Got a few tidbits to pass along today. Not much yet with regard to the hot stove, but there are a few things Yankees-related that have happened in recent days. Let’s get to it.
An update on Yankees in LIDOM
Domingo Germán pitched in his first professional game since his suspension for domestic violence began at the end of the 2019 season. He contributed four no-hit innings with seven strikeouts in Toros del Este’s combined no-hitter in its season opener. We still haven’t heard anything about Germán’s future with the Yankees other than Hal Steinbrenner’s words last month.
Hal Steinbrenner on Domingo Germán: "There's no doubt he has to prove he's turned his life around and that he absolutely realizes how horrific that was."
(The details of the incident that led to Germán's suspension under the league domestic violence policy are not public.)
Awards season trudges on as the hot stove remains pretty quiet. Tonight, we’ll find out the AL and NL MVPs. As you know, DJ LeMahieu is a finalist in the AL. The Yankees haven’t had an MVP winner since A-Rod won in 2007. The winner will be announced on MLB Network at 6 p.m. eastern. While you wait for that, here’s the latest Yankees-related news:
Domingo Germán to start Dominican Winter League Opener
If we are to believe Brian Cashman and Hal Steinbrenner, Domingo Germán’s future with the Yankees is still up in the air. Tonight could be his first step in a return to pinstripes though, as he starts the season opener for Toros Del Este in the Dominican Winter League. I don’t know what Hal needs to see from Germán in order to bring him back next year, but it very well could be lip service. Frankly, I fully expect the team to bring him back without (publicly) addressing any rehabilitation following his domestic violence suspension.
Also of note, Miguel Andújar and Gary Sánchez will Germán’s teammates, though Gary isn’t expected to report to the team until next month. We’ll see if Miggy is in the lineup tonight.
If you want to watch the game this evening, you can register here. It’s $15 for the full season, which is a bargain.
Got a quick news roundup as Game 6 gets started. Go Dodgers, right? Without further ado:
Miguel Andújar will play winter ball and Gary Sánchez could join him
#Yankees Miguel Andujar will report tomorrow to the trainings of Toros del Este in the Dominican Republic, informed the club’s manager, Lino Rivera. https://t.co/c9eIKYdVaX
“Gary Sánchez podría estar con los Toros del Este esta temporada a partir de diciembre, eso me ha informado el jugador” Lino Rivero.#P0Cpic.twitter.com/jkulYuZT1e
No shock that Andújar will play ball in the Dominican Republic this winter. He’s got just 114 plate appearances dating back to 2019 as a result of shoulder surgery, a pandemic shortened season, and Gio Urshela in his way.
Sánchez might follow in December. Nothing is set in stone there yet. He doesn’t need the workload to make up for lost time like Miggy, but if he does wind up playing, hopefully he can figure out what went wrong in 2020.
Good news! Giancarlo Stanton, Gio Urshela, and Jonathan Loaisiga are healthy players once again. We expected the latter two to return today, but Stanton’s return is a little earlier than expected. Of course, no good news can come to the Yankees this year without something awry mixed in. As you’ll see in the forthcoming lineups, Gleyber Torres is nowhere to be found. He was off Sunday (though he pinch hit) and the team was off yesterday. What gives? His quad again, apparently. Though Aaron Boone did say he’d play if this was a playoff game. Take solace in that, I suppose, but forgive me for being doubtful about the Yankees and injuries.
The Yankees optioned Mike Ford and Miguel Andújar to make room for today’s moves. Clarke Schmidt was the other demotion from a day ago. Miggy was somewhat surprising at first considering that Tyler Wade and Thairo Estrada are redundant with a healthy Gleyber, though it now makes more sense why the Yankees kept the additional middle infielder.
Roster shuffle aside, let’s get to today’s game, the first of a pretty big series. The Yankees trail the Jays by a half game in the standings for second place in the division, so winning this series would put the Bombers ahead of Toronto in the standings. The Yanks hand the ball to wunderkind Deivi García, who pitched a gem against Toronto last week. Here is the lineup behind him and the lineup he’ll face:
Toronto Blue Jays (26-20)
Cavan Biggio, 3B
Bo Bichette, SS
Travis Shaw, 1B
Randal Grichuk, CF
Vladimir Guerrero Jr., DH
Lourdes Gurriel Jr., LF
Joe Panik, 2B
Alejandro Kirk, C
Derek Fisher, RF
RHP Taijuan Walker
New York Yankees (26-21)
DJ LeMahieu, 2B
Luke Voit, 1B
Aaron Hicks, CF
Giancarlo Stanton, DH
Gio Urshela, 3B
Clint Frazier, RF
Brett Gardner, LF
Gary Sánchez, C
Tyler Wade, SS
RHP Deivi García
News & Notes
MLB’s postseason schedule is official. The American League will bubble in California while the National League bubbles in Texas. The World Series is going to be at the Rangers new ballpark in Arlington, Texas. Notably, there are no off days during series, so teams will need to trot out full rotations. This was unknown until now for the 30 MLB teams, apparently.
It’s a crisp evening here in New York, a real taste of Fall is in the air, so it’s a nice night for baseball. This one is on YES, WFAN, and WADO and the first pitch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. EDT. Enjoy the ballgame.
The Yankees blew 2-0 and 6-2 leads in this one and ultimately lost 12-7. A sixth inning bullpen meltdown in which the Blue Jays scored 10 runs (you read that right) sunk the ship tonight. The Yankees are 21-20 and reeling, to put it kindly. Here are the takeaways.
These are the 2020 Yankees, so something had to go wrong. Things were fairly smooth for the Yankees up until the bottom of the sixth inning. Yes, Jordan Montgomery squandered an early 2-0 lead, but the Yankees offense picked him up a few innings later. Up 6-2, Aaron Boone turned to Chad Green. It all fell apart from there.
Green threw 29 pitches and recorded just one out. He’s one of the best at missing bats, and yet tonight, he literally couldn’t miss one. Toronto swung at 14 of his 29 pitches, fouled off 11, and didn’t whiff once. Still, Green nearly stopped the bleeding. Rowdy Tellez kept fouling off pitch after pitch, but on the 10th offering, he bounced one to first. It was not struck well (67.8 MPH off the bat, .050 xBA) and yet, Luke Voit booted it.
Was it an inbetween hop? Maybe, but that’s a play that needs to be made. Has to. That’s when the “here we go again” feeling really sunk in. It should have been a 6-3 game with two outs and two on. Still trouble! But not as bad as bases full and just one out. That was it for Green. Enter Adam Ottavino.
Ottavino faced six batters. He didn’t record a single out. Single, single, walk, single, and a walk made it 8-6 Toronto. Then came the back-breaker:
Atrocious, and yet, unsurprising given how things have gone this year. That effectively was the end of the ballgame.
Green might have been bad, but Ottavino had absolutely nothing. 29 pitches, 12 swings, 1 whiff, 7 fouls, and an average exit velocity of 103.9 MPH on 4 balls in play. He got absolutely rocked. What an embarrassing performance all around.
As bad as Green and Ottavino were, Boone probably should have had a quicker trigger to get these guys out. But by the time he got Luis Cessa in, it was already too late. As for who he could have gone to? I don’t know, but anyone else would have been better. Someone should have been warming by the time Ottavino had failed to record an out after three batters. It was already tied at that point and Ottavino did not look good anyway.
Do you really care to read any other takeaways? Well, I had written a decent amount as the score built up to 6-2, so I’ll let you have those as well.
That could have been a lot worse for Jordan Montgomery. Boone pulled the 6-foot-6 lefty with one out in the fourth inning. It’s the second straight short outing for Monty, though at least he made it out of the first inning this time (a low bar to clear, of course). It was pretty obvious that he didn’t have it right away. His location was a mess, particularly in the first inning. Pitches were bouncing to the plate and sailing way high and out of the zone. It was frustrating to watch after the Yankees staked him to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first.
Montgomery’s 1st inning pitch chart.
It took him 31 pitches to complete the frame and he was probably fortunate to allow just one run. It would have been more had Lourdes Gurriel’s 107 MPH line drive wasn’t hit right to Brett Gardner. Otherwise, Toronto could have had a crooked number.
Monty wasn’t much better come inning number two. Travis Shaw stroked an opposite field double off the wall. Up came Santiago Espinal, who initially squared around to bunt Shaw over. Instead, he worked the count full and delivered an RBI single to tie the game at two. Montgomery escaped without further damage, but he did get some help from Luke Voit who stole a single from Cavan Biggio a couple batters after Espinal leveled the score.
He didn’t allow a run the rest of his outing, but he didn’t exactly recover. He gave up two more hits in the third and walked the ninth hitter, Danny Jansen, with one out in the fourth. That was the final straw for him. In total, Monty surrendered eight baserunners in 3 1/3 innings. Jonathan Holder cleaned up the fourth and then pitched a scoreless fifth.
It’s crucial for Montgomery to get things going and soon. He really impressed back in spring training and summer camp and even had a few solid outings earlier in the regular season. But his last two starts have been alarming for a rotation that’s already depleted. There are bigger problems on this team than him (duh), but Montgomery’s gone from a pleasant surprise to a concern in a hurry.
Miguel Andújarneeds to be in the lineup until further notice. I think we’re all pretty tired of watching Mikes Ford and Tauchman play. Andújar can and should effectively replace both of them (though that means we have to live with the struggling Brett Gardner in left field while Miggy DHs). We know of Miggy’s limitations in the field, but he’s an incredibly talented hitter. Look what he did against Jays’ starter Hyun-Jin Ryu in the fourth:
Hanging curve over the fence? Who knew big league hitters were allowed to do that. Must have felt good for Miggy to hit his first big league homer since September of 2018. It put the Yankees back in the lead after Monty coughed up a couple of runs.
Andújar had a three hit game yesterday, so perhaps that along with his homer tonight is the start of a hot streak. The Yankees sure could use another hitter in this lineup to produce. Since Andújar has returned from the Alternate Site, he’s (5-for-10, 4 singles, 2 walks, 1 triple entering tonight).
In any case, I’d much rather watch Andújar get opportunities and struggle than Ford or Tauchman. Miggy is still just 25 years-old and really needs to competitive at-bats, anyway. Ford and Tauchman don’t look like long-term chips, whereas Andújar still can be one. Miggy already lost all of last year, and letting him stagnate in Scranton doing whatever they’re doing is less than ideal. Big league at-bats, good or bad, are better for him. Productive big league at-bats? Even better. DH him as much as possible.
Leftovers
Erik Kratz and Kyle Higashioka have gone 0-for-8 since Gary Sánchez was benched. I’m fine with giving Gary a break to clear his head and work on things, but he should be back in the lineup tomorrow. Kratz and Higashioka aren’t actively helping even if this latest lousy performance wasn’t their fault.
It feels like eons ago, but the Yankees jumped out of the gate quickly thanks to back-to-back homers in the first inning by Luke Voit and Aaron Hicks. Those two along with Miggy’s came against Hyun-Jin Ryu, who had allowed just three homers in 43 innings entering this one.
The other contributor offensively? None other than Clint Frazier. He had (at the time) a big 2-run double that gave the Yankees some breathing room in the 5th. He’s been terrific.
Clarke Schmidt did much better in his second big league outing. He did walk two batters, but also struck out two in a scoreless eighth inning.
More baseball tomorrow, if you can stomach it. JA Happ will try to stop this skid. It’s another 6:37 p.m. EDT start tomorrow. Have a good night.
