Girardi could not find any answers Tuesday night.
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The Yankees’ 2015 season is over after the Bronx Bombers fell 3-0 to the Houston Astros in the AL Wild Card game at Yankee Stadium Tuesday evening.
This is, of course, why baseball isn’t usually meant to be played in one-game increments. Tanaka couldn’t quite do it, but it was more about Keuchel’s dominance of the Yankees offense than Tanaka being very bad. Try telling the Yankees.].
The Yankees still have not led in a postseason game since Derek Jeter sprawled in the dirt three years ago, screaming in pain from a broken ankle.
Between both the regular season and tonight’s Wild Card game, Keuchel pitched 22-straight shutout innings against the New York Yankees.
In contrast to Tanaka, Houston’s ace lefty Keuchel struggled with his control the first two innings before finding his rhythm and hitting his spots with accuracy from the third.
But what might be more telling than any managerial decision was the tone in that expansive home clubhouse afterward.
Carlos Beltran would then single before Keuchel got out of the inning. A few things we won’t tolerate: personal attacks, obscenity, vulgarity, profanity (including expletives and letters followed by dashes), commercial promotion, impersonations, incoherence, proselytizing and SHOUTING. In our case, there’s nothing to be ashamed of. “They never stopped giving me everything they had, so I’m extremely proud of that group in there”. Nothing else suffices. Everything less is a failure. Ellsbury remained in for the ninth inning as the Yankees’ playoff run ended shortly after it began.
Overcoming odds? Advancing beyond predictions?
As for being benched by Girardi, Ellsbury said before the game, “I told him I want to be out there but, yeah, I’m willing to do whatever’s best for the team“. “So yes, it was a success”. Yet here they were, Dallas Keuchel and the Houston Astros, soaking in champagne, merrily posing for a victory shot on the mound at Yankee Stadium.
Brett Gardner, who went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts, was booed loudly after grounding out in the eighth inning.
Following a 3-0 defeat of the New York Yankees, a team drenched in playoff experience, one has to wonder: does it matter? It was also Rodriguez who, in a weird way, embodied this Yankee team – and also embodies what’s next. In his last 19 post-season at-bats with runners in scoring position, Rodriguez has zero hits. Keuchel went 15-0 at home. Johnny Cueto will pitch the second game and Edinson Volquez will start Game 3, with the rest of the rotation to be announced only if Games 4 and 5 are necessary. “Just feel grateful for the opportunity to come back and re-establish myself”.
Next year, he will turn 41.
The Yankees were left griping about the strike zone, with Girardi going so far as to come out of the dugout to complain to home plate umpire Eric Cooper after the fourth inning.
There is help on the way, sure.
“It was fun to be out there, but it sucks to be on the losing end“, Yankees reliever Dellin Betances. Slugger Aaron Judge looks like a prospect, right-hander Luis Severino had a promising 11-start debut, and 22-year-old Gregory Bird filled in admirably at first base when Mark Teixeira (2016 salary: $23.125 million) went down with a season-ending leg fracture. These two clubs account for the youngest and oldest rosters in baseball.
“I think it’s a legitimate concern”, said Nick Wright, morning show drive host of SportsRadio 610 in Houston.
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“But I’m extremely proud of the guys in that room”.
