Hey, remember when it was 7-1 because Phil Hughes couldn’t get out of the third and Cory Wade gave up a two run homer and the Yankees were about to get swept by the A’s at home for the first time since 2006? Yeah, I don’t either.
This was the lead in that Larry was going to have for the recap after Hughes was removed:
I guess the A’s didn’t take too kindly to me assuming they were pushovers and also weren’t too jazzed about playing doormat to the Yankees these last few years, as they jumped all over Phil Hughes early en route to a 7-1 throttling and a series sweep of the Yankees at home for the first time since June 2006. This was also the third time the Yankees have been swept in New Yankee Stadium, all three coming in this season.
Well, as Mr. Burgandy might say: That escalated quickly. I mean it really jumped up a notch.
The Yankees clearly took that six run deficit personally, because after Hughes exited the game, they outscored the A’s 21-2 including Too Many Homers, one of which set a record. , the Yankees sent 40 men to the plate. The best part, though, was obviously Jorge Posada manning second base in the ninth inning for the first time in his Major League career.
I missed the beginning of this one while at work, but got into the car and put on the radio just in time to hear Hughes get pulled and hear Cory Wade give up a three run home run to Cliff Pennington, which put the Yankees into a 7-1 hole. On the bright side of things for Hughes, he struck out five batters and walked none. On the not so bright side, he gave up seven hits and allowed six runs (two runs charged to Hughes scored because of the homer). The score stayed at 7-1until Robinson Cano stepped up to the plate with the bases loaded in the sixth and delivered his second grand slam of the year, to pull the Yankees within one, 7-6. The comeback was, as they say, on.
The very next inning, Russell Martin came up with the sacks juiced and he lined a ball just over the auxiliary scoreboard in right field for the Yankees’ second grand slam of the game and Martin’s second home run of the game. Today’s game was the fourth multi-homer game for Martin in 2011. Cano (sac fly) and Martin (RBI single) would add single runs to the ledger in the 7th inning.
Not to be left out of the party, Curtis Granderson added a grand slam in the 8th to notch 103 RBIs, which extends his career high. Oh and that grand slam was : No team had ever hit three grand slams in one game before that Granderson homer.
All told, the Yankees had 21 hits and 13 walks. Each player had a hit except for Mark Teixeira and Eric Chavez. Martin ended the day with five hits while Derek Jeter and Eduardo Nunez each had three hits. Granderson, Teixeira, Alex Rodriguez, Nick Swisher, and Brett Gardner each had two walks.
The WPA Graph is just beautiful if you’re a Yankees fan.
Big ups need to be thrown to Hector Noesi and Boone Logan (who got the W in relief) who combined for 2.3 innings of scoreless ball. Noesi did all three hits and a walk, but he didn’t allow runs to score. Logan tossed 1.1 perfect innings, striking out all four batters he faced. They kept the Yankees in the game while it was still close and allowed the offense to do its patience-and-power thing.
After the first two games of this series, which were beyond frustrating, it was nice to watch a bit of a laugher. The Yankees roll into Baltimore for a long weekend series and now the A’s will march up to Boston to take on the Red Sox.
If you enjoyed this article, please consider sharing it!
Thanks for picking this up, Matt, great work.
Of all the crazy notes to come from this game, I think my favorite is that the Yankees’ WE for this game was as low as 5.4% in the top of the 5th inning, and following the top of the 8th inning the Yankees apparently had literally zero chance of losing. Seriously, they had a 100.0% WE at the end of the top of the 8th. I didn’t think that was possible.
Will the Yanks ask the White Sox about Jake Peavy already?
Burnett is unfit to be on the postseason roster and Colon is pitching himself out of it.
Hughes has pitched well lately but today is another example that as talented as he is, he can implode at any time. He is no better than a Game 4 starter in any postseason series. No way he’s a Games 1 and 5 starter in the ALDS, a guy you can trust will help the Yanks win Game 2 of the ALDS if they lose Game 1, or a guy you can trust will help the Yanks win Game 3 of the ALDS if the Yanks are down 0-2 in the series.
Garcia is good but he’s not a true #2, he’s a #3, ditto for Nova who has zero postseason experience. Either or Hughes would have to fight for the Game 4 start if he was with the Red Sox, Tigers,Indians, Rangers, Rays, or Angels like this:
Red Sox – Beckett/Lackey/Lester/Wakefield or Bedard/Beckett
Tigers – Verlander/Porcello/Scherzer/Fister or Penny/Verlander
Indians – Masterson/Jimenez/Tomlin/Carmona or Talbot/Masterson
Rangers – Wilson/Lewis/Ugando/Harrison or Holland/Wilson
Rays – Shields/Niemann/Price/Hellickson or Cobb/Shields
Angels – Weaver/Santana/Haren/Chatwood or Pineiro*/Weaver
*Worst of all the starters listed above, so it’d really be just Chatwood as the Game 4 start competition.
Sabathia has all the pressure in the world to win Games 1 and 5 and it’s not fair because he shouldn’t have that kind of weight on his shoulders.
If the Yanks got Peavy who’d cost them nothing in the way of top or midlevel prospects because of his remaining salary, their ALDS rotation would be this:
Sabathia/Garcia/Peavy/Nova/Sabathia
Hughes in the pen as the emergency starter and mopup man, Burnett and Colon off the postseason roster. The bullpen would be Rivera, Robertson, Soriano, Logan, Hughes, Ayala, and Wade. The bench would be Cervelli, Jones, Chavez, Nunez, and either Dickerson or ideally a waiver-wire pickup with pop.
montero..maybe marte or that ex met can be ready or cash changes his mind on manny b, dickerson goes home
Other awesome notes from this game include:
- Obviously a season-high in runs, and the most the Yankees scored in a game since June 19, 2000, against Boston at Fenway Park. It also tied for the fourth-highest single-game run total in franchise history (all h/t William).
- Season-high in walks, with 13.
- Rather incredibly, not a season-high in hits — they had 24 in the July 30 rout of Baltimore and 23 in the August 3 beatdown of the White Sox.
- 17(!) plate appearances with the bases loaded.
- Not only was this their biggest comeback of the year in overcoming a six-run deficit, it was their biggest comeback in FIVE years. The biggest deficit they surmounted in each of 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 was five runs. The last time they overcame a deficit this large was the infamous May 16, 2006 game, in which the Yankees came back from being down NINE runs after the first two innings, and Jorge wound up hitting a walkoff two-run jack with two outs in the bottom of the ninth to win the game 14-13.
I don’t want the Yanks to get a NL starting pitcher off waivers, I want them to get an AL starting pitcher i.e a guy with current experience getting AL batters out. What a nightmare it would be if the Yanks got Wandy Rodriguez, he sucked, and the Yanks were on the hook for him for $23M over the next two years. Another Burnett and $56M spent on two early-mid 30s overpriced, underachieiving bums (Rodriguez and Burnett) for 2012-13.
You people do realize next year’s rotation would be Sabathia/Rodriguez/Burnett/Nova/Hughes if they got Rodriguez, right? You want them to risk getting another overpaid, underacheiving bum? Where is it written that Nova will be as good as or better than he’s been this year next? Hughes is no lock to be higher than a #4.
AL teams who are not trading a starter to the Yanks:
Division rivals, Detroit, Cleveland, Los Angeles, Texas.
That leaves them with five AL teams to get a starter from: Oakland, Kansas City, Seattle, Minnesota, and Chicago.
No Harden, he was awful today and he can never stay healthy, so that eliminates Oakland since they’re not trading McCarthy cuz he’s so cheap.
No Chen despite his decent start vs. the Yanks, so that eliminates Kansas City cuz Chen is their best starter.
Seattle would put no one on waivers, so forget Seattle.
Minnesota would want at least Banuelos, Betances, or Montero for Liriano or Duensing, so forger Minnesota.
That leaves us with Chicago. Buerhle and Floyd are going nowhere. Danks and Humber are the backend of the White Sox rotation so pointless to get.
That leaves us with Peavy a guy who turned 30 on May 31 who’s better than Harden, Chen, Duensing, Liriano, Danks, and Humber, I don’t care what his current ERA is / that it’s just over 5. Peavy gives you six innings and has good control. I could totally, utterly see him post 6 IP 0-2 ER 0-1 BB 3-5 K in Game 2 or 3 of the ALDS to help the Yanks win.
buerhle will test F.A. he will not be a w. sox next year unless there is a club option
i stand corrected, i said texas would win 3 of 4.. lets go angles
[...] post: Yankees ride “4 Train” to victory over A's | New York Yankees blog … AKPC_IDS += "31490,"; AKPC_IDS += [...]
One more awesome note: Yesterday took the Yanks from .268/.348/.450, .351 wOBA, 119 wRC+ on the season to .270/.351/.455, .354 wOBA, 121 WRC+.
Here are some more amazing notes from the game, c/o ESPN:
- The Yankees were the sixth team to have three players record at least five RBIs.
- The Yankees scored four or more runs in four straight innings, the first time in team history and the first time in MLB since 1993.
- The Yankees’ 13-run win is tied for the biggest win ever by a team that railed by as many as six runs.
- The Yankees last scored 22 runs at home in 1931.
- The 22 runs are the most by any team this season.
- The 22-9 final score is the first of its kind since 1902.
You just have to thank Kevin Long for the clever half-plate drills he runs with Robbie: stepped to the plate, down 7 – 2, and with one very sharp swing…WHAMMO! Back in the game, and the momentum slightly different.
[...] Phil Hughes throw the last time out was very frustrating. While he racked up five strikeouts, he couldn’t even get through three [...]
[...] his second-shortest outing of the season — and giving up seven runs on nine hits. Thankfully the Yankees have developed a knack for bailing their starters out of terrible performances these days. Down 7-2 after 1 and 1/2 innings, the Yankees immediately fought back against Brian [...]
[...] she wrote. While not nearly as grand-slam-tastic, this was arguably an even greater comeback than that game against the A’s last month, as the Yankees’ lowest WE in the Oakland game was 5.4% in the top of the 5th, while it fell [...]