Roger(s) Over And Out

The Yanks almost turned a heavenly evening vs the Angles into pure Hell when Hit-a-Missle Rogers was handed a 7 run lead in the 9th inning, 13 pitches, 5 batters, eventually 5 runs on his ledger  no  outs on his watch later and the Yanks were deep into  a bona-fide Twilight Light Zone Episode

Joey Daycare needed to  wake up Betances from a much needed night off to put the fire out, which  he eventually did, but not before Rogers, Betances, Pirela and Headley turned a smoke out into  a 5 alarm fire

In The Blue Pinstripe Corner, “Phil” the Hit Machine Eovaldi

For the 1st  8 innings the game was surprisingly one sided in favor of the Yanks despite Phil Eovaldi getting the mission to stop Mike Trout, Albert Pujols and the deceptively mediocre .500-ish (28-27) Anaheim Angels. Yes the Angels are now on a 3 game losing streak, in 3rd place 5.5 games behind the upstart Astros in the AL West, but with Trout in your line-up, Pujols coming in 6 for his last 14 with  3 HR’s and a line up full of decent grinders that  could go off in a NY minute against a hit machine like Eovaldi, my confidence level for a 4th  straight win  was below the Mendoza Line

In the Red Corner, one time Yankee bust, Jeff Weaver’s little brother Jered

Jered Weaver started his season slow, 0-4, with a  plus 6 ERA, but had won his last 4 in a row using a 1.98 ERA to  right his ship, but in retrospect, the now soft tossing Weaver was tailor made for a HR hitting Yankee team pitching in the Bronx. Weaver the one time hard throwing Ace, is now a CC Sabathia / Frank Tanana-ish soft tossing fly ball pitcher,  fortunately the Yanks caught him on an off night and made Weaver and his portly skipper Mike the Genius Scioscia pay dearly.

The game started uneventful for 1 inning with one exception, in a game that  requires making adjustments along the way, Eovaldi was using a fork  ball, slider, curve ball  grip more often  then not. He only lasted 5.1 innings but 48 of 93 pitcher were fork ball (splitter)  slider and curve ball to go  with the 45 fast balls he threw at Angels hitters

With the exception of the 4th and 6th innings, he threw over 60% strikes, an 8 pitch 3rd inning saw him toss 75% strikes, he had 14 1st pitch strikes, he walked 4 batters, and  his downfall came in the 6th  when he walked the bases loaded but only got 1 out

Eovaldi becoming more deceptive by using his secondary pitches cut his hits allowed down to 4 in 5.1 innings, only 1 of the 4 hits was for extra bases ( double) and 2 of his 4 hits allowed came off the bat  of Matt Joyce. Eovaldi was also  the recipient of yet another game where his run support was well over league average, he’s presently #7 in all of baseball  with  just  about 7 per game, hence his skewed 5-1 record despite him lowering, but still high 4.16 ERA

Eovaldi is still  a work in progress, but if he keeps using the secondary pitches he might some day  get into  the 7th inning,  every once in a while a miracle happens, have faith

The Yanks gave Phil Evo a 5 run led by the 5th inning

 2nd inning

Jones singled to right, and Drew homered to right (347 feet)  2-0

3rd Inning

Gardner singled to center, Teixeira homered to right (334 feet) 4-0

5th Inning

Gardner tripled to deep left center,  Rodriguez with 2 outs  singled to right, Gardner scored 5-0

6th Inning

Eovaldi lost it in the 6th  walking 3 batters getting only one out.. Shreve came in an got the 2nd out on an RBI ground out but closed out the inning without anymore damage 5-1

The Yanks gave 1 up  but got 2 more back in the bottom of the 6th

McCann doubled to deep right, moved to  3rd on a ground out,  Gregorius hit a sacrifice fly to center, McCann scored. 6-1

Drew homered to right (347 feet), to knock out Weaver 7-1

7th Inning

Yanks tried to make it a laugher when Rodriguez doubled to deep left center, and Young singled to right, Rodriguez scored 8-1

Shreve 1.2 innings 1 BB,  brilliant outing despite pissing Joey off by walking a guy…

Lindgren 1 inning 1 K, 1 BB, nice inning,  should have finished the game but Joey Daycare wanted to experiment with Rogers.. The Yanks desperately need two RHP’s in the pen to  compliment Betances, memo  to Cashman, Rogers and soon Martin isn’t gonna get it done, so  stop  the madness and start  to look elsewhere,  like your farm  system until  players start to  shake loose in late July

The Nightmare 9th

Thank  you Mike Scioscia, I think…. Fat Mikey took out 4 of his starters including Mike Trout, Joey Daycare took out his regular defensive odd balls and his best  infield defensive player Teixeira.. Obviously both managers thought the game was over, but the Angel 2nd stringers didn’t get the memo

Giavotella singled to center, Featherston doubled to deep left, Giavotella to third…  Green reached on the Pirela / Headley mensa meeting, Giavotella scored 8-2,  Navarro walked, Calhoun singled to center, Featherston scored, Green to third, Navarro to second, 8-3

Rogers to  the showers…Hopefully that  was the last pitch Hit-a-Missle Rogers throws as a NY Yankee.

Betances no  doubt taking a power nap in the pen had to quickly strap on his jock and try to clean up Roger’s implosion

On a 3-2 count Freese singled to center, Green and Navarro scored, Calhoun to third 8-5, ( first  drink of the night  for me, a double Gin no ice)

Joyce walked, loading the bases, Iannetta walked, Calhoun scored, 8-6.. ( first narcotic pill of the night, Vicodin 7.5)

Finally Betances woke up and Nieuwenhuis struck out swinging, Gregorius saved Betances and Joey’s bacon with  an nice rangy pick up in the hole for a force out at 2nd but  Freese scored, 8-7 ( 2nd double Gin  washing down another 7.5 Vicodin)

Finally  Pérez struck out swinging to  end the damn  game, and I slept like a baby, up  every two  hours crying, with a hangover

Bottom line the Yanks pick  up  their 4th in a row, Rogers probably forces Cashman’s hand especially after Joey Daycare uncharacteristically drove the team bus over Rogers at his post game presser

Girardi on Rogers: “We need to get him going. We need another right-hander to pitch in our bullpen, and I was hoping tonight he’d be able to get three outs for us and try to get him going. But again he struggled. We got to get him going.”

Get him going to the airport Joey, with  his severance pay and a DFA slip, he’ll  find another job, there’s one born every minute

the Whole 9

A very Good Lo Down