Exciting? Also yes. Frustrating at times?
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Meanwhile, the Yankees offense was in low gear, held scoreless for eight inning by Scott Feldman until, in a scene that would have been sickeningly familiar to Mets fans, Oliver Perez came on to walk the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth, setting up Carlos Beltran’s game-winning sacrifice fly.
Since they acquired Eovaldi, the Yankees have considered him a reclamation project, a lump of raw talent that they hoped could mature and be molded by pitching coach Larry Rothschild into a winning pitcher. Tonight Feldman went eight innings (his longest outing of the season) and gave up six hits, walking none and striking out six. Dominant. This was ACEovaldi, at least for one start.
“I watched the tape and I threw fairly good pitches however I feel they have been taking all the best way as a result of on this stadium, you must be down within the zone”, Perez stated.
McCann led off with a single and Beltran hit a sharp line drive off the wall in right field to put men at first and third with none out.
Heck, Eovaldi had to overcome his own defense a few times. Stephen Drew also made a great play to recover from a miscue in the top of the fifth when the ball off the bat of Hank Conger hit off his glove and recovered in time for the out, which was reviewed and called out. Both times Eovaldi escaped. Oh, and Nate averaged 98 miles per hour with his four-seamer and topped out at 102 according to PitchFX. And, just as alarmingly for a guy who threw as hard as he does, he had struck out just 50 hitters.
Is Eovaldi going to pitch this well every time out?
In order for a pitcher to consistently receive tremendous run support, it helps to have his club’s most productive hitter in the lineup.
Eovaldi remained unbeaten since failing to get out of the primary inning June 16 in Miami by scattering 4 hits. An earned run average of 4.24 isn’t good, but the fact that he’s lowered that number by almost a half run per game over his last 10 starts is encouraging.
“The player of the game today would have to be Eovaldi”, he added. This is something else. Perez then walked McCann on five pitches. Three were strikes. In the month of August, Beltran is hitting.
The Yankees (69-55), who pulled into a virtual tie with the idle Toronto Blue Jays in baseball’s American League East, won it in the ninth on Carlos Beltran’s sacrifice fly to deep centre that scored Brett Gardner. Walk-off sac flies are weird. Whatever. I’ll take it.
The Yankees will take on a right-hander (Feldman) in this game and have a 46-41 record against right-handed starting pitchers this season. McCann’s leadoff single in the second was wasted by a strikeout and two fly balls. That’s the plan, to try to be back out on the field.
Carlos Beltran was the one mobbed on the field, and Andrew Miller got the win, but there was little doubt in the clubhouse who deserved the most credit for this one.
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Then, in the seventh, the Yankees were in business thanks to McCann’s third leadoff single of the night. It wasn’t deep at all, and McCann isn’t running well these days, so Gomez threw him out at the plate despite making a poor throw that hopped about ten times. The offense continues to sputter though – they had six hits (all singles) and three walks (one intentional) in the game, which isn’t enough to win most of the time – and it’s something that needs to get fixed soon. Over the past 73 2/3 innings, he has allowed just 65 hits. The Yankees rank third in the majors in home runs with 164.
