The Yankees continued their successful West Coast trip on Sunday afternoon, sweeping the San Francisco Giants in strong fashion. Unfortunately, as has been the way of the Yankees this season, their victory didn’t come without a couple potentially big casualties. In the end, a strong offensive showing by the Yankees gave them an 11-5 victory.
Winning the Game Early: The key to this game was the Yankees’ success on both sides of the field in the early innings. LeMahieu started the game off with a single. The former Colorado Rockies player has always hit well against San Francisco, owning a .337 average against then, and continued to this weekend. Giants pitcher, Dereck Rodriguez, walked Luke Voit and Brett Gardner to load the bases with no outs. An error by the Giants shortstop allowed the Yankees to score their first run and a double play ball from Gleyber Torres gave them a 2-0 edge.
In fact, the Yankees scored two runs in each of the first three innings, while German managed to allow only one baserunner. Unfortunately, LeMahieu was replaced by Thairo Estrada in the third inning with inflammation in his right knee. Fortunately, Estrada continued his hot hitting since getting his call up from Scranton. He started the fourth with a single to center.
Giants Make a Drive: The Yankees added a couple more runs in the top of the sixth on a homer from Gary Sanchez, putting them ahead 8-0. That was also the inning, however, that German started to lose his momentum. He started the inning by walking former Yankees farmhand Tyler Austin. A single from Joe Panik scored Austin for the Giants’ first run of the game. The Giants managed four runs in the inning, cutting the Yankees’ lead in half.
The Yankees’ bullpen shut down the Giants for the next couple innings and added three more runs in the top of the ninth. Kevin Pillar started the bottom of the ninth with a solo shot off Joe Harvey, but that was all the Giants could manage and the Yankees got the sweep.
Curtain Calls: Luke Voit: Voit went 3-4 with two runs scored, two RBIs and a walk. He also had an error at first, but overall, Voit has a hot bat lately, hitting .433/.528/.867 over the last seven games.
Gio Urshela: Urshela has been crucial to the Yankees’ success lately, he is hitting .440 over the last seven games. He went 2-2 with a run scored, however, he was hit on the wrist by a pitch in the fifth and pulled out of the game. The good news (fingers crossed) is that x-rays came back negative and the Yankees believe both Urshela and LeMahieu should be alright.
Gleyber Torres: Torres may have kept the Yankees from really breaking out in the first with his double play ball, but he ended the night 2-4 with a pair of RBIs, a pair of runs scored and a homer.
On Deck: The Yankees get a day off on Monday and will be back in action late Tuesday night, when they take on the Diamondbacks in Arizona at 9:40pm. CC Sabathia will take the ball for the Yankees, looking to pick up those last three strikeouts to reach 3000. Merrill Kelly will start for the Diamondbacks. He is 2-2 with a 3.94 ERA with 27 strikeouts in 29.2 innings.
