Last night the New York Yankees started a 3 game set with the Baltimore Orioles at Orioles Park at Camden Yards. Not obvious, but in the background, the team was also dealing with eight “breakthrough” cases of the coronavirus. One of which is Gleyber Torres, the Yankee’s shortstop who missed his third game in a row as he is under Covid 19 quarantine. Corey Kluber started for the Yankees and Dean Kremer for the Orioles. The final score was the New York Yankees 5 and the Baltimore Orioles 4. Winning this first game now sets up the Yankees for their fifth series win in a row tonight.
Corey Kluber was not great
Corey Kluber was not as sharp last night as he has been in his last few starts. He had command problems even though he lasted six innings, striking out 6 Orioles. He gave up a home run and allowed 7 hits resulting in four earned runs. Two walks also plagued him in the game. However, the Yankees hitting for a change picked him up and allowed him to win the game.
The New York Yankee’s bullpen again was stellar. Chad Green, Wandy Peralta, and Jonathan Loaisiga combined for three scoreless innings allowing Kluber the win. Jonathan Loaisiga, pitching the ninth inning, got his second save of the season.
Yankee hitters picked it up
For at least one game last night, the lackluster New York Yankees hitting picked up for a starting pitcher that didn’t have his best stuff last night. In most games, this season the Yankees had had so little scoring that when a starting pitcher was off, he couldn’t count on the Yankee hitters to shore him up.
Last night slugger Aaron Judge had a hell of a night. He hit not one but two home runs and went 2 for 3 with a walk before being taken out of the game. But the winning hit came from Gio Urshela. With two on base, Urshela slammed a three-run home run over the Orioles center field wall. This is proof that the Yankee hitters don’t all have to be hot; if just a few are hot during a given game, the Yankees can win games.
Yankees have more troubles on the basepaths.
Throughout the first six weeks of the season, the New York Yankee players have made several baserunning mistakes, and last night was no different. In the fourth inning, with the score tied. Clint Frazier singled. A single by Brett Gardner followed that. Gardner’s single was a high fly ball headed for no man’s land in left field.
Frazier took off for second, but when he got halfway, he turned around and ran back for first, with Frazier and Gardner standing on first. Frazier should have run full out to second base as the ball was not caught by the charging left fielder Austin Hays. Frazier misjudged the ball. If the running mistake was unavoidable, the mistake should have been made by being too aggressive, which was not the case last night.
Tonight: The second game of the series tonight will be at 7:05 pm in Baltimore. Domingo German will take the mound for the Yankees and Jorge Lopez. The game will be televised on MASN and the YES Network. After the Yankees complete the series on Sunday, they will take off for a 4 game series with the Texas Rangers at Globe Life Park in Arlington, Texas.