N.Y. Yankees: Bombers Hanging Sox Out to Dry

From the desk of:  BLAME CARLOS MAY

YANKEES LEAD SEASON SERIES 4-0

I - NYY 8; BOS 0

II - NYY 5; BOS 3

III - NYY 4; BOS 1

IV - NYY 5; BOS 3

Look what the Bronx Back-Ups did to the Red Sox, again.

So far the biggest take-away from games one and two is how the Yankees have had their way against Boston's starters.  Despite striking out ten batters in Game One, the Yankees scored all four of their runs against Chris Sale whom saw his record fall to 1-7 on the season.  In Game Two, the Yankees knocked around Rick Porcello for all their five runs.  Otherwise the Yankees remain scoreless against the Red Sox bullpen, managing just three hits through 5.1 innings.

Tale of Two Lead-Off Hitters: 

• Mookie Betts is now 1 for 7 with two walks through games one and two.  Through 57 games this season, last year's A.L. MVP is slashing .286/.398/.473, with nine home runs, 27 RBI, and 45 runs scored.  
• DJ LeMahieu is 3 for 9, with a double, home run, and four runs batted in over the last two games.  In 52 games this season, he is slashing .314/.364/.456, with six home runs, 34 RBI, and 36 runs scored.

How Do You Like Me Now?

• Through 39 games and 148 at-bats, Gary Sanchez is slashing .264/.331/.655, with a league leading 18 home runs and 35 runs batted in.  His two run home run in the fifth inning of Saturday's game put the Yankees ahead for good.  
• As J.D. Martinez goes, so go the Sox.  He is just 1 for 8 with a walk over the last two games.  Reports say he has been battling a sore back for the last month or so.

With a 38-19 record, the first place Yankees lead the Tampa Bay Rays by 2.5 games.  Boston has fallen back to .500 after losing their fourth straight game, and now find themselves 9.5 games back of the Yankees.

SUNDAY

Red Sox   8

Yankees   5

FINAL

Like I said, as J.D. Martinez goes, so go the Sox.  

First inning home run off CC Sabathia; 2 for 5 on the night.

N.Y. Yankees: Bronx Bummer Leave Bombers on Brink

From the desk of:  BLAME CARLOS MAY

Red Sox lead series 2-1

I - BOS 5; NYY 4

II - NYY 6; BOS 2

III - BOS 16; NYY 1

GAME THREE

RED SOX   16

YANKEES    1

FINAL

Boston Red Sox Hand Bronx Bombers Worst Defeat in Franchise Post-Season History.

Featured prominently across the front of Boston's warm-up jersey reads their post-season mantra: Do Damage.  Monday at Yankee Stadium the Red Sox do just that, handing the Bronx Bombers their worst post-season defeat in their 115-year history, and pushing them to the brink of elimination.

Already lost upon Bomber fans' collective memory is Gary Sanchez becoming the first Yankee catcher to hit multiple home runs in one playoff game, or that Aaron Judge becomes the first Yankee since Reggie Jackson to homer in three consecutive playoff games.  With one more loss in this ALDS, all fans will remember is a 100-win regular season spiraling counter-clockwise down the toilet; rookie manager Aaron Boone's failure to get out of the first round a year after Joe Girardi leads them within one game of the World Series; and something a little closer to their heart, getting eliminated yet again by the rival Red Sox in their own yard.  Nothing short of two straight victories changes that narrative now.

This much, however, for the moment remains true as ever: the Yankees live and die by the home run.  Through two Yankees losses, they total just one home run - an Aaron Judge blast in the ninth inning of Game One.  In their Game Two victory, Judge hit his second of the series, and Gary Sanchez adds two.  From a Red Sox perspective, they trade home runs in Game One, and win; get out homered in Game Two and lose; then hit one home run versus zero for the Yankees in Game Three, and win.

Boston had already scored 14 runs on 17 hits before Brock Holt's two-run jolt in the ninth.  As an aside, he becomes MLB's first player to hit for the cycle in a post-season game.  Cycling back, the Yankees have hit four home runs versus Boston's three, but the Red Sox have now out-hit the Yankees 31-23, and outscored them 23-11, through three games of the ALDS.

Luis Severino's very first offering of the game clocked in at 95-mph.  Leading off for Boston, Mookie Betts hits said pitch 405 feet away to the base of the center field wall for a very long out.  After which, the route is on.  Severino faces 18 batters through three innings, allowing six earned runs on seven hits and two walks, with two strikeouts.  The Yankees bullpen (Austin Romine aside) allows eight more runs on ten hits and five walks, with just two strikeouts.

In a tale of two acquisitions, the Yankees acquire J.A. Happ, who through his career has pitched very effectively against the Red Sox.  In Game One, Boston knocks him out of the box after just two innings upon allowing five earned runs on four hits and a walk.  In turn, the Red Sox acquire Nathan Eovaldi, a one-time Yankee, whom likewise has a reputation for pitching well against his former club.  In Game Three at Yankee Stadium, Eovaldi pitches a gem, allowing just one earned run on five hits, no walks, with five strikeouts, through seven full innings pitched.  In the seventh he pops the radar gun at 100-mph.

With another victory on Tuesday, the Red Sox clinch a trip to the ALCS, but not before making a complete mess of the visiting locker room at Yankee Stadium for a second time this season.  If you're the Yankees, there's all the motivation you need.

Game Four features C.C. Sabathia versus Rick Porcello.

Sabathia last pitched twelve days ago against Tampa, in which he pitches five scoreless innings of one hit ball, with no walks and five strikeouts before being ejected.  Sabathia is afforded a similar break coming out of the all-star break, when he goes two full weeks between starts.  Upon his return, he allows two earned runs on six hits and two walks, with eight strikeouts against Kansas City.  Over his last five starts, however, C.C. has allowed 13 earned runs over 21.2 innings pitched for a 5.51 ERA.

In Rick Porcello's last start against the Yankees on Aug. 3, he tosses a one-hit complete game victory at Yankee Stadium.  Porcello's last appearance against the Yankees comes in relief, when he records two game critical outs on 15 pitches in the eighth inning of Game One at Fenway.

Should the Yankees win, another match-up between J.A. Happ and Chris Sale awaits in Game Five.

N.Y. Yankees: Nathan Eovaldi Who?

From the desk of:  BLAME CARLOS MAY

Red Sox lead series 3-0

I - BOS 15; NYY 7

II - BOS 4; NYY 1

III - BOS 4; NYY 1

GAME FOUR

New York Yankees

vs.

Boston Red Sox

FROM

FENWAY PARK

New York Yankees: Boston Red Sox Proving Stronger, Faster, Smarter, and Just Better.  Bombers Need to Regroup, Move On, and Revisit This in September.

Champ Adams is officially a non-issue.  The rookie making his major league debut against the Red Sox at Fenway Park on Saturday allows three earned runs on just three hits and a walk through five innings pitched.  If you're the Bronx Bombers, you take that every time.

Because in Game Three, the Yankees face Nathan Eovaldi, whom the Red Sox acquire from the Tampa Bay Rays prior to the trade deadline.  As a former Yankee, the organization's highly touted analytics department should know him very well after making 48 starts for them during the 2015 and 2016 regular seasons.  Unfortunately for Eovaldi, he misses all of 2017 while recovering from Tommy John surgery, then misses the first two months of this season after undergoing elbow surgery in March.

In ten starts with Tampa, Eovaldi pitches with mixed results.  Along with an 8.3 K/9 average, he surrenders 48 hits and just eight walks through 57 innings pitched for a respectable 0.982 WHiP.  His 4.26 ERA while with the Rays, however, is a product of surrendering eleven home runs.

On Saturday, Eovaldi makes his second start for the Red Sox.  He faces 26 batters, and throws 93 pitches with 65 (69%) going for strikes, including 18 first pitch strikes.  He surrenders no runs on just three hits and a walk, and strikes out four through eight innings pitched for a clutch well earned victory.

Over his last two starts in a Red Sox uniform, Eovaldi is yet to yield a run through 15 innings pitched, with only seven hits and one walk allowed, and nine strikeouts.

Saturday's game took just 2:33 to play, during which time the Yankees hardly recognized him.

Fans who remember 1978 might argue, but the Yankees picked the worse time possible for losing their bearing.  Eight and a half games now separate the Red Sox from the second place Yankees.  If fans were clinging to hope of winning a division title before this modern Boston Massacre, they can be heard praying for a Wild Card today.

All that's left for this series is to salvage Game Four.  Otherwise, these last three games are not the be all/end all for the Yankees season.  Their goal moving forward should be making those final six games scheduled for late September meaningful again.  I contend Brian Cashman's transactions will not go for naught.  Regroup and continue mission until Aaron Judge, Gary Sanchez, and J.A. Happ all return to the fold.

That being said, if Aaron Boone isn't the one lighting a fire under his team's feet, at least Phil Nevin tried.  Otherwise, this weekend is largely on Boone.  Alex Cora already made damn sure of that.

In the meantime, I'm led to believe more and more that Aaron Judge will ultimately decide the Yankees fate.

GAME FOUR:

Didi and Stanton, and maybe Andujar, are presently wielding the only productive Yankee bats worth mentioning.  Otherwise, the Yankees generally hit David Price very well.  Tonight just might be their night.  Masahiro Tanaka is a pro's pro.  He'll want to salvage this game for the Yankees with a statement, i.e., eight innings of scoreless two-hit baseball.  And like Alex Cora did Saturday by creating work for Craig Kimbrel, so too does Aaron Boone need to get Aroldis Chapman some much needed work.

The Red Sox do a better job of making contact and strike out far less than the competition.  When on base, they'll continue running like thieves in the night.  Tanaka's split-finger is an ideal pitch to run wild on, and the Red Sox will do just that.  Like Tanaka, David Price should be a motivated camper.  The Red Sox smell sweep, and how sweet it would be.  I belive there's a part of David Price that wants to prove once and for all he belongs in this rivalry.

I'm going with trends.  The Yankees are losers of four straight and falling fast like a pinstriped piano out of the Boston sky.  Make that cloudy skies above, because when it rains, it pours, and therefore I say the Red Sox complete the sweep.

But it won't be easy.

GAME FOUR

Yankess    4

Red Sox   5

10-innings

Red Sox Complete Four Game Sweep of Yankees; Increase A.L. East Lead to 9.5 Games.

Mookie Betts crushes a Masahiro Tanaka fifth inning offering over the Green Monster and completely out of Fenway Park.

The Yankees take a 4-1 lead in the seventh, but the Red Sox came back with three runs in the ninth inning against Aroldis Chapman.  Andrew Benitendi then drives in the winning run in the tenth.

N.Y. Yankees: Competition Getting High and Tight

From the desk of:  BLAME CARLOS MAY

Red Sox lead series 2-0

I - BOS 15; NYY 7

II - BOS 4; NYY 1

GAME THREE

New York Yankees

vs.

Boston Red Sox

FROM

FENWAY PARK

New York Yankees: Look What the Boston Red Sox Did to the Bombers, Again.

If not for Miguel Andujar's lead-off home run in the top of the fifth, Boston starter Rick Porcello throws a no-hitter.  No chance of pitching a perfect game, though, as Porcello plunks the very first batter of the game, coming in high and tight to Brett Gardner whom absorbs an errant 0-2 fastball in the arm.  Gardner glares at Porcello as he begins a deliberately slow stroll towards first base.

The rest of the Yankees seemingly do not take this lightly.

Or do they?

In the bottom half of the frame, Luis Severino with his very first pitch comes in high and tight to Red Sox lead-off batter Mookie Betts.  For a few fleeting seconds things move right along, that is, until neophyte home plate umpire Adam Hamari issues delayed warnings to both clubs.  Alex Cora comes darting out of the Red Sox dugout fuming at Hamari, whom immediately tosses Boston's irate manager from the game.  All the while, Aaron Boone remains docile in the Yankees dugout.

And so begins Game Two at Fenway Park.

When play resumes Andrew Benintendi's double to right brings up Steve Pearce who continues decimating Yankees pitching, this time launching a Severino offering high over the Green Monster for his fourth home run in his last six at-bats.  With two outs, Severino then issues a base on balls to Ian Kinsler.  The Red Sox continue running like thieves in the night, as Kinsler swipes Boston's fifth base of the series.  Eduardo Nunez singles Kinsler home giving the Red Sox an early 3-0 lead.

Miguel Andujar leads-off the third with a home run.  It turns out being the Yankees lone run and only hit of the game.  Rick Porcello retires the next 21 batters in order for a complete game one-hit victory over the American League's top slugging team.  Porcello pounds the strike zone, facing 28 batters; one over the minimum; throwing an incredibly economical 86 pitches with 68 (80%) going for strikes, including an unforgiving 23 first pitch strikes.  He issues no walks and strikes out nine Yankees en route to his fourteenth victory of the season against just four losses.

The Red Sox are presently having their way, not just against the Yankees, but with every team in baseball.  Now with two victories over the Yankees, they seem to have effectively sidestepped Chris Sale's missed start.  As I've eluded to twice over the last two games, perhaps the Yankees are presently too docile, too complacent, and third base coach Phil Nevins sensed this heading into Boston.  With Alex Cora banished to his office Friday evening, cooler heads did prevail.  But perhaps Aaron Boone is being too cool.  It's worth noting that at no time during the entirety of game one or two did the Yankees ever attempt to unsettle Steve Pearce at the plate with a purposeful pitch.

Boone's crew now enters Saturday's game trailing the Red Sox by 7.5 games.  Getting out of Boston with a split might have just turned into a matter of A.L. East survival.  With 54 games left in the regular season, the Yankees have time to recover.  Plus, they still have two more games left to play in this series, and six more games against the Red Sox still to come.  However, they are leaving themselves little margin for error.  The calendar reads dog days of summer, which means that time and wins are of the essence.

They are tasked today with slamming the brakes on a three game skid, and preventing any further damage to their widening second place standing.  Of course, easier said than done.  With Aaron Judge and Gary Sanchez missing from the line-up, Giancarlo Stanton is presently a one-man gang.  The rest of the line-up has gone missing.  The Yankees have been doubled up through their last three games by a 13-26 margin against the stripped down Orioles and Red Sox.

They're also facing a sudden lack of pitching, if only for a day, or so the Yankees hope.  Called up from Scranton, Chance Adams will make his major league debut in the heat of a pennant race against the Red Sox.  Between Sunny Gray's ineffectiveness, J.A. Happ landing on the disabled list, Lance Lynn being pressed into action during Friday's debacle, and the overall tax being extracted from the bullpen, the Yankees face little choice.  Adams will oppose veteran Nathan Eovaldi, Boston's trade deadline acquisition from Minnesota.

N.Y. Yankees: Losing Ground and Their Bearing

From the desk of:  BLAME CARLOS MAY

GAME TWO

New York Yankees

vs.

Boston Red Sox

FROM

FENWAY PARK

New York Yankees: Everything That Could Go Wrong Went Completely Awry.

After that Game One debacle at Fenway Park, one thing is very clear: Phil Nevins issued a premature evisceration.  You can't read players the riot act twice in the same week without completely diminishing its affect. That said, he should have waited till after Thursday's game because the Yankees were just plain bad in every conceivable way.  Perhaps Phil Nevin saw this coming, i.e., a team mentally unprepared heading into Fenway.  But that in turn makes me wonder why in the name of Casey Stengel is a third base coach doing the manager's dirty work?  And sure enough, Aaron Boone indirectly answered that very question.  During Friday's pre-game, Boone reiterates that he's not inclined to get emotional.  Instead, he will temper the game's highs and lows, and aims to be a model of managerial consistency for his players.

Okay ...

The fact remains, Aaron Boone was completely out-managed by Alex Cora in this particular game, while his team was utterly embarrassed on the field.

Then came the opening act of Game Two ...

Boston's Rick Porcello hit the very first batter of the game, when he came high and tight to lead-off batter Bret Gardner.  In the bottom half of the frame, Luis Serverino came in high and tight to Red Sox lead-batter Mookie Betts.  Both sides shouted their opinions from the dugout.  Only then did the home plate umpire issue a warning.  That's when Red Sox manager Alex Cora let him have it, and subsequently got ejected.

Aaron Boone remained silent the whole time.

Before the inning was through, the Red Sox propped up Rick Porcello with a 2-0 lead on Steve Pearce's fourth home run in his last six at-bats against the Yankees.

Strategy and proper implementation of the brush back pitch is a lost art ....

Stay tuned.

N.Y. Yankees: Bombers Invade Boston for Pivotal Series Against Sox

From the desk of:  BLAME CARLOS MAY

New York Yankees

vs.

Boston Red Sox

FROM

Fenway Park

New York Yankees: You Talkin' To Me?

If you're a regular rider of the Trolley, perhaps you're familiar with one of my sayings: once is an event; twice is a coincidence; three times is a trend.

Phil Nevin, third base coach of the Yankees, if you remember, calls out Red Sox manager Alex Cora during the first series between them and the Yankees back in April.  This past Wednesday, Nevin rips into select members of his own team which Aaron Boone is made to address during the post-game.

Entering this weekend's four game series, what are the chances Phil Nevin blows his top again over something or at someone?  I'm curious to see just how much power Phil Nevin thinks he wields.  Not before last night did I harbor any conspiracy theories.  But being as Boone is the calm, cool, collected one, I wonder if he and Nevin are employing the old good cop/bad cop routine upon young impressionable players?

I'm not so sure that's a good idea.  Brian Cashman let Joe Girardi go partly because he was too hard on Gary Sanchez, but generally because of his no nonsense, clenched jaw manner.  I have to question whether Brian Cashman agrees with Phil Nevin's tact.  I'm more inclined to think that if Nevin keeps this up, Cashman will suggest Boone seek out an alternative third base coach.

The Rivalry: No Chris Sale; No Xander Bogaerts; No Dustin Pedroia; No Aaron Judge; No Gary Sanchez; No J.A. Happ; No Problem ...

Here we go again.  The two best teams in baseball clash this weekend at Fenway Park.  Despite being thirty games over .500, the Yankees trail the first place Red Sox by 5.5 games.  The Bombers have a more favorable schedule ahead than do the Red Sox, but not if they keep giving away games to the moribund Baltimore Orioles.  The Red Sox, on the other hand, enter this series with the best record in baseball, 41 games above the .500 mark.  Even after their franchise record 17-2 start, the Sox still own a 58-32 record since then.

However, neither team is lacking in compromising issues.  The Yankees enter this series minus the services of Gary Sanchez, Aaron Boone, and newly acquired J.A. Happ.  The Red Sox are without their ace, Chris Sale.  Xander Bogaerts will not play Thursday, and is questionable beyond that.  Meanwhile, Dustin Pedrioa will likely continue missing the rest of the season.

Losing Sale (for any stretch of games) is a particularly painful blow to Boston.  After 22 starts, Sale is 11-4 with a league leading 2.04 ERA.  With only 90 hits allowed in 141 innings pitched, he likewise leads the league with an 0.87 WHiP.  He also leads with 207 strikeouts and a 13.2 K/9 average.

Luis Severino leads the league with 14 wins against just four losses, and owns a 2.94 ERA.  Rick Porcello is right behind him with 13 victories.

Boston features two of the league's top three hitters.  Mookie Betts leads the A.L. with a .338 average, J.D. Martinez is third with a .323 mark, and is tied for the lead with 32 home runs, and leads with 89 RBI.  Mookie Betts is third with a 6.5 WAR.

When the Bombers are at bat, I discussed the other day how all eyes will be on Giancarlo Stanton.

If the Yankees are to make headway, they need to win three games.  Of course, a split doesn't hurt.  But to lose three of four, or worse, is putting themselves in a big pickle.  Starting with Thursday night's game at Fenway, the Yankees and Red Sox have nine games remaining.