LEAVING IT TO CHANCE
Yanks one-hit by Porcello, now hand ball to rookie Adams to save season
Luis Severino may have been trying to send a message Friday night. The Yankees ace threw high and inside to Mookie Betts on his very first pitch, but the Red Sox and Rick Porcello delivered what may have been a knockout blow to the Yankees.
Porcello beat the Yankees, pitching a complete-game one-hitter, and their stumbling ace 4-1 at Fenway Friday night. Red Sox manager Alex Cora was tossed for arguing after both benches were warned when Severino missed Betts. Porcello hit Brett Gardner, the very first batter of the night.
Eleven pitches after throwing high and tight to Betts, Severino gave up a two-run home run to Steve Pearce in the first and allowed four runs on seven hits over 5.2 innings.
Severino, who was considered one of the best pitchers in all of baseball in the first half of the season, has struggled in his last five starts. He’s allowed 23 earned runs in 24.2 innings pitched over that span and, of greatest concern, eight home runs in those five starts.
That was an issue that Yankees GM Brian Cashman tried to address before Tuesday’s non-waiver trade deadline.
Despite having made moves at the deadline to try and bulk up the pitching for this push, the Yankees have to hand the ball to a rookie making his major league debut on Saturday to try and stop the bleeding.
Chance Adams will be called up from Triple-A to make his major league debut Saturday at Fenway.
The Yankees dropped to 7.5 games behind the Red Sox in the race or e American League East and are now facing an uphill battle to catch them in the second half of the season if they hope to avoid the one-game elimination Wild Card.
That’s a lot to put in the hands of a 23-year-old who has not exactly been dominating in the minors, though he did take a nohitter into the seventh inning in his last start.
Adams is pitching to a 4.50 ERA over 21 starts in Triple-A and was most likely not the pitcher the Yankees were hoping to bring up. Justus Sheffield had started for Triple-A Scranton Thursday, meaning he would not be available to make the start on Saturday.
After undergoing surgery to remove bone chips in his elbow last offseason, Adams has suffered through a drop in velocity and endurance.
According to a scout who watched three of Adams’ starts this season, he consistently loses velocity, starting out around 95 miles an hour and then working mostly between 89-92 mph on his fastball. He also features a good slider.
The Red Sox’ powerful lineup, which leads the majors in OPS (.796) is a tough first assignment in the big leagues for any pitcher, let alone one making his big league debut.
And it shouldn’t have come down to a rookie pitcher.
Cashman had said as much just this
week, when he hoped that the Yankees would be able to use their young pitching depth in carefully selected spots this season. He acquired J.A. Happ to shore up a shaky rotation and brought in Lance Lynn to give them a strong multi-inning guy in the bullpen, bridging the gap to a backend that featured four former closers in Zach Britton, Aroldis Chapman, Dellin Betances and David Robertson. That meant they could pick their spots to introduce Sheffield and Adams to the mix.
But those plans fell apart as quickly as the Yankees' 4-0 lead Thursday night.
It began when Happ, who was acquired from Toronto in no small part because of his success against the Red Sox, came down with Hand Foot and Mouth disease, the virus that causes blistering on his hands. He was scheduled to start Saturday, so the Yankees put him on the disabled list Thursday, and they called up Luis Cessa to start Saturday.
Instead, with CC Sabathia and then Jonathan Holder struggling Thursday night, Aaron Boone had to turn to Cessa out of the bullpen in an emergency situation. With Sonny Gray, who was removed from the rotation, giving up seven earned runs in 2.2 innings Wednesday, Boone burned Lynn for a potential start in this series.
The Yankees addressed their biggest weakness at the trade deadline, but even the best laid plans can fall apart. Unfortunately for the Yankees, with this four-game series against the Red Sox being their best chance to make up ground, their plans for the postseason are now on shaky ground as well.