Sunday starter depends in part on Kluber’s performance
NEW YORK — Corey Kluber started Saturday night against the Mets, and Aaron Boone indicated his performance would impact who takes the mound Sunday night in the series finale at Citi Field.
“We’ll see,” Boone said of his starter plans for Sunday. “[Let’s] get through tonight and then kind of finalize [things].”
Boone said Clarke Schmidt, who has been rehabbing the flexor strain in his right forearm that had sidelined him since early in spring training, is one option.
A second option Boone mentioned, which quickly set social media afire among the Yankees’ fan base, is lefthander Andrew Heaney, who has, to put it mildly, not been good since being acquired at the trade deadline.
Heaney, a fly-ball pitcher who gave up a lot of home runs with the Angels, has continued to be a fly-ball pitcher who gives up a lot of home runs with the Yankees (11 in 30 innings).
“Could be a bullpen [game],” Boone said. “We’ll get through tonight and make that call tomorrow.”
Carlos Carrasco (1-2, 5.88) is scheduled to start for the Mets on Sunday night.
Remembering 9/ 11: Jacob deGrom stood next to Gerrit Cole along the first-base line, and Brandon Nimmo wedged between Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton on the other side.
Shoulder to shoulder and interspersed, players from the New York Mets and Yankees shared the diamond during the national anthem Saturday night at Citi Field with first responders, former players and a giant ribbon imprinted with the American flag.
“As one unified New York,” said public address announcer Marysol Castro.
The city’s baseball teams held a Subway Series game on Sept. 11 for the first time on the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, as stadium’s around the country paid tribute to the nearly 3,000 killed in the terrorist attacks. A raucous, emotional crowd packed the stadium in Flushing 45 minutes before first pitch, waving American flags and holding signs promsing to “Never Forget” during a ceremony that included over a dozen Mets players from the 2001 team and representatives from several organizations and charities related to first responders and victims.
The stadium buzzed in a way it hasn’t since before the coronavirus pandemic as Mike Piazza, John Franco and other Mets alumi accompanied members of New York’s fire, police, EMT, sanitation, correction and court officers along the outfield warning track.
Cole still on target for Tuesday: Gerrit Cole, who came out of Tuesday’s start in the fourth inning with tightness in his left hamstring, was slated to throw a bullpen session before Saturday’s game.
“If all goes well there, then hopefully [he’ll return] early next week,” Boone said, later adding the probability that it would be Tuesday in Baltimore.
On the field here Friday, Cole said he felt “pretty confident” with how the hamstring was feeling.
“I haven’t had anything that’s made me apprehensive to move,” he said.
German rehab-ready: Boone said Domingo German, 4-5 with a 4.45 ERA before landing on the injured list Aug. 1 with right shoulder inflammation, will start a rehab assignment with a yet-to-be-determined minor-league affiliate Tuesday . ... The news wasn’t as positive for Jameson Taillon, placed on the IL Tuesday with a slight tear in a tendon in his right ankle. Boone said he still was “pretty sore” on Friday.
Earlier in the week, Boone said the injury “sounded worse than it is” and didn’t rule out the possibility that Taillon might miss only one start. Now it would seem as if he will be fortunate to get back by the end of the season.
The righthander is 8-6 with a 4.41 ERA in 27 starts. He was 6-0 with a 2.11 ERA in a 10-start stretch from June 18-Aug. 9, then went 1-2 with a 7.01 ERA in his last five starts before ending up on the IL.
Sanchez sits: Gary Sanchez, whose defensive lapse in the first inning Friday cost the Yankees a run, did not start Saturday night with Kluber on the mound. Boone said Sanchez was fine and that it was a matter of wanting to get Kyle Higashioka, who has been paired quite a bit with Kluber, into a game.