boone and we won’t see that happen anymore. Chad Green should’ve been in that game in the 8th. I can live with the decision to use Dellin in the 7th, but man oh man he deserves to be pitching mostly in blowouts at this point. He’s probably the sixth best reliever on this team and that might even be a stretch. The guy is a fucking joke. This loss sits squarely on the shoulders of Aaron Boone and Dellin Betances. I’d say the third game of the year is not ideal for a new manager’s mistake to cost a team a win.
Some exciting news that just came out is that Miguel Andujar, the Yankees fifth overall prospect, is getting called up and will be with the team tomorrow. Following the storyline so far, he’ll probably be hurt by Monday. Will it be like last time when he played one game, mashed, and was sent down right after? It could be with Jacoby Ellsbury set to come off the DL next week. But it’ll be fun to watch the kid play for the next few days at least. Sonny Gray makes his season debut tomorrow as the Yanks try to win the first series of the year against Marcus Stroman. You can’t win em all, but you hate to lose like that.