The Yankees played game two of three in their series against the Phillies tonight, and the game today was the complete opposite of last night’s onslaught. The offense was dead up until there was some life in the 9th, and pitching wasn’t as great as it’s been this season. The Yankees ended up losing tonight’s game 4-1, as the Phillies finally got their first win of the year. Domingo German made his season debut and had some good and bad moments, but ultimately was far from the biggest issue tonight.
The good news for the Yankees:
Domingo’s first start of the year was a very interesting one, and I don’t know how else to describe it. His changeup and curveball were absolutely on fire tonight, and he ended up finishing the night with 8 strikeouts on the stat sheet. However, his fastball looked like it was in mid-season form, as it was flat and lifeless — also was the pitch that the Phillies crushed 2 HR off of. He ended up pitching 4.2 innings, gave up 4 runs (a few off bloop base knocks), and 4 hits to go with the aforementioned 8 K’s. The bullpen wasn’t anything special today, as Michael King came in and made his second appearance of the year following German. It’s clear he’s still getting back up to game speed, as he gave up 4 knocks in his 1.1 innings worth of work and only got one strikeout on the evening.
I’m not worried about King long-term, it’ll take him a bit to get back into it. Albert Abreu pitched decently well, wasn’t anything spectacular, but did his job in the two innings he tossed. Aside from a double that got just past the outstretched glove of IKF, he looked solid tonight. Jimmy Cordero would end up pitching the 9th inning and looked fantastic. He struck out a pair, and his slider and sinker were looking magical on the bump. He could easily have a place here for a long time in this bullpen.
The bad news:
The Yankees offense was virtually nonexistent today, though there were a few barrels that just didn’t go their way today. Stanton just missed a pair of homers, and DJ LeMahieu smoked two hard-hit baseballs to the deepest part in center, before getting a solo shot to a nearly identical location in the 9th inning. It was his first of the year, and so far, that toe is looking to be just fine.
Volpe and Gleyber accounted for the two base knocks on the night, and Gleyber continued his hot start to the year with the knock and a walk to boot. Sometimes, the game doesn’t go the way you want it to. Tonight was one of those nights for the lineup, but fortunately, the Yankees still have 156 games left to go on the year. The process looked good tonight, and the bats weren’t swinging and missing as often as they had been in past games — even though they were actually scoring runs.
I am not overly concerned about tonight’s showing, it just sucks that the team wasn’t able to capitalize against a poor starting pitcher in Strahm and a struggling team in the Phillies. Now, the Phillies are on the board with a dub, and the Yankees head back to the drawing board. German had a lot of promise today, so hopefully, he’s able to build off of it and focus on not throwing his fastball ever again.
The Yankees get back to it tomorrow afternoon at 1:05 EST as the ace Gerrit Cole makes his second start of the year. In his Opening Day appearance, Cole was absolutely dialed in and struck out a Yankee OD record 11 batters in their win against the Giants. Hopefully, the offense will show up tomorrow afternoon, and the Yanks can put this one behind them.