Despite Max Scherzer Striking Out 14, The Yankees Walk It Off In Extras And Steal a Game They Had No Business Winning.
Yankees 4 Nationals 3 F/11
Baseball is such a stupid sport. An illogical sport that has no rhyme or reason with its outcomes. Max Scherzer did whatever he wanted today to the Yankees lineup, striking out 14 in the process (the most ever by an opposing pitcher in this stadium). Somehow some way this godforsaken team scratched and clawed enough in the 9th, 10th, and 11th to pull out a much needed win after Friday's "efforts." It feels dirty, it feels gross, but man a win is a win.
The Yankees were 0-13 in games this year trailing heading into the bottom of the 9th inning. Brad Hand just didn't want to get three outs to close it out. He walked the lead off guy DJ to set the table and advanced to 2nd on a Giancarlo ground out. Judge then blooped a single into no man's land, but not having the best read on the ball DJ had to hold at 3rd. Gleyber then stepped up and drove in the game tying run with a knock to right. Miracle.
The rally stopped there and we headed to extras. Chapman allowed a sac fly (thanks to Manfred's mickey mouse rules) that gave Washington the lead. The damage was stopped there and set up 7-8-9 of Ford-Higgy-Andujar to try and tie it up. Boone had Ford try to bunt the runner over from 3rd. Ford actually had not bunted since the CAPE COD LEAGUE in 2012! What the hell are we doing! Well thankfully Brand Hand refused to throw strikes so Ford never got anything good enough to lay down. With the count at 3-1 the Yankees gave Ford the swing sign and he proceeded to punch out a ball through the left side to tie the game once again.
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Nonsense. Complete and utter nonsense.
In the top of the 11th the struggling Justin Wilson came into the game and out of nowhere got Bell, Schwarber, and Castro 1-2-3 to hold the Nats at 3 runs. More nonsense! In the bottom half of the 11th the Yanks loaded the bases for Gleyber and he managed to hit a dribbler towards 3rd that the pitcher was unable to make a play on. Five infielders and Gleyber still finds a way to pick up an infield hit. Nonsense. Just like that, ball game. The Yankees win a game they had NO BUSINESS winning. Usually you say a win like this shows character and resiliency, but all I'm saying is it feels good to pull that one out. I am exhausted after all that.
It's no secret the Yankees offense has been struggling. Take that into account with them facing Max Scherzer and yeah things weren't expected to go well today. The offense certainly followed that script today, striking out 14 times against Mad Max. At one point the 2-7 hitters were a combined 0-10 with 10 strikeouts. The only blemish on Scherzer's line was a hanging breaking ball to Kyle Higashioka that the Yankees catcher belted for a game-tying homer. Besides that the offense was as lifeless as it gets versus Max . It's almost like someone told them before the game what was going to happen and they decided that was just their fate. Giancarlo, Judge, Gleyber, Gardner, Clint, Ford, Wade it was just auto-out after auto out. Mad Max did whatever the fuck he wanted. His 14 strikeouts on Saturday were the most ever by an opposing pitcher in the new Yankee Stadium.
I know the Yanks won, but I need to show how good Scherzer was today. Dude was a maniac out there. I never thought the lineup had a chance when he was on the mound. If this dude becomes available the deadline somehow there's going to be a war to get him.
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Corey Kluber pitched more than fine to get the win, going 5.2 IP surrendering just two runs. His ERA on the year is 3.06 which you absolutely would sign up for through this many starts. The Nats lineup has the highest batting average in the NL and he held them in check. This was yet another step in the right direction.
Thankfully the team was able to rally and avoided handing him the loss.
Good win. Baseball makes no sense. Have a nice Saturday night.