Ben Revere – Keefe To The City

Sep 24, 2015

The AL East Is Over

The Yankees needed to win two out of three in Toronto to have a chance at the division, but they didn’t and now the race for the division is over. The Yankees are going to be a wild-card team.

Wednesday and Thursday night felt like playoff games. The Yankees had two games remaining against the Blue Jays with a 3.5-game deficit in the AL East with 13 games left in the season. Both games were must-win games for the Yankees when it came to winning the division with Tuesday being Game 6 of a playoff series they were trailing 3-2 in and Wednesday being Game 7 if they were to win on Tuesday. Lose either game and the AL East would be over.

The Yankees won on Tuesday after blowing a 2-0 lead and a 3-2 lead thanks to a Greg Bird three-run home run in the 10th inning. Joe Girardi used Justin Wilson (seven pitches), Dellin Betances (20 pitches) and Andrew Miller (42 pitches) to pitch the last four innings after Luis Severino gave the team an impressive six-inning, two-run effort, setting the stage for an AL East Game 7 on Wednesday night.

I didn’t want Ivan Nova to pitch Wednesday’s game, but there wasn’t another option. After Nova’s return sent Adam Warren to the bullpen, Nova’s incompetence sent Warren back to the rotation, so he wasn’t an option for the game, and with Masahiro Tanaka nursing a hamstring injury and Nathan Eovaldi being shut down, Nova won the start by default. But like that John Sterling saying goes, 11 days after Nova couldn’t get through two innings against the Blue Jays, there he was putting up zero after zero against them in Toronto with the chance to win the division over the final two weeks of the season.

With two out and no one on in the sixth, Nova’s 110th pitch of the night was a ball and Russell Martin went to first on a six-pitch walk. I told my girlfriend, “That’s it for him,” and sure enough, YES panned to Joe Girardi walking up the dugout steps. Girardi went to the mound and took the ball from Nova, who looked as good as he did in Game 1 (but kind of Game 2) of the 2011 ALDS against the Tigers, and then Girardi ruined the game.

First, Girardi gave the ball to James Pazos, who has faced 14 Major League batters in his career, to face the left-handed hitting Ryan Goins. On an 0-2 pitch, Goins ripped a line-drive single to center and Martin ran to third. After four pitches, Pazos was pulled.

Next, Girardi went to Caleb Cotham, the 27-year-old rookie, who has allowed 11 hits (two home runs) and five earned runs in eight career Major League innings, to face Yankee killer Kevin Pillar. On the first pitch, Pillar singled up the middle, Martin scored to give the Blue Jays a 1-0 lead and Goins went to second. Cotham stayed in to face the Blue Jays’ No. 9 hitter Ezequiel Carrera and he walked him on six pitches. He finally got out of the inning when he got Ben Revere to fly out to left on a 2-0 pitch though if a lesser defender than Brett Gardner had been out there, it might have been a bases-clearing double or triple.

The Yankees were unable to score in the top of the seventh, despite having two on and two out for Dustin Ackley, who hit a line drive right to Pillar in center. The Yankees had still been held scoreless and trailed 1-0, but Marcus Stroman’s pitch count was at 95 and the Blue Jays would have to turn the game over to the their shaky pen and the one flaw of their team, which had blown the game night before and had blown a three-run lead to the Yankees in Toronto in August.

Due up for the Blue Jays in the seventh were AL MVP Josh Donaldson, Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion. Three right-handed hitters and the heart of the best order in the entire league. In an ideal world, which reliever would make the most sense to face them? Betances, obviously. But unfortunately, we don’t live in an ideal world. We live in Girardi’s world where relievers have set innings and because Miller was unavailable, Betances was the closer for the night and ninth inning was his and maybe an out in the eighth inning. But not the seventh inning. Not the inning that made the most sense for the best right-handed reliever in the world to face three of the best right-handed hitters in the world in a row. Instead of Betances, Girardi brought in Andrew Bailey, who has thrown five innings in the Major Leagues since July 12, 2013. In the last 26-plus months, Bailey has faced 22 hitters in the majors, yet here he was being asked to hold a one-run deficit against the best 2-3-4 in the majors.

Donaldson crushed a 1-1 pitch to left field for his 40th double of the season to lead off the inning before Bailey got Bautista to ground out for the first out of the eighth. With Donaldson on third and one out, I thought it made the most sense to intentionally walk Encarnacion and then bring in Wilson to face Justin Smoak, which would force Smoak to turn around and hit from the right side. I thought Girardi was on the same page as me when he called for the intentional walk of Encarnacion, but then he left Bailey in.

The move worked out momentarily as Bailey struck out Smoak with Encarncion stealing second on the swinging third strike. Two on and two out for Russell Martin, the former Yankees catcher, who they let leave after the 2012 season because they felt Francisco Cervelli could be their catcher of the future, and who has played in the postseason every year (and will again this year) since leaving the Yankees, while they haven’t played in it once since he left. Martin fell behind 1-2, but after working the count to 2-2, he got a 94-mph fastball from Bailey right down the middle and he turned it around and ended the Yankees’ division hopes in one swing.

Outside of the All-Star break, the 2015 Yankees have been together and playing together since mid-February, more than seven months ago. And after those more than seven months that included the six-week spring training and now 151 regular-season games, it was James Pazos, Caleb Cotham and Andrew Bailey, who have now pitched a combined 17 innings for the Yankees, that decided their 2015 postseason fate.

How could Girardi let those three pitchers decide the biggest game of the season? According to what Girardi told reporters after the game, he was planning to use Justin Wilson in the eighth and Dellin Betances in the ninth with Andrew Miller unavailable. But how is it possible that Girardi managed for a situation that never presented itself and never actually existed in the biggest game of the season? How is that he was managing ahead in a tie game and then a game the team was trailing in? How could he play for the next inning with the division hanging in the balance in the inning right in front of him?

Maybe I shouldn’t care that the Yankees aren’t going to win the East and won’t go straight into the ALDS. Girardi and Brian Cashman clearly don’t. Girardi made that clear with his pitching moves on Wednesday, and Cashman made it clear the other day when he said he didn’t care how the Yankees got into the playoffs, but just that they got in. It was a fitting comment from the general manager of a team that made no trade deadline moves other than to acquire Dustin Ackley and whose team blew an eight-game lead since the deadline. It’s hard to blame Cashman for saying, at this point, that he is content with a wild-card berth since Cashman saying he would be disappointed if the team didn’t win the East would be him saying he’s disappointed in himself after the Yankees gave away their division lead in less two weeks in August. So of course he acted as though the wild-card berth is just as good as winning the division.

The wild-card berth is just as good as winning the division if you actually win the wild-card game. Right now, the Yankees would play the Astros in the one-game playoff, but the Twins and Angels are both within 1.5 games of the Astros, so the Yankees’ opponent is anything but finalized. The best-case scenario for the Yankees if they’re able to hold on to their four-game lead for the first wild-card spot is that those three teams have to go to Game 162 or longer to figure out who the second wild-card team is, so that they can’t set up their best starter to face the Yankees.

Over the next two weeks, outside of actually clinching, the Yankees’ top priority will be to give Tanaka as much rest as possible while also keeping him sharp and lining him up to start on Tuesday, Oct. 6 at the Stadium. The Yankees aren’t catching the Blue Jays now and the focus needs to be on preparation for 12 days from now. Some people might hold on to the pipe dream that the Yankees could overcome a 3.5-game deficit in 11 games to win the East and go straight through to the ALDS, but it’s not happening.

The Yankees needed to win two out of three in Toronto to have a chance at the division and with Girardi managing Wednesday night’s game as if it were some throwaway game with a postseason berth already clinched, the race for the division is over. The Yankees are going to the one-game playoff.

Yankees-Blue Jays Begin Seven-Week Battle

Two weeks ago, the Yankees looked like they would cruise to the ALDS and now they’re fighting for their season and to stay out of the one-game playoff.

Two weeks ago I thought the Yankees would cruise to the ALDS and possibly earn the 1-seed in the AL. Now I’m writing this wondering if I have enough alcohol for to get me through this weekend’s series against the Blue Jays.

With the Yankees and Blue Jays meeting for the second time in a week, Tom Dakers of Bluebird Banter joined me to talk about the Blue Jays’ recent run and bandwagon in Toronto, David Price’s domination with the Blue Jays and if Blue Jays fans would now consider the wild card a disappointment.

Keefe: Two weeks ago, the Yankees were set. They had an eight-game lead in the AL East and their team was healthy and getting hot at the right time, proving they didn’t necessarily need to make a deadline move. Then Michael Pineda got hurt. The entire offense stopped hitting and the starting pitching and bullpen faltered. The Blue Jays on the other hand made their moves and haven’t lost since and might never lose again.

Last week you told me Toronto was going wild for the Blue Jays and since then they have moved into first. How much better has the mood gotten?

Dakers: Yeah, we are getting bandwagon fans by the thousands. Games are selling out weeks in advance. The team has opened up seating that has been covered for years and are talking about selling standing room only tickets. National news broadcasts are talking about the team. Everyone is talking about the team. When I’m walking around wearing my Jays cap, people will stop to talk about the team.

Baseball, of course, is game number 2 (at best) in Canada. Hockey is the big sport. To get the attention of the casual fan, the Jays have to really do something. It’s nice that they have the public’s attention again. There is a new song about the Jays by a Canadian band, The Isotopes, has the line “Let’s party like it’s 1993”. I’m hoping we do that.

Keefe: The Yankees needed to win once last weekend. Instead they didn’t win at all and scored two runs in three games. The Blue Jays swept them in the Bronx and put me into a depression I might not ever get over if the Yankees continue to spiral out of control.

Were you surprised with last weekend?

Dakers: Yeah I was, I was hoping for a series win, a sweep was too much to hope. And I didn’t expect our pitching to be that good. Holding the Yankees to one run over three games (and a run that needed a long replay timeout, at that) was better than my best dreams. The pitching has been the concern all season. For the first half of the season it was far worse than we had figured. This month has made up for that.

And manager John Gibbons has finally enough good arms in the bullpen to use it the way he would like. Earlier in the year, the only pitching he trusted was Roberto Osuna, and Roberto was pitching a lot and would go more than an inning to get a save at times. Now he has setup men he trusts. And, if Osuna needs a day off, he has guys he’s willing to put out there to get a save.

The offense is something we expect, the pitching has been the surprise. If they can keep pitching like this, we should be seeing playoff baseball in Toronto.

Keefe: I hope the David Price the Yankees embarrassed in April and last August shows up on Friday.

Price looks like he has kicked it into a gear on his new team in a playoff race. Does he seem and look better than expected?

Dakers: The big surprise, for me, is how well he’s fit in and how he seems to be saying and doing all the right things. He’s clearly enjoying his time in Toronto. He had a little scooter to make the short trip to Rogers Center for games, and some of his teammates asked him about it and he ordered scooters for any teammate who expressed any interest.

On the mound? Yeah, two games 15 innings, six hits, one earned, 18 strikeouts, yeah even though we had high hopes, he’s cleared that bar easily. He sure isn’t hurting his free agency value. I’m hoping he enjoys being in Toronto enough that he considers sticking around.

Keefe: At some point the Jays’ top four hitters have to go cold? Right? RIGHT?

I don’t know why teams still pitch to them rather than attack the bottom of the order, but it keeps happening and I guess there’s no way around it.

The scary part is the starting pitching just has to be decent for the Jays to keep winning. Quality starts are guaranteed wins.

Maybe if I keep talking positivity about them, a reverse jinx will kick in?

Dakers: You know that Josh Donaldson hasn’t been intentionally walked yet this season? Of course with Jose Bautista hitting behind him, it’s a touch choice on who you would rather face. As a team, we’ve only been handed six intentional walks, which seems very low, considering all the power hitters.

The great part is there is a new hero every day. No one guy has to carry the team on his shoulders. Heck, Ryan Goins hit a three-run homer yesterday, to give us a 4-2 win. R.A. Dickey, who has a 1.80 ERA for August, talked about how great it feels to know that you just have to do your job, that you don’t have to be the star every time out.

The Jays have gotten more out of the bottom of the order than I expected. They have been good at, at very least, getting on base enough to get us back to the top of the order again quickly.

Keefe: Last week you said there was enough time to win the division and boom it happened. Now that the Jays are in first will you be upset if they don’t win the East and play on the wild-card game?

Dakers: No, I wouldn’t be upset. I think we have the right guy for a 1-game playoff, I think Price would be tough to beat in that game.

There are enough games left that the team will likely have a couple of hot and cold stretches, but I am feeling pretty good about our chances. All season long the Jays have been underperforming their Pythagorean Record, we hoped that there would be a correction at some point.

The nice and more unnoticed part of the deals made at the deadline is the improvement in defense that the Jays have made. Troy Tulowitzki is hugely better than Jose Reyes was at the shortstop position. He has fair more range and doesn’t seem to have Reyes’ ability to make an error at the worst possible moment. And, as much as Chris Colabello is hitting far better than we had any right to hope, he played defense roughly as well I would in left. Ben Revere is at least average in left and makes all the catches you’d expect and the occasional excellent one. Now I don’t shutter every time a ball goes towards left field. We’ll gone from an average defensive team, with a couple of black holes. Now I think we have a good defensive team.

I’m hoping, going forward, that the Jays won’t be an offense only team, that they can win some games with pitching and defense.

Yankees-Blue Jays Feels Like Fall Baseball

The Yankees-Red Sox series was supposed to be a meaningful late-season series, but it’s the Blue Jays series this weekend that is actually the more postseason-like series.

The Yankees-Red Sox series the last three days at the Stadium was supposed to be a meaningful late-season series, but for the third straight year, the Yankees and Red Sox haven’t really played anything resembling a series of importance in August or September. Instead, the Blue Jays series this weekend is actually the more postseason-like series.

With the Yankees and Blue Jays meeting this weekend in the Bronx for the biggest series in three years at the Stadium, I did an email exchange with Tom Dakers of Bluebird Banter to talk about the Blue Jays acquiring Troy Tulowitzki and David Price, if Blue Jays fans are worried about sacrificing their future, the mood in Toronto with the team winning and if Blue Jays fans want to win the division or are content with the wild card.

Keefe: The Blue Jays didn’t just tinker with their lineup at the trade deadline, they basically changed their entire roster and in the last week or so they have become a different team. When the Red Sox having just left town in what was another late-season letdown series between the rivals, it’s actually the Blue Jays series this weekend that will have a playoff feel.

The Blue Jays haven’t lost with Troy Tulowitzki in the starting lineup, going 8-0, and they have now gone 8-2 in their last 10 games and riding a five-game winning streak coming into the weekend.

Were you surprised by the Tulowitzki trade? I know I was.

Dakers: Yeah I was surprised, stunned, almost knocked off my feet.

We had Jose Reyes and he was perfectly acceptable as a shortstop. Sure, his range was limited and he was making more errors than you would like to see, but he’s making a ton of money and I figured that he was untradeable. And he could be very exciting on offense. I didn’t think of shortstop being a problem position, at least not in the way that starting pitching was.

But, if you get a chance to get a player like Troy Tulowitzki, you really have to take it. He is much much better on defense and also an improvement offensively. He gives us another power hitting right-handed batter. You can’t turn down another great player just because you already have others of the same type.

Keefe: I was hoping the Yankees would trade for David Price given instability of their rotation, but the Yankees held on to their top prospects and decided against adding a true ace and giving themselves the chance to sign him to a long-term deal before he would become a free agent this offseason. Instead, he went to the Blue Jays and is back in the AL East and I have to worry about him being the difference in a possible division title.

After years of having inadequate pitching to go with their incredible offense, the Blue Jays finally have an ace. Price allowed one earned run in eight innings with 11 strikeouts in his first start

Like the Tulowitzki trade, were you surprised by the trade for Price?

Akers: Yeah, surprised would be the right word. We needed another starting pitcher, but I expected, especially after the Tulo trade, it would be a lesser name. Maybe someone like Tyson Ross, from the Padres, or Jeff Samardzija, from the White Sox. Good pitchers, but not an Ace like Price.

I’m thrilled that was got Price. If we were to make it to a one-game playoff, we have a pitcher I’d trust for that game. If we were in a longer playoff, we have a game one starter.

Keefe: The Blue Jays gave up a lot to change their team for the stretch run this season and when it comes to Price, there’s a good chance they might only have him for two months.

Are you worried that the Blue Jays went over board with their moves to make a run at a possible division title or a wild card when it could mean destroying their future? Or was enough enough with missing the playoffs since 1993 and needing to get back to the postseason and makes any and all moves at all costs?

Dakers: Yeah, we gave up some good pitching. Jeff Hoffman and Daniel Norris could turn out to be very good pitchers. But then, how often do we have a good shot at making the playoffs. The only ‘rental’ players they picked up are Price and LaTroy Hawkins. Hawkins is planning to retire at the end of the season. Price? Well he does seem to be enjoying being in Toronto. He said that the atmosphere, for his first start at Rogers Centre, was the best he’s ever seen in a regular season game. Maybe he can be convinced to stay?

Keefe: Here in New York with Mets fans there is a rejuvenated fan base that is now expecting to make the playoffs with their new-look roster.

What is the mood in Toronto? I have a feeling is similar to that among Mets fans since those are the two hottest teams in baseball right now.

Dakers: Yeah folks are pretty excited. Price’s first start was a sellout. TV ratings are way way up, right across Canada. The Jays said that the day the Price trade was announced the team sold 35,000 tickets and 29,000 the next days. And, on the weekend after the trade, the team sold 1,400 jerseys and t-shirts with either Price or Tulowitzki’s name on.

It has been a long time since the Jays were making this sort of news in August. People seem to be talking about the team everywhere you go. It really is kind of cool to think we could have playoff baseball in Toronto again, after all this time.

Keefe: When we talked in April, you thought the Blue Jays could win 89-90 games and contend. When we talked in May, you thought they would stay involved in the AL East race. Well, here we are on Aug. 7 and they are 4 1/2 games out of first in the division and 1 1/2 games up.

The good news for me is that the Yankees have a six-game lead in the loss column over the Blue Jays. And if the Yankees play just one game over .500 for the rest of the way and go 28-27, the Blue Jays would have to go 31-21 just to tie them. I’m scared of the Blue Jays, but I shouldn’t be that scared. The Yankees just need to win at least six of their remaining 13 games against the Blue Jays to keep them at bay.

Are you looking at the Blue Jays winning the division or are you content with the wild card?

Dakers: Oh wouldn’t give up on winning the division yet. The team has gone from being 8.5 back to 4.5 back in less than two weeks, so clearly there is a chance still. I wouldn’t start thinking that the wild card is the only possibility until a week or two into September.

The Jays have a great offense (kind of an understatement, they have scored 59 more runs than any other team in baseball) and the pitching seems to be coming around. Over the last month the team has a 2.94 ERA. The starting rotation and the bullpen are both looking much better. And adding Tulowitzki, at short, Ben Revere in left has shored up the defense at our two worst positions.

I don’t see why the team shouldn’t be able to put together two good months of baseball.

Tag: Ben Revere

The AL East Is Over

Yankees-Blue Jays Begin Seven-Week Battle

Yankees-Blue Jays Feels Like Fall Baseball