More of this, please. (Photo by Mike Stobe/Getty Images)
A crisply pitched 3-1 game by Mike Pelfrey quickly snowballed into a nightmare for the Mets in the 7th inning, as the Yankees — who up to that point had put men on in 5 of the previous six innings against Pelfrey but failed to capitalize — finally came through with men on base in a big way, loading the bases with no outs en route to what would be an eight-run outburst, their most productive frame of the season, and ultimately coming back to beat the Mets 9-3.
I don’t blame the Mets for sticking with Pelfrey (though I imagine some Mets bloggers might), given that he never put more than one Yankee on in any prior inning and the only blemish on his day had been a Curtis Granderson solo shot in the first that put the Bombers up 1-0. However, a Brett Gardner single up the middle, a big Chris Dickerson walk and a Francisco Cervelli hit-by-pitch loaded the bases for Derek Jeter. That HBP was costly to the Mets, as it brought the Yankees’ WE over 50%. Jeter came through with the biggest hit of the game, a two-run single up the middle (.186 WPA) that tied things up at three with no out.
After an eyebrow-raising Granderson sac bunt to put the go-ahead run in scoring position — stepping back for a moment, if it were anyone but the Yankees’ 2-5 hitters I can probably get behind that play, but bunting with the man who has the second-most home runs in Major League Baseball and already hit a bomb earlier in the game seemed rather unfortunate; thankfully it didn’t wind up being costly (.003 WPA) — Mark Teixeira was intentionally walked to load the bases for Alex Rodriguez. We all know how that tends to go, although instead of launching a mammoth blast, A-Rod hit a dribbler up the third-base side that plated the go-ahead run and wound up being his third of four hits on the day. This was actually Alex’s second four-hit game this week, so hopefully he’s back for good now. Robinson Cano added an RBI single, Brett Gardner an RBI double and Chris Dickerson an RBI single (Dickerson also had a pretty double leading off the 5th but was stranded). After all was said and done the Yankees sent 13 men to the plate in their eight-run seventh, and all eight runs were scored without the benefit of the long-ball.
For his part Ivan Nova managed to keep the Yankees in the game despite nearly coming undone on the Mets’ three-run second inning. Nova went 6 2/3 and managed to limit the damage to those three runs, while walking one and striking out two. Nova’s relative inability to strike batters out continues to make me wonder how long he’ll be able to maintain this level of effectiveness, but he’s actually been pretty dependable during the past month, save the fiasco against the Royals on May 12. It certainly helps when you pick up 12 of your 20 outs on the ground. As we’ve noted several times on the blog before, Nova’s 2011 has been something of a Chien-Ming Wang Lite (Nova’s seasonal GB% is 51%; during Wang’s 2005-2007 heyday he put up a 61.5% GB%, third-best in the Majors during that time period), and if he can continue to build on his ground-ball tendencies, perhaps he’ll be able to continue to get by despite a lack of overpowering stuff. Also, gold stars for Luis Ayala — who’s rather quietly been surprisingly good out of the ‘pen thus far — and Lance Pendleton, who combined for 2 1/3 perfect innings.
Every win is big, but this one in particular felt really great, given that the Yankees really had no business losing two of three to the Mets at home, as well as the fact that a lack of timely hitting has sunk the team on numerous occasions in May. The Yanks get to face the Toronto Jose Bautistas at home for three this week (with a day off on Thursday) before heading out for their first west-coast jaunt of the season Memorial Day weekend. Unfortunately for the Yanks they’ll have their work cut out for them when they get to Seattle, as rookie phenom Michael Pineda is slated to go Friday night, while Felix Hernandez — Owner and Sole Proprietor of The New York Yankees Major League Baseball franchise since 2005 — toes the rubber for the Mariners on Saturday (though the other members of Seattle’s rotation haven’t exactly been slouches, either).
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11 Responses to Eight-run seventh propels Yanks to Subway Series win
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TIQ IQ
brett gardner is the the most consistent yankee hitter for the month of may. nobody gives him credit for climbing out of the .140 grave hole he was burried in for the early part of the season.
so today he had 2 more hits to enhance his season’s turn-around.
he should be given at least the same amount of attention he was given while he was slumping…
Agreed, Gardner does deserve credit for turning things around. The double on a 1-2 count in the 8th was a huge play in the game, and he did well by fighting off a tough pitch after looking overmatched earlier in the at bat.
I never gave up on him. I was always hoping he would put it back together. He’s a very valuable guy.
4 Hits from A Rod was nice to see today as well. and 2 from Jeter as well. 25 more hits for him for 3,000
arod get to 3000 next year
Homers? We don’t need no sticking homers. I’m not worried about the percentage of runs scored on homers, but rather the BARISP.
When Grandy laid down that bunt I was whooping and hollering hallelujah. Any way you dissect it, it was a much higher percentage play than having him hit away, and dramatically increased the likelihood of both runners scoring by putting the heart of our order in a much higher probability to succeed at what they’re paid to do, which is drive in runs. Plus, in Curtis’ case, there’s always the possibility he can beat out the throw, which almost happened that time as well.
I certainly have nothing against going for the dingers. But in a tight ballgame where runs are scarce and runners manage to get on base with less than two outs, the primary emphasis for everybody behind them — and especially anyone not named Robbie, Alex or Mark — should be to move them along and have the most productive at bats possible with the greatest chance of success for the situation. I for one wouldnt mind seeing a few less dingers and a few more sac flies and bunts in spots like that, as we have certainly had many more opportunities like that as not where big-balling it left us stranded, scoreless and looking stupid.
Iunderstand your argument, but I don’t agree on the bunt. The stats say that, all things being equal, on average when you bunt runners over, you score fewer runs. You can increase the odds of scoring one run, but you decrease the odds of scoring more than that. Down 2 runs, the Yankees should have been looking for a big inning.
And also, all things weren’t equal. You were letting the best hitter inthe lineup this year purposely make an out. You’ll score more runs with Granderson at the plate, runners on first and second, and no one out than you will with Teixiera at the plate, runners on second and third, and one out.
The point of the sacrifice is to cut down what you need to do to score a run. With a runner in scoring position, you only need a single, rather than an xbh it would take to score him from first. With a runner on third, you’d only need a sac fly. If you’re going to string a bunch of hits together anyway, the extra base doesn’t mean anything; all that you’ve done is added an out.
You’re right that the Yankees don’t hit enough singles. But that isn’t because they hit too many homers. It’s because they make too many outs.
I was going to reply but Longnose took the words right out of my mouth. Bunting with runners on 1st and 2nd with no outs and your best hitter up is borderline crazy; the Yankees are lucky it happened to work out. Also, as RAB noted, by bunting both men over the Yankees effectively took the bat out of Mark Texeira’s — their second-most productive hitter — hands. While I have no problem with A-Rod batting with the bases loaded, he could’ve easily rapped into an inning-ending double play and instead hit a lucky squib off the end of the bat.
The biggest problem with the bunt is that its perceived success will result in Girardi calling for it again in a similar situation, and it won’t work out as favorably next time.
To put it in even blunter terms, do you think the Blue Jays would call for a bunt in that situation if they had 1st and 2nd and no outs and Jose Bautista up? What about the Tigers and Miguel Cabrera?
Larry, the Bautista-Cabrera question perfectly compares the situation. Bunt with Derek? Yes. Gardner (If he could lay one down)? Yes. Granderson? Never.