SU gives out props to long-time SU subscribers, A. Grossman and B. Rosano who both predicted Yankee wins last night in the wild card game. Clearly, they had more confidence in the team than did SU which failed miserably in its losing prediction. However, nothing ventured, nothing gained, and SU is always fearless in telling the sports world the truth.
Yankee manager, Aaron Boone, passed his first test as a post-season playoff manager. But what did we think of these moves?
- Bringing in Betances in the 5th inning and having him pitch 2 full innings. Wow, risky in that he is never brought in for the middle of an inning and when he has pitched more than one inning, he is usually bad in the 2nd inning. He was great last night and made Boone look like a genius.
- Removing Andujar after 5 innings for defense. He lost 2 additional at bats and the score was only 2-0 then. SU did not like that move. At all. It should not be repeated. He is your best hitter. OK, he makes the occasional bad throw but against Boston, you will need the offense. Take the risk.
- Starting McCutchen over Gardner. Let’s be real: going forward, Gardner is a bench player and pinch runner. Boone likes McCutchen’s on base percentage. Gardner had his chances. I can’t argue with the move but I do feel badly for Gardner.
- Removing Severino in the 5th inning. SU did not have a problem with that – he had thrown a lot of pitches at that point and they were starting to hit him. But note for the Red Sox series: the Yankee bullpen is not lock-down solid this year. Even Chapman is a question mark and Britten makes you buckle up.
For the record, I was not surprised that Stanton hit a meaningless (for the most part) home run in the 8th inning. His buddy Judge is the much more clutch performer.
For SU, the Yankees now go from a favorite in the wild card game to the underdog vs. Boston. They should feel much less pressure and the Red Sox need to rise to the challenge and fulfill expectations for a record breaking season. SU will boldy predict the Yankees winning in 4 games but I will say this. If it goes to 5 games, SU does not trust Chapman to close it out. At all. It would be crushing to have him blow the series in the 9th inning. The Yankees need to split in Fenway and then close it out in NY. Having a lead in game 5 in the 9th inning would be much too stressful and Chapman has had his share of meltdowns in Fenway Park.
I also think the 5-game series format is a big assist to the Yankees as the better team wins the 7-game series. And the Red Sox are the better team for sure.
OK, let’s hear what you think for this next series. Be bold.
Sports Update Intergalactic 
It was a nice win. Boone looked like a genius. Everything worked out but I agree that some of the moves were not as good as others.
I had no problem taking out Severino. He didn’t give up a hit until the 5th but he didn’t look that good up to that point. He struggled at times, threw a lot of pitches and, more importantly, acted as if the 4th was his last inning, including dialing it up to 100 for the last strike and celebrating as if it was the last out of the game.
Also no problem using Betances for 2 innings. He looked good and sometimes you go with what you see.
Turning the game over to the defensive specialists (such as they are…who would have believed that Neil Walker is our defensive specialist at first base?) doesn’t make sense with so many innings remaining.
I like Gardner but McCutchen has proven to be a good leadoff hitter. Hard to go away from him at this point.
Need to add a comment about Sanchez behind the plate. He had been driving me crazy all year but last night he was great. I kept wanting to peak behind the mask to see if it was him back there. Not only were there no passed balls but there weren’t balls popping out of his glove. Of course he also hit into a double play with two on and no outs but at least he wasn’t a defensive liability.
I know this settled law at this point but I’d love for baseball to revisit the idea of national broadcast teams for these games. For your average Sunday night baseball game, who cares? But these games are important and we should get great announcers who know the teams. As prepared as they are, there’s just no way to have the familiarity that the local announcers have. And while they would be correctly seen as partisan, wouldn’t viewers appreciate the insights that can be provided by announcers that know the teams well? Can this be done in a way that lets viewers choose between the the broadcasters from each team? Or could both sets go in the booth together? I don’t know the answer. But when you watch a full season with announcers who know what the players eat for breakfast, it’s hard to listen to announcers read from the press guide. Also,Eckersley is going with a hairstyle that is very Presidential…and not in a good way.
Boone got a little lucky with his moves. Stats said Oakland can’t hit 97+ mph fastballs, hence Severino then Betances for first 6 innings and throw in Chapman at the end. Britton is a little iffy but give Krush his due, his spray of homeruns across all fields is impressive. I didn’t mind the Andujar move in an elimination game but wouldn’t do it otherwise–Hechavarria’s catch made him look like a genius–although Andujar’s problem is throwing and he would have probably made that play. Luke is an animal at the plate right now but his defense will cost you a few extra base runners before the playoffs are over–we’ll see how costly that will be. Sanchez looked solid behind the plate–I guess he has to be in a situation where he has to concentrate on every pitch and not let his mind wander. If he’s not going to hit (I called that double play he hit into while he was still in the on-deck circle), he has to be solid behind the plate while we wait for a homer here and there.
I agree with Yankees in 4 as we have to beat Price in Boston and then come back with CC and Severino at the Stadium. Don’t want to see Sale in game 5. I was nervous about last night’s game, now it becomes fun again.
Power-wise we are better.
Contact-wise the Sox are better
Starting pitch-wise because Sales is a big question mark it narrows the gap between both teams….We have Price’s number so???
Relief pitchers we usually hold an advantage against most teams but that’s the biggest question against these guys. Straight ball power alone will not bother them There’s little you can do against Mookie Betts or their 2nd batter. Both can hit anyone. Martinez can strike out. But like the Yankees they hit from top to bottom.
BIGGEST DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE A’S AND SOX:
STEALING BASES… the A’s had 34 stolen bases all year. Mookie alone had 30. Will this bother our pitchers. Both CC and Betances are horrible in holding men on. I’m not sure how Happ and Tanaka are. I’m not sure how our relief pitchers fair in this category as well. Will it distract them enough where they lose some of their accuracy? Both the A’s and Sox have a lot of patient hitters. The A’s made Severino work those 5+ innings. With that’s said its hard for us to be aggressive in stealing bases since we don’t get a lot of singles in a game… and you take the home run swing out of every batter…. including Walker, Gardner and Bird That’s who we are. That’s how we win.
PS No prediction in game 1 because I don’t know what condition Sales is in. OK…. 7-2 loss if Sales is on. 7-6 win if he is off.
Whether Boone was a genius or not we will never know because the A’s manager coached the game like a 9 year old little league manager who was planning to give out game balls and snack tickets after the game. I am surprised he did not try to bring back a pitcher that he had already removed from the game.