In New York’s 2-1, 12-inning loss to the San Francisco Giants on Saturday, Girardi had to exhaust his overtaxed bullpen while making a couple key decisions that didn’t pan out.
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Beltran said winning the next game will be “as important as it was today”. There are must-win games to restore sanity.
Carlos Beltran’s home run in the first inning was a porch shot that barely cleared the fence and sounded like it might have broken his bat.
Two rookies rescued the Giants (58-39) from their six-game submergence out of the All-Star break. “We made some mistakes, but it’s gratifying”. “I guess it’s our fault for not putting it out there a little sooner. That’s what you have to be in this game – resilient”. With Didi Gregorius on first, Mark Teixeira singled to right against Johnny Cueto, and Williamson allowed the ball to kick off his glove for an error that let Gregorius come home. They went into the break on a high as they won three out of four in Cleveland. “They’re confident in me and they just want me to be confident in me”. Hunter Strickland pitched a flawless 12th for his second save. “I’ve been doing the job”, he said through a translator. We play a lot of close games, and we have to try to win some games where we don’t need them so they can get some days off. We have to see how they are.
This next is a series of “must”-win games will be played with a tattered bullpen”.
The Giants broke their streak and retained their four-game lead in the NL West, but carried over some of the habits that contributed to sweeps in San Diego and Boston. They hit. 127 in 71 at-bats with runners in scoring position. Pagan was on third when Betances tried to intentionally walk Crawford. Normally a starting pitcher, Green got his first career save by throwing the final 2 1⁄3 innings in a 5-2 victory.
Dellin Betances walked Angel Pagan leading off the 11th, and Pagan stole second and took third on a groundout.
With the bases clear again, Samardzija’s troubles began anew.
Bochy said he pulled aside Pagan after the game. “Obviously, this road trip didn’t go the way we wanted it to, but you learn from this”. “He was being careful. He didn’t feel like he got a good enough jump, so he held up”. On Friday, he had the game-tying double off Andrew Miller in the eighth, when he got the hit on a full count and fell behind 0-and-2. Shreve hopes the walk did not set him back. Cueto struck out nine, including six of the last eight hitters he faced. “Three middle guys aren’t in the middle of the lineup”, Belt said.
Nova worked out of trouble in the first three innings, and was helped by some great defense. Crawford then sliced a liner to left, and Gardner stuck out his right arm to make a sliding catch. Pena grounded past a diving Teixeira at first but Castro slid on his stomach to come up with the ball on the outfield grass between first and second, and from his knees threw to Green covering first. Gardner made a barehand pickup in the left-center gap, and teamed with Gregorius to make a ideal relay to the plate.
The Giants simply let a chance pass in the third inning, when they couldn’t score with no outs and runners at the corners. Brandon Belt, who has wandered in the dark ever since the All-Star break, couldn’t check his swing while striking out. Then Posey bounced into a double play. “Same day, same place, same surgeon”.
The New York Yankees will not only be playing the rubber game of their series this afternoon, they will be playing the rubber game of this home stand and, therefore, their season. But six relievers combined for six shutout innings.
Josh Osich pitched a spotless ninth inning but unraveled while issuing two walks to start the 10.
Casilla entered and the gears turned in both dugouts. McCann proceeded to fly out to shallow left and Starlin Castro then weakly popped to right.
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After Ivan Nova’s strong start, the Yankees fell to the Giants, 2-1, in twelve innings at Yankee Stadium. However, they did most of the damage against teams that were depleted by sickness (Orioles) or injury (Giants), so in my mind there is something hollow about the “run”.
