River Avenue Blues

What RAB Means to Me

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(Al Bello/Getty)

I don’t remember exactly when I first discovered River Avenue Blues. I’m pretty sure it was during my junior year of college, either in fall 2007 or early 2008. And I’m pretty sure I came to it via sidebar link from the Pete Abraham incarnation of the LoHud Yankees Blog. Once I started reading it, then commenting, then moving to Twitter “with” many of the people in the comments section back then, then still continuing to read, up until the moment I was asked to, I never thought I’d be writing for it, let alone doing so for over four years. But even before April 12, 2015, I knew that RAB was a special place for Yankee fans and for me personally.

Being a Yankee fan of a millennial age meant that my formative baseball years were spent online, seeking connections to other fans, and that’s what I found here. In an approachable, casual way, Mike, Joe, and Ben wrote about wide-ranging topics that were lacking in most Yankee outlets, from prospects to analysis. Like with my first reading of the site, I don’t remember the first time I waded into the comments section. But once I did so, I was hooked. Here was a place for–most of the time–reasonable, rational discussion about all things Yankees. Every day or night, no matter the team’s state or mine, I could count on the people here for consistency of connection. When I watched a game–even if I was home alone or the only one around watching it–I had hundreds of fellow fans “with” me as the game went on.

More than any other place, RAB’s comments also inspired me to do my own writing, which led me all over the baseball internet. From my own blogspot site to Bronx Baseball Daily, to The Yankee Analysts/IIATMS, and finally to here, I was able to share my thoughts with you and so many others, thanks to this website. Writing on the internet, about my favorite team, for over ten years has been a source of joy and pride, however small. In life terms, that’s a long time on its own; in baseball terms, that’s even longer.

The day of my first post at RAB–5/12/15–the Yankees beat the Red Sox 14-4. Of the Yankees who appeared in that game, only Brett Gardner, Masahiro Tanaka, Didi Gregorius, and (technically) Jacoby Ellsbury are still on the team. To include anyone on the 2015 roster adds CC Sabathia, Greg Bird, Gary Sanchez, Luis Severino, Dellin Betances, and Austin Romine. Just like the team has changed, I have changed over time. Almost nothing from my 2015 self is the same for my 2019 self.

This is all to say that my life would not be the same without RAB exactly when and how and why I found it. Reading this website made me join its comments section. Joining that comment section made me write on my own and join Twitter. Writing on my own and joining Twitter allowed me to meet my wife, which eventually led to the birth of our son. In a very meaningful way, River Avenue Blues is responsible for the life I lead now, for the family I have now. It is not a stretch to say that this is the most important website of my life. Thank you to Mike, Joe, Ben, Jay, and the myriad other writers who’ve penned words for this site and the countless others who’ve read faithfully for so long. You have made my life as a baseball fan, a writer, and a person all the richer for it.

DotF: Miller, Katoh have big days in Scranton’s doubleheader

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Both RHP Trevor Stephan and RHP Nick Nelson were placed on the Double-A Trenton injured list recently. That’s not good. I’d say both are unlikely call-ups this year, but they are possible trade chips, and injuries could throw a wrench into things. Hopefully it’s nothing serious, whatever the injuries are.

Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders Game One (7-6 win over Syracuse in ten innings, walk-off style) completion of yesterday’s game, which was suspended due to rain after the top of the first inning

  • 1B-2B Brad Miller: 2-5, 2 R, 1 2B, 1 HR, 3 RBI, 1 BB, 1 K — here’s video of the homer, which was a bomb … the team says it went 482 feet
  • SS Cliff Pennington: 1-5, 1 R, 1 HR, 2 RBI, 1 BB, 2 K, 1 SB — walk-off homer … three homers in 15 games … the MLB ball and Triple-A pitching makes for a hell of a combination
  • RF Trey Amburgey: 2-4, 1 2B, 1 BB
  • C Kyle Higashioka: 0-3, 1 R, 2 BB, 1 K — first game since being sent down
  • 2B-3B Gosuke Katoh: 3-4, 1 R, 1 BB, 1 E (fielding) — now hitting .353/.431/.686 through 15 Triple-A games
  • RHP Drew Hutchison: 5.2 IP, 8 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 5 K, 5/3 GB/FB — 72 of 107 pitches were strikes (67%)
  • LHP Rex Brothers: 2.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 5 K, 1 WP, 2/0 GB/FB — 26 of 44 pitches were strikes (59%) … 15/4 K/BB in 9.1 innings

[Read more…]

Yankees 6, Giants 4: Sanchez and Happ lead Yankees to 10th win in last 12 games

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Another day, another win for the makeshift 2019 Yankees. Saturday afternoon’s 6-4 win over the Giants was their tenth win in their last dozen games. The game was not as close as the final score would lead you to believe. It wasn’t until garbage time that the Giants made noise.

(Presswire)

Kraken Attackin’
When Yankee Stadium is your home ballpark, it can be a shock to the system when you watch baseball in Oracle Park. The park is enormous — absolutely beautiful, but enormous — and it gobbles up long fly balls. Outfielders camp under balls that, off the bat, look like they have a chance to get out in the Bronx. Yankee Stadium and Oracle Park are polar opposites. I’m not saying one is better than the other. They just play very differently.

The Yankees scored their first run against Derek Holland in true National League fashion. Cameron Maybin worked a leadoff walk and two batters later J.A. Happ bunted him up to second base. The no-longer-slumping DJ LeMahieu got the run home with a hard-hit grounder to third base. Evan Longoria ranged to his left and appeared to be in position to make the play, but the ball clanked off his glove and carried on into left field. Maybin scored with ease.

It wasn’t until the fifth inning that the Yankees broke the game open. The bottom of the order set the table for the order. Maybin beat out an infield leadoff single and Thairo Estrada poked a single to right. Happ attempted to bunt the runners up, but it wasn’t a good bunt, and the Giants got the force out at third. No matter, LeMahieu walked to loaded the bases with one out.

All game long — he’s been doing it to every team all season, really — Holland busted the Yankees’ right-handed hitters inside with fastballs, similar to CC Sabathia’s pitching style. He crowds them inside, and home plate umpire Jim Reynolds was giving Holland the inside corner, so he kept going there. Look at his called strike locations to righty batters:

Hey, if the ump is giving you a few inches inside, keep going there. Holland did exactly that to Luke Voit with the bases loaded and he went too far inside — Voit had to skip out of the way of one inside fastball, then took another to the knee to force in a run. He’s fine, thankfully. Shook it right off. The Voit hit-by-pitch gave the Yankees a 2-0 lead.

Up to that point in the game, Gary Sanchez was 0-for-9 with seven strikeouts since returning from the injured list, including 0-for-2 with two strikeouts against Holland earlier in the game. Righty Trevor Gott had been warming, but because Holland handled Sanchez well in their first two at-bats, Giants manager Bruce Bochy stuck with the lefty with the bases loaded. Holland got ahead in the count 1-2. Gary then uncleared the bases.

Two things there. One, don’t miss the casual “I don’t need this anymore” bat flip. Bat drop, more accurately. And two, look where catcher Buster Posey wanted the pitch and where it wound up. Holland was supposed to bust Sanchez inside yet again with another fastball, but he missed out over the plate, and Gary hit it halfway up the bleachers. The too close for comfort 2-0 lead was now a comfortable 6-0 lead.

At 467 feet, Sanchez’s grand slam is the longest grand slam since Statcast launched in 2015. It is also the fourth longest homer in baseball this year, grand slam or otherwise. And it is Sanchez’s first career grand slam too. I would’ve guessed he hit one at one point, but nope. Gary went into this game with a career .375/.361/.438 batting line with the bases loaded. I do enjoy a good AVG > OBP slash line.

Seven Innings For Happ
Everything was all set up for J.A. Happ to have success Saturday. The Giants are a terrible offensive team — they went into this game ranked 29th in AVG (.210), 30th in OBP (.273), 28th in SLG (.345), and 30th in wRC+ (64) — and Oracle Park is huge. Big ballpark, bad offense, and Happ took advantage. Five singles and no walks in seven shutout innings. Only two strikeouts, but an 85.4 mph average exit velocity allowed. Weak contact all day.

Only once in his seven innings did the Giants really threaten against Happ. Gerardo Parra led off the third inning with a single to left and Tyler Austin pulled a two-out single to left. Brandon Belt pulled a hard-hit ground ball into the shift and LeMahieu made an excellent play to end the inning. LeMahieu made an excellent play at second and Voit made an excellent scoop at first base. Check it out:

Another leadoff single (Posey) and two-out single (Crawford) put two men on base in the seventh inning, but Sanchez had broken the game open by then, so it wasn’t a huge deal. Parra lined out softly to shortstop to end the inning and the threat and Happ’s afternoon. At one point he retired 14 of 15 batters faced and he did it with ease. I don’t remember one difficult defensive play during that 15-batter stretch.

Happ’s final line: 7 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K on 95 pitches. He went back to throwing more four-seamers (38) than two-seamers (seven), though he also threw a ton of changeups. Thirty-seven of them. Happ threw 39 changeups in his first five starts combined this year. Maybe it’s a classification issue and Statcast confused some two-seamers for changeups? His average changeup velocity was 86.6 mph and it topped out at 88.7 mph. That’s a little high. Well, whatever. As expected, Happ is the first Yankees starter to complete seven innings in multiple starts this season.

Leftovers
After a great 1-2-3 eighth inning, Luis Cessa made things unnecessarily interesting in the ninth. Two singles and a three-run homer (Yangervis Solarte) and a solo homer (Erik Kratz) turned a 6-0 lead into a 6-4 lead. Gah. Aroldis Chapman had to get the final out. Cessa allowed two earned runs in his first 12.1 innings this season before that messy ninth inning. Eventually the Yankees (or some other team) will turn Cessa into one-inning air-it-out reliever and be happy they did.

Three hits and a great defensive play up against the netting in foul territory for Gio Urshela. He is now 12-for-31 (.387) in his last eight games and he’s hitting .327/.387/.491 (133 wRC+) on the season overall. Urshela’s history suggests the other shoe is going to drop at some point, but wouldn’t it be something if keeps this up? Would be cool. LeMahieu had a single and two walks as the leadoff hitter.

And finally, Voit extended his on-base streak to 38 games with his bases loaded hit-by-pitch. It is the longest such streak by a Yankee since Mark Teixeira had a 42-gamer in 2010. Voit’s 13-game hitting streak did end though. First hitless game for him since the first game of the White Sox series.

Box Score, WPA Graph & Standings
For the box score and video highlights, go to MLB.com. ESPN has the updated standings and here’s our Bullpen Workload page. Here is the win probability graph:


Source: FanGraphs

Up Next
The final game of the RAB era (!). Hard to believe. The Yankees and Giants will wrap up this three-game interleague series Sunday afternoon. That’s another 4:05pm ET start. Domingo German and Dereck Rodriguez are the scheduled starting pitchers. Dereck is the son of Hall of Famer and Yankees legend Ivan Rodriguez.

Game 27: Looking for another win by the Bay

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(Presswire)

The Yankees have won nine times in their last eleven games and, incredibly, they remain a top ten offensive team despite all the injuries. They are ninth in runs per game (5.31), ninth in AVG (.258), eighth in OBP (.340), eighth in SLG (.458), and tenth in wRC+ (108). The replacements have been great.

“It’s fun, man. No one thinks we should be winning these games,” Luke Voit told Coley Harvey after last night’s win. “And everyone in our clubhouse, before the game, after the game, it’s just like everyone’s cheering for each other and happy. And you know what, the confidence is through the roof, too.”

Of course, the pitching has been pretty good too. The Yankees as a team have a 3.86 ERA, ninth best in baseball, and their starters are seventh in baseball with a 3.57 ERA. Hopefully a weak Giants lineup and a homer unfriendly park allows J.A. Happ to dominate today. Here are today’s lineups:

New York Yankees
1. 2B DJ LeMahieu
2. 1B Luke Voit
3. C Gary Sanchez
4. SS Gleyber Torres
5. 3B Gio Urshela
6. CF Brett Gardner
7. RF Cameron Maybin
8. LF Thairo Estrada
9. LHP J.A. Happ

San Francisco Giants
1. CF Kevin Pillar
2. LF Tyler Austin
3. 1B Brandon Belt
4. C Buster Posey
5. 3B Evan Longoria
6. 2B Yangervis Solarte
7. SS Brandon Crawford
8. RF Gerardo Parra
9. LHP Derek Holland

It is partly cloudy and cool in San Francisco today. Not a bad day to spend at the ballpark. This afternoon’s game will begin at 4:05pm ET and you can watch on the YES Network. Enjoy the game.

Injury Updates: Miguel Andujar (shoulder) went 3-for-5 as the DH in an Extended Spring Training game today. He is going to rest tomorrow and play third base in an ExST game Monday, and if all goes well, he’ll begin an official minor league rehab assignment with High-A Tampa on Tuesday … Troy Tulowitzki (calf) played a simulated game yesterday and will play in an ExST on Monday … Aaron Hicks (back) is tentatively scheduled to begin playing in ExST games next Wednesday … Clint Frazier (ankle) played catch today and is expected to return right when his ten days on the injured list are up, or shortly thereafter. He is eligible to be activated Friday … Jacoby Ellsbury (hip) is coming along slowly with his rehab because “little things” keep popping up, Aaron Boone said.

Rotation Update: Domingo German starts tomorrow, Monday is an off-day, Masahiro Tanaka starts Tuesday, and CC Sabathia starts Wednesday. The Yankees flipped Tanaka and Sabathia. Tanaka will start Tuesday on normal rest and Sabathia gets an extra day. Disregard, Aaron Boone misspoke this morning. The Yankees are not flipping Tanaka and Sabathia. German tomorrow, off-day Monday, Sabathia on Tuesday, Tanaka on Wednesday. Everyone stays on turn.

Luke Voit is Carrying the Yankees. You Can Thank the Front Office.

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(Presswire)

The Yankees, as of last October, have around 20 analysts employed in their front office, per Marc Carig and Eno Sarris of The Athletic (subs req’d). The next closest American League team employs 15 (Houston) and only Los Angeles has as many. In other words, the Yanks invest more capital and staffing into their analytical department than nearly any other franchise in the league—and Yankee fans should be extremely grateful for that. After all, without them, Luke Voit would likely still be in St. Louis.

The Yankees analytical staff had their eye on Voit since at least 2017, with Cashman saying that “[my staff] were all pushing his name hard” and that “he was somebody on our radar.” At last year’s deadline, they traded Gio Gallegos and Chasen Shreve for Voit, who proceeded to hit .333/.405/.689 (194 wRC+) with 14 home runs in 148 plate appearances for the Yankees down the stretch. A small sample size, but one buoyed by an elite batted ball profile that suggested that Voit might, in fact, be the real deal. Let’s take a look at what he’s done so far.

2019 Performance

His performance in early 2019 continues to bolster his case, and he’s quickly becoming a fan favorite in New York. He’s hitting .276/.388/.551 (149 wRC+) with 8 home runs in the early going, walking 13% of the time and carrying a depleted and decimated Yankee lineup. In fact, as Mike noted last night, Voit is 11-27 (.407) with a .483 OBP in the six games since Judge went down. He has four home runs in that span, including one last night.

Here’s how Voit stacks up against the 31 qualified first basemen:

  • Batting Average: .276 (12th)
  • On-Base Percentage: .388 (8th)
  • Slugging Percentage: .551 (10th)
  • Home Runs: 8 (tied for 3rd)
  • wOBA: .396 (7th)
  • wRC+: 149 (8th)
  • fWAR: 9 (tied for 6th)

Voit is essentially in the top third in every relevant offensive category for his position this year after being the game’s best trade deadline acquisition last year. His average is climbing, he gets on base, he hits for power, he is good relative to his peers, and his expected stats are solid. Not bad for a guy nobody had heard twelve months ago, is it?

Still, though, this is only just about 100 plate appearances. That’s still not a lot (even when counting the 150 from 2018) and it’s still possible that there is a lot of small sample size noise. To really get a sense of what’s driving Voit’s success, we’ll need to take a deeper dive into his batted ball profile.

Batted Ball Profile and Approach

One of Statcast’s most useful statistics is the “barrel”, which is a term for the optimal batted ball event. In other words, it’s the best outcome a hitter can produce at the plate: it means he hit the ball hard and at the right angle. In 2016, for example, players hit .822 with a 2.386 slugging percentage on barrels.

201 players have put at least 50 balls in play (batted ball event, or BBE) in 2019 so far, and only three of them (Pete Alonso, Anthony Rendon, and Franmil Reyes) have produced more barrels per plate appearance than Luke Voit (13.5%). When it comes to converting BBEs into the optimal outcome, only Alonso is better. Just over a 5th of every ball Luke Voit puts into play is a barrel. That seems good!

What’s really encouraging about these figures is that they align with what he produced in 2018. Last year, Voit led baseball in barrels per plate appearance after the trade deadline (among batters with at least 100 BBE), hitting a barrel 12.4% of the time. Luke Voit hits the ball really hard and he does it at the right angle. Put simply, that suggests that there is much more to Voit’s success than a small sample size. In fact, Voit’s average exit velocity ranks in the 85th percentile in the league. If, somehow, you’re still on the fence about Voit, just remember: you can’t fake hitting the ball hard.

In fact, that’s exactly why Voit’s expected stats rank near the top of the league. Again, courtesy of Statcast:

Voit’s expected batting average, expected weighted on-base percentage and expected slugging percentage rank in the 72nd, 94th, and 95th percentile of the league this year respectively. What that tells you is that he’s not getting lucky on the balls he puts into play and that, in fact, his batted ball profile suggests he could even be a bit better than what he’s actually produced in 2019. The underlying data loves Luke Voit. It really does.

Finally, Voit has a good approach at the plate. He swings at fewer balls out of the zone (26%) than league average (30%) and he attacks the ball in the zone, swinging at 78% of all strikes he sees. Voit is aggressive but manages to lay off pitches out of the zone. That’s exactly what you want, even if he’s a bit below average when it comes to making contact. Good things happen when you swing at strikes and lay off the junk.

***

This is what the Yankees front office saw in Luke Voit at the time of the trade, though MiLB batted ball data is proprietary. We can’t see it. They believed Voit had the profile of someone poised for a breakout, a diamond in the rough. I think it’s safe to say that they hit a home run with this one, no matter what he does in the rest of his career. You can’t take away those plate appearances. They happened and they have helped the Yankees.

It can sometimes be easy to forget, as a Yankee fan who interacts with mostly other Yankee fans, why the rest of the country and league despise the Yankees. It’s not just that they haven’t been bad in 25 years or that they have the most championships in league history. That’s a big reason why, of course, but there’s more than that.

It’s because when they trade a minor prospect and worst reliever in their pen for a first basemen nobody has heard of, that first basemen turns around and hits .309/.398/.630 (174 wRC+) with 22 homers and 30 extra base hits in 264 plate appearances. Factor in the injuries the Yankees have faced during the end of 2018 and early going in 2019, and you can easily make the case that Luke Voit (!) has been the key cog in the Yankees offensive machine, keeping them alive. That’s why people hate the Yankees.

Yankees 7, Giants 3: Voit leads Yanks to win over Bumgarner

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Thursday’s blown four-run lead and series finale loss to the Angels is just that: one loss. Not the start of a losing streak. The Yankees rebounded with a not necessarily pretty 7-3 win over Madison Bumgarner and the Giants at Oracle Park on Friday night. They’ve won nine of their last eleven games.

(Presswire)

More Like BadMum Amirite?
Bumgarner is not the pitcher he was two or thee years ago — I wonder how many casual fans will still want him at the trade deadline following this game? — and the Yankees wore him out Friday night. He pitched in six different innings and the Yankees scored in four of them, including a first inning two-spot. DJ LeMahieu doubled, Gleyber Torres doubled, and Cameron Maybin singled. Bang bang bang. Bumgarner threw 33 pitches in that first inning.

The Yankees scored their third run of the game in the third inning. Luke Voit shot a single to right field and Torres … bunted him to second? What? I get that he might’ve been bunting for a hit there, but goodness, I don’t like it. He’s the No. 3 hitter, Bumgarner had been giving up good contact all night, and Gleyber is one of the few legitimate MLB bats in the lineup. Yes, I know the replacements have been great, but still. Swing away, young man.

The bunt worked, at least. Torres moved Voit up and Cleanup Hitter Gio Urshela got the run in with a single to left. LeMahieu singled and scored on Voit’s double to right in the fifth inning, then three straight one-out singles potted a run in the sixth. Austin Romine to left, Mike Tauchman to left, Thairo Estrada to right. I’m glad we got to experience The Summer of Thairo at the big league level before RAB shut down. That’s pretty cool.

Bumgarner needed 104 pitches to get 17 outs and give up five runs on eleven hits. First time a single pitcher has given up at least eleven hits to the Yankees since Martin Perez last August. Also, the Yankees fouled away 27 pitches, their most against a single pitcher since last August, when they did it to … Jacob deGrom? Jacob deGrom. Bumgarner had allowed 27+ foul balls in a start only six times in the last three years. At-bat after at-bat was a battle.

The Yankees went 5-for-11 (.455) with runners in scoring position with Bumgarner on the mound and, really, they let him off the hook too. There was the unnecessary Torres bunt and Voit was easily thrown out trying to tag up at second and go to third on Gleyber’s fly ball in the fifth. Two gift outs right there. I swear, every day I look at the lineup and wonder how the Yankees are going to score, but they keep making it work. This season has been pretty fun so far and most definitely not in the way I expected.

(Presswire)

Paxton Labors Early, Labors Late
How bad have the Giants been offensively this season? They went into Friday’s series opener with a .272 OBP and a .349 SLG as a team. For reference, Austin Romine went into the game with a .268 OBP and a .350 SLG in 2019. No offense to Romine, he’s carved out a nice little career for himself as a backup catcher, but imagine watching a team that collectively hits like Romine? Oy vey.

Naturally, the terrible hitting Giants scored in the first inning against James Paxton. Former Yankee Tyler Austin punched a single to right field, Brandon Belt lined a double to right field, and Buster Posey lifted a sacrifice fly to right field. Voit came maybe a few inches away from making the leaping catch on Belt’s line drive. If he makes the catch, he steps on first base for an inning-ending double play. Game of inches. Some stats:

  • It was the first run the Giants scored in the first inning this year.
  • It was the first earned run the Giants scored in the first inning in 44 (!) games.
  • Belt’s double was their first extra-base hit in the first inning this year.

This isn’t even a Giants blog and I am still compelled to note those stats. Voit hit two first inning home runs in the Angels series! The Giants did not have a first inning run or a first inning extra-base hit this season until Friday. I am having a hard time wrapping my head around that. It is bonkers. I’d be more upset about the Yankees allowing San Francisco’s first first inning run (and extra-base hit) had they hadn’t won the game.

The Giants made Paxton work in the first inning and in the sixth inning. A leadoff walk, a Buster Posey one-out double, and a Yangervis Solarte one-out single gave San Francisco their two sixth inning runs. Posey went down to get a cutter diving out of the zone …

… and he hooked it into the corner. The ability to hit that pitch in an 0-2 count down the line for extra bases is why Posey’s (possibly) going to the Hall of Fame. The Solarte single? That was a mistake out over the plate. Paxton’s 106th and final pitch might’ve been his worst, and I reckon the Yankees would not have let him throw that many pitches if there weren’t two off-days before his next start. He’s going to get plenty of rest now.

Between the tough first inning and tough partial sixth inning Paxton retired 13 of 14 batters with seven strikeouts. Four of those 14 batters hit the ball out of the infield. To me, this seemed like a classic “he needed some time to settle in early and ran out of gas late” start. Paxton’s final line: 5.2 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 8 K. Not great, obviously, but also not all that bad either. When that qualifies as a down start, you’re doing a-okay.

The Super Good Enough Bullpen
Unlike Thursday night, the Yankees were leading when their bullpen got involved Friday, so Aaron Boone elected to use his good relievers. Hooray. Tommy Kahnle inherited a runner on first with two outs from Paxton and struck out Brandon Crawford to end the inning. Remember when he gave up two runs in two-thirds of an inning in Houston? Kahnle’s retired 28 of 33 batters with 13 strikeouts in his other ten appearances. That’ll work, Tommy Tightpants.

Zack Britton was on his way to an easy seventh inning before completely losing the plate with two outs. He got Pablo Sandoval to ground out and struck out Steven Duggar, and got ahead in the count 0-2 on Kevin Pillar. Everything was going swell … then eleven straight balls and three straight walks overall. Britton’s pitch locations:

Seems bad. Britton walked the bases loaded after two quick outs and an 0-2 count on Pillar. Adam Ottavino had to bail him out. Ottavino caught Posey looking at a slider strike three. Exhale. Britton has walked seven batters in eleven innings this season with a 14.9% walk rate. It’s still early and this outing certainly skewed his numbers, but also maybe throw strikes? Could be cool. Hopefully Britton gets reacquainted with the strike zone soon.

Anyway, Ottavino walked a batter of his own in an otherwise spotless eighth inning — to be fair, it appeared Solarte went around on the 3-1 pitch, but home plate umpire Ramon De Jesus never bothered ask third base umpire Mark Wegner for help — and Aroldis Chapman pitched around a one-out walk in the ninth. Would be cool to go one night without the bullpen walking three or four batters. Voit was kind enough to provide two insurance runs with a homer to dead center field against Mark Melancon in the ninth.

Leftovers
The 1-2-3-4 hitters: 10-for-18 (.556) with four doubles, one homer, one walk, one strikeout, six runs scored, and five runs driven in. Everyone else: 5-for-20 (.250) with no extra-base hits, no walks, and six strikeouts. The top of the order carried the Yankees in this game and hey, that’s perfectly fine. That’s why they’re atop the lineup. Nothing wrong with counting on your best players to be your best players.

Voit extended his MLB leading on-base streak to 37 games. It is the longest by a Yankee since Mark Teixeira had a 42-gamer in 2010. Voit went in 3-for-4 with a double and a homer in this game and is 11-for-27 (.407) with a .483 OBP and four homers in six games since Aaron Judge got hurt. Dude has stepped up huge lately. He’s hitting .276/.388/.551 (150 wRC+) on the year overall. Pretty awesome.

Estrada’s first career game in left field — first career game in left as a professional, majors or minors — went well. He had one fly ball hit his way and it was a routine catch, so yes, he survived. Wade pinch-ran for Estrada following his run-scoring single in the sixth. Wade’s not the most proficient outfielder himself, but he’s certainly more experienced than Thairo, so the Yankees put him in late for defense.

And finally, the Giants played a tribute video for CC Sabathia in the middle innings. Here’s (part of) the video. Sabathia grew up a little north of San Francisco in Vallejo. Neat gesture. The Giants are the first team to recognize Sabathia during his farewell season (to be fair, this is only the fourth road series).

Box Score, WPA Graph & Leftovers
MLB.com has the box score and video highlights, ESPN has the updated standings, and we have a Bullpen Workload page. Here’s the win probability graph:


Source: FanGraphs

Up Next
The penultimate game of the RAB era. The Yankees and Giants continue this three-game series with the middle game Saturday afternoon. That is a 4:05pm ET start. Veteran lefties J.A. Happ and Derek Holland will be on the mound.

DotF: Gil dominates, Charleston flirts with no-hitter in win

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RHP Chad Green will work as a starter/opener with Triple-A Scranton, manager Jay Bell told Conor Foley. In other words, they’re going to make sure he gets regular work rather than be subject to the ebbs and flows of bullpen life. They’re not going start him every fifth day and stretch him out. Green will instead throw two or three innings every three or four days, that sorta thing.

The Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders had their game suspended due to rain after the top of the first inning. Here’s the box score. The game will be completed as part of a doubleheader tomorrow.

The Double-A Trenton Thunder were rained out. They’ll play a doubleheader tomorrow.

High-A Tampa Tarpons (5-3 loss to Clearwater)

  • CF Pablo Olivares: 0-5, 2 K
  • SS Oswaldo Cabrera: 1-5 — hitting .310/.363/.361 through 19 games … he turned only 20 in March, so there’s not much power yet, but everything else has been good
  • DH Dermis Garcia: 0-2, 1 RBI, 1 BB, 2 K
  • LF Isiah Gilliam: 0-4, 1 R, 2 BB — threw runners out at first and second bases … seven assists in 17 games in the outfield this season … he had seven assists in 104 games in the outfield last year
  • C Donny Sands: 1-3, 1 BB
  • RHP Miguel Yajure: 5.1 IP, 8 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, 1 HR, 5/5 GB/FB — 64 of 98 pitches were strikes (65%) … 16 runs in 20.1 innings so far for one of my not top 30 prospects

Low-A Charleston RiverDogs (8-3 win over Columbia)

  • CF Brandon Lockridge: 2-5, 1 R, 1 2B, 1 3B
  • SS Wilkerman Garcia: 3-5, 2 R, 1 2B, 1 RBI, 1 CS — had been 2-for-12 (.167) in his first three games since being recalled from Extended Spring Training
  • C Josh Breaux: 2-5, 1 R, 2 RBI, 1 K — multiple hits in three of his last six games after having multiple hits in three of his first eleven games
  • LF Canaan Smith: 2-4, 1 R, 1 2B, 1 RBI
  • RHP Luis Gil: 5 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 8 K, 5/1 GB/FB — 49 of 80 pitches were strikes (61%) … 26/11 K/BB in 17.1 innings through four starts, and that’s pretty cool
  • RHP Shawn Semple: 4 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 2 K, 4/5 GB/FB — 46 of 66 pitches were strikes (70%) … figures he has his first less than stellar outing of the season when they’re going for the combined no-hitter … he gave up the first hit leading off the seventh

The Short Season Staten Island Yankees, Rookie Pulaski Yankees, and two Rookie Gulf Coast League Yankees teams begin play in June.