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| [ PHOTO: THE NEW YORK TIMES ] |
May 7, 2018
Peter Solari, Editor in Chief
After a somewhat slow start to their season, the New York Yankees are in mid-season form, and it's only the first week of May.
The team's latest triumph came Sunday, when rookie second baseman Gleyber Torres hit a Danny Otero 3-2 pitch 415 feet over the center field wall, sending New York to its 15th win in 16 games, 7-4 over the Cleveland Indians at Yankee Stadium.
At 21-years, 144 days, Torres became the youngest Yankee to ever hit a walk-off homer, a record previously held by Hall-of-Famer Mickey Mantle, who was 21-years, 185-days old when he hit the game winning home run against the Boston Red Sox on April 23, 1953. The Bronx Bombers have now recorded three walk-off wins in their last four games at home.
You wouldn't know it from the final score, but most of Sunday's game was very much a pitchers duel, with Cleveland Starter Mike Clevinger struck out 10 Yankees and surrendered just one hit over 7 and 1/3 innings. Clevinger's counterpart, rookie Domingo German, was equally, if not more impressive, throwing six scoreless innings and fanning nine batters, in his first major league start. German, who started in place of the injured Jordan Montgomery, was removed by manager Aaron Boone after throwing a career-high 84 pitches.
Cleveland finally broke through in the eighth inning against relievers Dellin Betances and Jonathan Holder, and appeared to be on their way to victory, opening up a 4-0 lead late in the game. But the Yankees clawed back in the bottom of the inning when Brett Gardner delivered an RBI single and Aaron Judge followed with a two-run double off Indians closer Cody Allen, to bring New York back within one run.
After Chason Shreve pitched a perfect ninth, Aaron Hicks and Neil Walker led-off the bottom of the inning with back-to-back doubles, tying the game at 3, and sending Allen to locker room with the blown save.
Boone elected to send the struggling Giancarlo Stanton up to pinch hit for Tyler Austing, prompting Francona to counter by intentionally walking the reigning National League MVP, and inadvertently set the stage for Torres' game-winning blast.
At 15-1, the Yankees are currently on their best 16-game run since 1980.
The rookie Torres, who was only called up to the Major Leagues on April 22, but has had an immediate impact on the team, is now batting .327 with 2 round-trippers and 11 runs batted in. He was acquired from the Cubs by general manager Brian Cashman in a 2016 trade deadline deal that sent closer Aroldis Chapman to the Windy City. After playing a major role in helping the Cubs end their 108-year World Series drought, Chapman became a free agent and re-signed in New York before the 2017 season, making the Torres-Chapman swap one of those rare deals in sports, that works out well for all parties involved.
Having now won consecutive series' against expected contenders Cleveland, the Houston Astros, and Los Angeles Angels, the Yankees will turn their attention to their toughest test to date, when the rival Red Sox come to the Bronx to open up a three game series on Tuesday at 7:05 PM. Drew Pomeranz (1-1, 6.14 ERA) will take the hill for Boston, while ace Luis Severino (5-1, 2.11 ERA) will go for New York. The Red Sox (25-9) currently sit just one game up on the Yankees (24-10) in the American League East standings.
Here are the expected pitching matchups for the rest of the Yankees/Red Sox series this week:
Wednesday May 9, 2018. 7:05 PM
BOS: David Price (2-4, 5.11 ERA) @ NYY: Masahiro Tanaka (4-2, 4.39 ERA)
Thursday May 10, 2018, 7:05 PM
BOS: Rick Porcello (5-0, 2.14 ERA0 @ NYY: CC Sabathia (2-0, 1.39 ERA)
