Yankees make four saves, take convoluted win over Royals, 8-6 in 11 innings

I know when I’m sitting on a Monday I want the Yankees to play a five-hour game against a rebuilding team. The Yankees box was literally, historically incompetent, making four saves in a single game, but still managed to win this one in 11 innings, beating the Royals, 8-6.

Now I know you won’t believe it, but the Yankees struggled to hit early. DJ LeMahieu pulled off a triple stand-up for himself with a takeout in the second set … and ran aground. Giancarlo Stanton cracked a ball at 122.2 mph, the hardest never recorded … straight in a double play. It was not until the seventh inning that the Yankees even put two men on goal at the same time!

In this long-awaited setting, Aaron Judge doubled up, before Joey Gallo – him from two unlucky and hard-hit strikeouts – bounced a Grounder off second base to place men in the corners with one out. Cue LeMahieu, who slapped a weak comebacker to pitcher Carlos Hernández, who returned the ball at home.

It was a photo finish on the plate:

There was a review – initially the judge was called – and the appeal was upheld. I tend to think Judge was safe, but the call is the call. Luke Voit brought Gallo home in the very next batting attack with a Single, smashing the Yankees’ scoreless run in 17 innings, but boy, that seventh inning was all too familiar to 2021 Yankees fans.

You have to really feel Jameson Taillon, and really, almost every Yankees pitching lately. We’ve talked a lot about how good Taillon is over the past few months, and that continued tonight, pitching over six innings before being pulled out allowing a single start in the seventh. Aaron Boone turned to Jonathan Loaisiga, who missed a pickup attempt and hesitated in quick succession to place Jarrod Dyson in third with no one to take out. One fly bag later, it was 1-1. It counted as a breathtaking save for Loaisiga, although at the time no one thought much about that statistic.

The race was blamed on Taillon, but he was once again formidable tonight, his ninth such start in his last ten. Once again, his curveball was his main offering after the four-seam fastball, 16 of his 74 pitches in total. He didn’t pull off as many jumps and failures tonight – just a 21% stint rate – but the Royals are a very tough team to take down, entering the season with just 13.1% of the field.

To counter this contact-driven approach, Taillon was able to take advantage of several called strikes, including locating the curve in the punchout area:

The game ended in a reliever battle, with the Yankees regaining the lead early in the eighth. Tyler Wade channeled his inner Jacoby Ellsbury to reach the receiver’s interference.

Then a stolen base and Brett Gardner walk set Aaron Judge for a two-way hit:

Yes, Gardy was sent off in third to end the set, but we’re trying to find the bright spots here. The judge had a clutch strike! 2-1! Great thing with only six outs to go.

But then, well, Loaisiga’s problems continued, as he allowed the first two Royals to reach base in the eighth. Occurred Chad Green, who recorded a fly out before Andrew Benintendi resumed the match with an RBI single. We made our way to the ninth looking at Manfredball, and Green was charged with the Yankees’ second blown save.

You might remember how Luke Voit spoke very publicly about dropping the team after yesterday’s loss to the Mariners. Do you know how solid a single he had to drive in the Yankees’ first inning? He had not yet finished catching up on Sunday:

The best problem the Yankees could face would be getting Luke Voit to hit the way he did during his Yankees career. Adding his bat to the roster and forcing the club to make real decisions about their playing time alongside Giancarlo Stanton and Anthony Rizzo – because they’re all too good to sit – is the kind of problem you get. want your teams to have. Hopefully tonight is a sign of this “problem” that arises.

But, of course, no one in the enclosure could do their job, and Zack Britton, with two outputs, and two shots, throwing at Nicky Lopez, gave up the lead and we had extra innings anyway! Chalk this as exploded, save number three.

We went to the Manfredball, with the only comfort and humor that can be found in my colleague Matt Ferenchick’s political commentary …

Newcomer Andrew Velazquez was the phantom runner in second, and Wade recovered from a mishap to produce a good, solid single to push Velazquez into third place. A sack from Kyle Higashioka and a single from Brett Gardner made it a 5-3 game, and I have to say after the last two games a twisted number is really nice to see in the box score.

Now if you notice I’m about to start another paragraph with “but” …

BUT, Clay Holmes couldn’t do its job tonight either. He walked his first hitter, which in itself wouldn’t be the worst thing. He had a walking problem with Pittsburgh; he really hammered the area with New York. All right, a walk does happen.

It’s the two runs, on a fly and single bag, that really stick. Now hey! If you’re like, ‘Hey, it’s quite historic that the Yankees missed four saves in four straight innings,’ well, you’d be right:

The Yankees scored three runs in the start of the 11th, continually challenging the Fates to find a way to doom this game. LeMahieu passed ghost runner Gallo, then Gardner picked the face of shortstop Lopez to bring in two more runs. Now, as of this writing, we’re not sure about the status of Lopez, who looked really shaken up taking a baseball in the face, so we hope there is no problem. serious.

Finally, I am not starting this paragraph with a “but”! – Wandy Peralta didn’t exactly do his job, but he did a good enough job in his half inning that the Yankees came out of this nonsense with an 8-6 win (saving David Cone from having to punch yourself in the face). Even the last out caused a brief scare, but Rougned Odor trapped him and threw in the first to finish him off happily:

Kudos to Wandy on her first stoppage in the stripes (just the third of her six-year career), but what a really bizarre path it took to make that happen.

I have no idea what this team’s game plan is for tomorrow. Nestor Cortes Jr. gets the ball against Daniel Lynch, but Cortes isn’t known for going deep into games, and the bullpen performance tonight certainly wasn’t inspiring. The Yankees will try to figure it all out and look to win the series, starting at 8:05 p.m. EST.

The score of the box