The New York Yankees are heading into a doubleheader on Wednesday against the Philadelphia Phillies. Last week, the series against Philly was postponed due to COVID-19 concerns. Philadelphia had previously played the Miami Marlins on Opening Day weekend, and after Miami was diagnosed with multiple positive test, the Phillies were forced to quarantine and ensure they were not a risk to other teams.
With that, the Yankees had to postpone their games and traveled to Baltimore instead. Luckily, they came away with a sweep against the Orioles and followed that up with another sweep of the Boston Red Sox. The Yanks won the first game against the Phillies in the Bronx on Monday evening, but due to inclement weather, the game on Tuesday was canceled.
While the Yankees have dominated at the plate, catcher Gary Sanchez has struggled to get going. He currently has two hits over 25 at-bats, earning a measly .080 batting average with a .120 slugging percentage.
After earning an All-Star selection in 2019, Sanchez changed up his defensive mechanics significantly. Former Twins catching instructor Tanner Swanson has helped Gary develop a one-knee stance, which has subsequently helped his framing behind the plate.
While Sanchez has complemented new ace Gerrit Cole nicely, he tends to go through lengthy cold-streaks at the plate. However, when he is on, he’s one of the biggest home-run threats in the game. Nonetheless, the Bombers have managed to play well despite his deficiencies. They will have to wait out his cold streak or switch to alternative catcher, Kyle Higashioka.
J.A. Happ entered the 2020 season with a comeback on his mind. In his first start of the 2020 campaign, he pitched four innings, giving up four hits, two homers, and two walks. He only managed to strike out two batters and finished with a 9.00 ERA.
At 37 years old, Happ is undoubtedly in the last year of his Yankee tenure. After being traded to the team in 2018 and earning seven wins, posting a 2.69 ERA, he has taken a steep decline in production.
Last year he had his lowest strikeout total in five seasons. Of course, one start shouldn’t demoralize our expectations, but it certainly wasn’t what we anticipated. With the Yankees pitching looking inconsistent at times, they desperately need players like Happ to step up and elevate their play.
Manager Aaron Boone has instituted a revolving door in left field. He has started Brett Gardner, Mike Tauchman, and Miguel Andujar rotationally. Often, he will switch left fielders in the middle of the game, just to give extra at-bats to different options. Gardner, after starting off the season slow, has hit two homers in the last three games. He currently has a .105 batting average and seven strikeouts over 19 at-bats.
Alternatively, Andujar is struggling at the plate as well for the New York Yankees. He has yet to show off his offensive dominance, which showed its face back in 2018 when he had a .297 batting average and 27 long balls. A costly error against the Red Sox almost blew the game several nights ago, which forced Boone to make a change and put Tauchman in left field. Evidently, Tauchman stole second base in the eighth inning and ended up being the tying run. Aaron Judge came to the plate one at-bat later and gave the Yankees a two-run lead going into the ninth.
Andujar’s one hit over eight at-bats isn’t exciting, but such a small sample size shouldn’t deter us from wanting him in the lineup.
However, Tauchman has been dominating in all facets of the game. Looking sharp in left-field defensively and posting a .333 batting average makes me think he should be starting. Over nine at-bats, he has three hits and stolen three bases. He has been the best of the trio so far, but Aaron Boone doesn’t seem convinced in giving him the starting job just yet.
This post was published on 2020-08-05 07:45
