Reverse jinx for the win!
The Yankees incredibly got to Roy Halladay for six earned runs en route to an 8-3 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies on Tuesday evening. Halladay was shockingly ineffective against the team he has pretty much owned more than any pitcher owns any other team, allowing three home runs — all to lefthanded batters, the first three lefthanders to hit home runs off Halladay this season — to Curtis Granderson, Nick Swisher and Mark Teixeira, and scattering eight total hits along with two walks and a hit by pitch. Any day you can get 11 baserunners in six innings off Roy Halladay is a good day.
CC Sabathia looked to be in cruise control for the first three innings before a rough 4th inning in which he gave three runs back, but that would be all the big man would allow, as he ended up throwing seven frames while racking up seven strikeouts. Despite that rough 4th inning, in which he loaded the bases with no outs, this start has to be considered a big step in the right direction for Sabathia. In yesterday’s series preview I said that Sabathia would have to have the best start of his season to beat Halladay, and while this wasn’t quite as dominant as his near-no-no against the Rays back in early April, this was probably his second-best start of the year. The seven innings of one-run ball against Boston on May 18 was great, but the bullpen couldn’t hold on in that one.
As the Yankees were busy blowing my mind in racking up runs against Halladay, I couldn’t help but wonder whether the doctor had ever given up five runs (or more) to the Yanks. Rebexarama shrewdly guessed that he did “maybe in 2000, when he sucked?” It turns out he did indeed yield six runs to the Yankees on April 30, 2000 (though he did give up 5 ER last July, h/t Moshe). A quick perusal of Halladay’s game logs over the last 10 years on B-Ref shows that that was in fact the last time he surrendered six earned runs to New York, so well done, Bex.
Brett Gardner kicked off the Yankees’ scoring in the bottom of the 2nd, lacing a two-run stand-up triple. Raise your hand if you had Gardner with the 12th-best wOBA (.390) in the American League on the morning of June 16. Didn’t think so. Additionally, how about that Nick Swisher? A .400 wOBA, good for ninth-best in the AL. He’s looked fantastic at the plate almost all year, and I absolutely love watching him crush the ball.
All in all a fantastically unexpected win, and the Yankees are now in great shape to do some damage to the Phils the next two games as they face some seriously mediocre starting pitchers.
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