After a tough series in Milwaukee where they dropped two out of three games to the Brewers, the Yankees were ready to start a two-game series against the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Yankees were sending up All-Star Nestor Cortes to start tonight against Pirate’s rookie right-hander Luis Ortiz.
Coming into the home stand the Yankees were getting the debut of trade deadline acquisition Harrison Bader and his world-class defense to center field in the Bronx. There is also the ever-looming march to 62, as Judge is coming off hitting home runs number 58 and 59 in his last game in Milwaukee.
It looked like it was going to be another disappointing loss where we battled to get the lead and the bullpen fell apart and gave the game away late. Instead, history was made and the Yankees ended up with a walk-off grand slam. Both pitchers came out and worked quickly and efficiently, without any real high-stress situations till the fourth inning. After getting Michael Chavis to fly out to the third base, Nestor gave up back-to-back singles to Diego Castillo and Kevin Newman. That put Nestor in a jam as the next person up was O’Neil Cruz, Pittsburgh’s phenom shortstop, standing in the box at an imposing six feet-seven inches tall. He worked well at bat and eventually walked to load the bases.
With the bases loaded Greg Allen took the first pitch he saw and sent it near the left field wall and for a moment it seemed like they were going to have a big hole to dig out of. Fortunately, in his very first game in left field, Oswaldo Cabrera made a great play tracking the ball and grabbing it at the top of the wall and the Pirates only walked away with a sacrifice fly.
The Yankees came back the next inning with the help of new center fielder Harrison Bader. After the Pirates misplayed a deep shot from Cabrera leading to him getting to third base on what should have been the first out of the inning, the Pirates drew the infield in the try and cut off the run, and Bader knocked a single to left field and drove in the tying run.
Bader eventually came in to score thanks to a Travino single and the Yankees held a 2 -1 lead. At that point, we had to trust the bullpen to keep us in it, and that is something that seems to get harder and harder to do recently.
After trading blows in the fifth and seventh inning we came into the eighth tied and left Lou Trivino in to continue pitching. He promptly gave up the go-ahead run and left traffic on the base paths. The feelings of disappointment started to sink in and questions formed like who can we turn to in tough situations to get us out of trouble?
Clay Holmes came in with runners on and got “porched” by Rodolfo Castro. Getting Porched is when you give up a home run to the short porch in the right field of Yankee Stadium. This is a fine example of a porch job because that ball would not have been a home run in any other ballpark.
Being down 8-4 in the top of the ninth inning, at least, we had Judge leading off. So the Yankees could salvage the night with a memorable home run. Never being afraid of the moment, Judge delivered with his 60th home run, tying Babe Ruth for second-most ever hit by a Yankee, behind only Roger Maris. That at-bat seemed to breathe life into the lineup as it was followed up by a double from Rizzo.
After a brief mound visit, Gleyber worked and walk and Donaldson flared a single to right field, and just like that the go-ahead run came to bat in the form of Giancarlo Stanton. Even though he has been struggling, there are not too many people in the Yankees lineup who I would rather see in this spot. He needed this moment and this moment needed him. Stanton took a 2-2 pitch inside and pulled it down the left field like a rocket. It was a truly magical moment at the stadium, but I still think we need to get answers about our bullpen before we can feel comfortable about a deep playoff run.
Do you think the Yankees have a convincing win?
