Yankees 4, Cardinals 3
- Mike Whiteman
- 4 days ago
- 4 min read
Born on this day in 1922 was Gene Woodling, another of the unsung heroes of Casey Stengel's 1950s Yankees. The lefty-swinging Woodling was skillfully platooned in the Yankee outfield along with guys like Hank Bauer, Irv Noren, and Cliff Mapes, flanking first Joe DiMaggio then Mickey Mantle. Woodling had a .285/.388/.434 slash in Pinstripes, and that got even better (.318/.442/.529) over 26 World Series games, when the Yankees took five championships in a row from 1949-53. https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/w/woodlge01.shtml
Quick Stats: The Yankees are 65-57 and in third place in the American League East. They currently hold the last Wild Card spot, a game and a half ahead of Cleveland.
Luis Gil got his first win of the season, and David Bednar locked down his second save as a Yankee.
Big Story: The Yankees came out with a bang, putting three runs on the board in the first inning after Aaron Judge pushed a run home with a groundout and Jazz Chisholm Jr. smacked a two-run home run.
They added another in the third after Jasson Dominguez singled in Chisholm. Luis Gil held St. Louis scoreless through five innings, aided by double plays turned by his defense in each of the first three frames, and got out of a no-out, runners on second and third jam in the fifth. He yielded back to back doubles in the sixth, and Aaron Boone called it a day for his young righthander after 83 pitches. Mark Leiter came on, induced another double play, and the Yanks escaped with a 4-1 lead. Boone turned to Camilo Doval in the seventh, but he gave the Cardinals back a run with a walk, a hit batsmen, and allowing an RBI double to .222 hitting Victor Scott. Boone had to go get him, then Luke Weaver came on and tossed a wild pitch (which arguably should have been stopped by catcher Ben Rice) before getting out of the jam and St. Louis had cut the lead to 4-3. Weaver put up a zero in the eighth. David Bednar tossed a 1-2-3 ninth, and the Yanks held on for the win. Player of the Game: Chisholm had the big rip in the first and stole second base in the third, scoring on Dominguez's single. Notable Performances: This is Gil's second solid start in a row. I'd love more distance from him, but I'll take it...Jose Caballero had two hits and two stolen bases...Aaron Boone pushed all the right buttons last night, seemingly pulling pitchers just in time, and making a defensive change late in the game that moved Cody Bellinger from first base to left field, where he made a real nice shoestring catch for the last out of the game.
Better to Forget: The Yankees were 3-17 with runners in scoring position, squandering opportunities to tack on runs and put the Cardinals away. They Said It: “He knows how tough this sport is. He’s invested in these guys heavily, as we all are. Trying to explain away difficult play or bad performance for a period of time, while the storm is upon us, it’s not an easy task to navigate or deal with and remain cool, calm and collected. He’s obviously done an amazing job of working through that.” - Brian Cashman on his support of Aaron Boone. My Take: There's no such thing as a bad win, but it sure felt like this game was closer than it needed to be. I kept holding my breath waiting for the Cardinals to find a way to take the game. I really enjoyed listening to Ryan Ruocco and Joe Girardi announce the game on YES last night. Girardi has long been a favorite of mine and really gives great insights on the game. Much has been said all over the Yankeeverse analyzing the Yankee season and particularly the cratering of the team performance since spring turned to summer. Lots of reasons have been put forth, including poor managing, poor fundamentals, mental errors and lack of focus/urgency. These are valid observations. Most "swoons" are not the result of one, but a combination of factors. Aaron Boone is the popular scapegoat - it comes with the territory. I submit though that while Boone is no Casey Stengel, the core reason for the team's demise is "right in front of us". Yankee ERA from be beginning of the season through June 27th: 3.41 Yankee ERA since June 27th: 5.24 So, the pitching staff is allowing almost two more runs per game for almost two months. No surprise they've had a losing record over this span. We all braced for this in Spring Training after the injuries to Gerrit Cole, Luis Gil, and Clarke Schmidt. Great starts to the season by Max Fried and Carlos Rodon and the surprise contribution by Ryan Yarbrough helped keep the rotation afloat, and Schmidt was starting to round into form after opening the season on the IL. As baseball tends to do, things got real as weather got warmer. Fried and Rodon regressed back to their mean. Devin Williams after seeming to recover from his early season problems struggled again. Schmidt tossed seven no-hit innings against Baltimore then suddenly was lost for the season. Reinforcements Cam Schlittler (3.94), Marcus Stroman (5.11) and Luis Gil (5.14) have had their ups and downs. While Schlittler has shown potential and Gil's return is reason for optimism, none have given the Yanks much in the way of length, straining a bullpen that wasn't too deep with options after their own injuries. Aaron Boone deserves all the scrutiny he's gotten. But I'd submit that Yankees are being done in by something as old as the game itself: They haven't had enough pitching, and even Stengel himself couldn't fix that. Shifting to another topic - I hope everyone is having a great summer! I try to get some good reading in over the summer on vacations. I've been rereading a great book - Pennant Races - Baseball at its Best - by Dave Anderson originally published in 1994. It's a great account of fifteen classic pennant races, back when there were pennant races. It's an older book that can be found online reasonably priced. Next Up: Tonight the series continues at 7:15, when Max Fried (12-5, 2.94) takes the mound against old friend Sonny Gray (11-5, 4.06).
I always enjoy Klingon broadcasts (you know, the ones that are "Kay-less").
Even if there are no bad wins, there are undeserved ones. 3-17 RISP means you deserve to lose. I appreciate Mike's discussion of the pitching, but 3.41 ERA would rank Yankee pitching second in MLB (behind the Rangers). The 5.24 ERA would be third worst (behind Colorado and Washington). Overall, they are at 4.01, which places them a little bit better than MLB-average (4.13). The 3.41 rate was unsustainable, but it really has fallen off a cliff.
But it really is the hitting that's sunk them. Although they are averaging 5.0 runs per game (tied for third in MLB), it is a grossly inefficient average, dependent on hom…
Credit where credit is due. Boone moving bellinger to left field may have been the difference in the game.
It seems the Yankees most often win when you write these Mike.
I think we need to have you agree to do more than 100 games next year, and then every postseason game.
This might be the thing that has been missing for the Yankees all these years.
(If it works, Mr. Steinbrenner should also put you on the payroll with a very very very large paycheck.)
Without going back and analyzing game stats, my anecdotal guess is that Boone hasn't stressed length from his starters going back to spring training. That leaves too many innings for the bullpen to pick up, and over time it wears them down.