A fitting win for backup Bombers
THE Yankees climbed back into first place Sunday with fittingly the most 2019 Yankees victory of the season. They, not the Rays, started an opener. They replaced their torrid third-string third baseman with the fourth-stringer who broke the game open. They used two lowon-the-depth-chart Triple-A starters to successfully cover seven of the nine innings.
The Yankees continued to be either the biggest small-market team in the majors or the smallest big-market club. What doesn’t kill them makes them longer — at least with the roster.
“The mindset here is opportunity, not setback,” said 6-foot-7 cheerleader Aaron Judge.
The Yankees are the Broadway play with huge stars winning Tonys with mainly the understudies. The heroes of a 13-5 triumph over the Rays included a guy twice designated for assignment this year in Kendrys Morales, a guy designated for assignment by the worst team (Baltimore) in the majors last year in Nestor Cortes Jr., the organization’s most disappointing 2018 prospect in Chance Adams and a guy who missed most of 2018 with a bullet in his hip in Thairo Estrada.
“Nothing surprises me,” Adam Ottavino said in appreciation of how the Yankees have reached 28-17 with one best supporting actor after another contributing.
The right place to gain perspective on Sunday’s victory is at the beginning. It was the one-year anniversary of the Rays inaugurating their opener strategy. But in the finale of this series, the Yankees were starting a reliever in Chad Green while Tampa deployed Charlie Morton, who was second in the AL in ERA.
Green continued to be homer susceptible, allowing two in 1 2/3 innings and Cortes permitted a three-run shot to the fifth batter he faced. Tampa Bay led 5-3 in the third.
At this moment the Yankees should have been in trouble. After all, between a walk-off win Friday and an 11inning loss Saturday and the presence of James Paxton on the injured list, the Yankees “were not in an ideal [pitching] situation” in Aaron Boone’s words. They had pushed their high-leverage relievers hard and, thus, the ball was going to find Cortes and Adams.
Yet, rather than trou
ble the Yankees honored their 2019 theme in the strongest way, outscoring the Rays 10-0 from that point forward. After the Brandon Lowe homer, Cortes did not allow another hit in his four innings. Adams permitted one hit in his three frames. In between, Ottavino — the one leverage reliever Boone did not deploy Saturday — got the biggest out of the game to preserve a 5-5 tie in the sixth. And in the bottom half the Yankees had their largest inning of the season, scoring seven runs. It was accomplished by drawing five walks against the staff that had the lowest walk percentage in the AL. And it came with a break-it-open hit from Estrada, who was only playing because of a diabolical bounce of the ball. In the third inning, Gio Urshela fouled a ball into the ground and it ricocheted into his groin. He went down in anguish. Think about this Yankees season that on May 19, the 40,000-plus at the Stadium were saying, “Oh no,” for a guy they never heard of a month ago. The thirdbase plan was to be Miguel Andujar and DJ LeMahieu and injury all around, notably to Andujar, opened third for Urshela, whose defense and clutch bat made him both insta-folk hero and indispensable. He finished that at-bat and took one other before the discomfort was too much and now Estrada, in his first at-bat, had the bases loaded after RBI walks drawn by Luke Voit and Morales and a run-scoring infield single from Gleyber Torres made it 8-5. Estrada has impressed the Yankees. There is a lot of LeMahieu in him — good bat-to-ball skills, high baseball IQ , a steadiness and readiness, and an ability to slow the game down — to not be overwhelmed by moments. “Thairo has been one of the faces of what we’re doing right now,” Boone said. “In a lot of ways we rushed him up here and threw him into the fire and he has handled every situation perfectly.” In this moment, he lashed a basesclearing double down the third-base line. The lead ballooned to 11-5. First place was now — of all things — a Chance Adams three-inning save away. This being 2019 for the Yankees, Adams delivered a near impeccable three innings. “We show up expecting to win no matter who is hitting first, third or fifth or who is pitching,” Brett Gardner said. That is the 2019 Yankees and their evergrowing cast of contributors. What doesn’t kill them makes them longer.