About Last Night: NYY 4, MIN 0

By Ethan Semendinger

May 16th, 2024

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Sometimes teams have great games. The Yankees last night had a great all-around game. Let's talk about it!

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Quick Stats -

• Winning Pitcher: Marcus Stroman (3-2, 3.33 ERA)

• Losing Pitcher: Pablo Lopez (4-3, 3.93 ERA)

• Save: None

• Home Runs (New York): Aaron Judge (11)

• Home Runs (Minnesota): None

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Big Story - Going into last nights game, in the month of May, Juan Soto is hitting .283 with a .749 OPS.

The savior of the Yankees through the first month of the season (through March/April, Juan Soto was hitting .325 with a 1.019 OPS!), has not been the same otherworldly player for the Yankees as of the last two weeks.

Meanwhile, in the month of May, Aaron Judge came into yesterday hitting .317 with a 1.158 OPS in the month of May. Previously, he hit .207 with a .754 OPS in April.

Even as the two top gunners in the Yankees line-up have been on opposite schedules, the Yankees offense has been able to be held up by one or the other.

Just imagine when BOTH Juan Soto and Aaron Judge are hitting like this.

This was the line-up for the 2nd game of the Minnesota series:

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Player(s) of the Game -

• Aaron Judge: 4-4, 2 Runs, 3 Doubles, Home Run, 2 RBI's, 1 BB

• Marcus Stroman: Win, 6.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 3 BB's, 2 K's

Notable Performances -

• Luke Weaver: 2.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K's

• Caleb Ferguson: 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K

• Alex Verdugo: 2-5, Double

• Giancarlo Stanton: 2-4, 1 RBI

• Gleyber Torres: 1-3, Run, BB
  

Better to Forget -

• Anthony Rizzo: 0-4, 1 K

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The Game - Aaron Judge quickly got back to work in his recent hot streak, starting off the game with a solo home run in the 1st inning. What we would find out two and a half hours later is that this was the only run the Yankees would need.

That didn't mean they stopped hitting off of Pedro Lopez. In the top of the second inning, the Yankees got three straight 2-strike hits from Gleyber Torres, Jose Trevino, and Oswaldo Cabrera. This set up Anthony Volpe to bring home the Yankees first insurance run via a sacrifice fly, that was caught by Willi Castro. Gleyber Torres was easily able to jog on home because this was the 2nd out of the inning, not the 3rd out of the inning like Willi Castro had believed as he too started to jog in with the ball.

In the top of the 3rd inning, an Aaron Judge double was followed by an Alex Verdugo single, and then a Giancarlo Stanton RBI-single to give the Yankees a 3-0 lead. From here, neither starting pitcher would give up another run.

Not as if Marcus Stroman was in the mood to give up any runs either. After a 1-2-3 first inning, Stroman faced a tough situation early on with the bases-loaded and 2 outs in the 2nd inning, but he quickly settled down afterwards. All that the Twins could muster off of Stroman the rest of his outing was a lead-off double in the 3rd and a lead-off single in the 4th. Neither of which led to any damage, as Marcus Stroman pitched to yet another quality start in his Yankees tenure. He has quietly been a fantastic veteran arm in the Yankees rotation amidst the larger stories with the comeback season of Carlos Rodon and the re-emergence of Luis Gil as a top-flight threat.

Pablo Lopez ended up getting tagged for 10 hits in his appearance, and was pulled after 6.1 innings of work, to which his replacement- Kody Funderburk- quickly gave up back-to-back doubles to Juan Soto and Aaron Judge to give the Yankees a 4-0 lead in the 7th inning. During the Judge double (his 3rd of the night), Willi Castro again made a bad play by running too far in from center field after the ball was hit, allowing it to easily fall behind him and allowing the run to score. Not a good night (again) for him.

Luke Weaver came in to replace Stroman for the 7th inning, and gave the Yankees two innings of quality work- yet again- out of the bullpen. And, Caleb Ferguson would finish the top with a 1-2-3 bottom of the 9th inning.

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There is so much to say about a game like last night's. The Yankees put up 13 hits, scored a number of runs, never allowed a moment to get to big for them, and were able to put together a quality game at the plate, on the mound, and in the field. (The Twins on the other-hand, did not do this and that directly led to 2 of the Yankees runs.)

However, to make the story short, this is what good fundamental baseball looks like. Guys getting hits with 2 strike counts because they're looking for contact over power. Pitchers hitting their spots, consistently, to have the other batters guessing at what's coming next. Fielders making the plays (except for a fielding error by Volpe) and knowing the situations at hand.

Playing like they did last night is how a team manages to win above their expectations. Playing like they did last night is what makes a team like this so much fun to watch.

And, it allows me to go to sleep happy.

(Did I mention that Aaron Judge is now hitting .378 with a 1.367 OPS in May? Amazingly, his season average is only up to .255 at this point, but it shows there is a lot of upward growth that Judge will continue to make this year!)

Let's go Yankees!

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Next Up - The Yankees (29-15) finish up their weekday series against the Twins (24-18) with a Thursday afternoon showcase in the Twin Cities. Clarke Schmidt (4-1, 2.95 ERA) takes the mound against Joe Ryan (2-2, 3.21 ERA). The game will be televised locally on YES. Let's sweep this series!