Unlikely Heroes to the Rescue - Yankees Royals Game 1 Recap
You come at the king, you best not miss…especially when said king spent the entire night throwing up all over themself. The Yankees put on a Weird Al-esque parody performance of their past playoff failures, making every variety of mistake possible over the course of the game’s 9 innings. Despite this, the bombers escape New York with a hard fought, well-earned, victory in game 1 of the ALDS. Let’s get into it.
Despite only allowing 3 ER in 5+ innings, make no mistake about it - Gerrit Cole was terrible tonight. The first two AB’s of the game featured Massey drilling a first pitch fastball to the track and Witt lacing a gapper that Judge was miraculously able to track down. This trend would continue as the entirety of the Royals mediocre lineup barreled balls throughout the evening.
I know its been roughly 3,000 “Billy Crystal delays” since his last start - but Cole simply has to be better. Had it not been for Soto gunning down tubby Perez at the plate (extremely questionable send), the aforementioned Judge play, and a sliding catch by Verdugo (more on him later) - the damage would’ve likely reached a level the Yanks wouldn’t be able to walk around the bases to overcome.
Offensively, the Yanks left a small colony of runners on base (2/11 RISP). Unfortunately, Judge remains at the forefront of this issue, as the KC staff continued to effectively deke him with the changeup. When Bob Costas stops rambling about his favorite type of soup to talk about Judge’s postseason OPS, you know we may have an issue on our hands. I have too much love and respect for the man to trash him after one game, but definitely hope he can put an end to this narrative before it gets out of hand (i.e. A-Rod mid 2000’s).
On the flip side, I’m rapidly losing faith in Giancarlo Stanton contributing anything to this team moving forward. First, he was unable to score on a double that bounced off a dude’s face. Then, with a chance to drive in the go-ahead run in the 6th, he fails to beat out a grounder in which the 3rd baseman was belly down for an actual eternity. He’d better nuke one into the seats soon, because a DH taking 2 runs off the board due to his elderly grandmother mobility is just unacceptable.
But it wasn’t all bad offensively. Gleyber Torres had by far the best approach against Michael Wacha. His 2-run porch job gave the Yanks a 2-1 lead in the 3rd, and his 2nd walk led to the inexplicably dumb decision to pull Wacha after just 4 innings.
From there, the Yanks strung together a series of strong AB’s against the KC pen - who proceeded to miss the strike zone for the next hour. This carousel rally gave the Bronx Walkers a lead once more, as the game entered a bullpen phase that Yankee fans were dreading.
Tim Hill came in relief of the ineffective Cole and produced a would-be inning ending DP ball. However, Volpe proceeded to launch the ball into right field, leading to the tying and go ahead runs scoring on a single with the infield playing in.
Similar sequences have cost the Yankees games throughout the season and at the time - it felt like this one would be the deciding factor. Why is it that Oswaldo Cabrera, playing his first innings at 1st base is the only one I trust in this infield? Ground balls can’t continue to be a circus act. Especially with a bullpen that welcomes soft contact.
Austin Wells produced one of the Yanks 2 hits with RISP to tie the game with an RBI single in the 6th. Then, after receiving a gift from the video review gods, Alex Verdugo was able to drive in Jazz Chisholm for the eventual game winner.
Listen, I’m well aware there was probably enough to overturn the Jazz call at second. But Royals fans crying foul play can shove the 47 flags Mahomes will draw on Sunday right up their asses. How about your pen doesn’t put 10 guys on in 4 innings? Bozos.
Meanwhile, the Yankees bullpen was…incredible? Shout out to Clay Holmes - who was the victim of tons of (warranted) hate over the past few months. The ex-closer tossed 1.2 shutout innings when the game was seemingly in the balance, and was the eventual winning pitcher of record.
Luke Weaver then closed the show with a 4-out save - which included an epic showdown with Bobby Witt Jr. in the 9th. Witt’s father looked on as Weaver proved to be his son’s new daddy, making him his 3rd strikeout victim on the night.
While this game was far from perfect - you gotta be somewhat happy that the Yanks were able to secure the dub despite their stars pissing down their legs. While shotty defense and inconsistent pitching remains a concern, there is something to be said about the trio of Gleyber, Holmes, and Verdugo serving as massive contributors toward a winning effort.
All week, the narrative was whether or not the bullpen and bottom of the lineup could do enough for the Yanks to go on a deep playoff run. Welp - they did their part Saturday. Now we need our big boys to show up as 2 Cy Young Candidates loom in the distance.
