About Last Night: Yankees 7 - Mariners 2

by Cary Greene

August 2, 2022

***

Quick Stats

● Winning Pitcher: Domingo German (1-1, 6.39 ERA) 5 IP/ 6 H, 2 ER / 1 K, 3 BB / 90-58 PC-ST (64% Strikes)

● Losing Pitcher: Marco Gonzales (6-11, 3.95 ERA) 5.1 IP/ 8 H, 6 ER / 5 K, 3 BB / 110-71 PC-ST (65% Strikes)

● Yankee Home Runs: (4 in all) Anthony Rizzo (26th, 3-run HR, 1st-inning off Gonzales), Aaron Judge (43rd, 2-run HR, 2nd-inning off Gonzales), Jose Trevino (2) (7th and 8th of the season, 1-run HR in 4th-inning off Gonzales, then an 8th-inning 1-run HR, 4th-inning off Borucki)

● Yankees batters lead MLB with 181 HR this season

● The Yankees offense has plated 558 runs this season, which leads MLB

● The Yankees +203 run differential is still the best in the Majors

● The Yankees are 41-13 (.759) in 54 games at home this season, the best home record in the Majors

● Fangraphs now gives the Yankees a 12.9% chance to win the World Series, meanwhile, they give the Astros (15.7%), Mets (14.9%) and Dodgers (17.2%) all markedly better chances than the Yankees. Go figure!

Who’s Hot?

○ LeMachine, DJ LeMahieu hit .344/.462/.490 with an OPS of .951 for the month of July

○ Aaron Judge is hitting .370 this season with RISP

Who’s Not?

○ Aaron Hicks, who hit .275/.412/.478 with an OPS of .890 for the month of June, tallying 15-runs, 3 doubles, 1 triple, 3 home runs, 12RBI, 16BB and 2SB, is now hitless in his last 21 at-bats.

○ The Mariners organization has the longest stretch of any team in American sports to not make the postseason, last appearing in 2001.

The Big Story - Wasting no time at all, the Yankees jumped to an early lead courtesy of a three-run bomb hit by Yankee first-baseman Anthony Rizzo, who hit his 26th home run of the season, it was a blast to right center field hit off Mariners starter Marco Gonzales.

Seattle’s Kyle Lewis struck next, touching Domingo German up for a one-run home run to left field and the score was 3-1.

Next it was Aaron Judge’s turn in the bottom of the second-inning as he hit one into the Yankees bullpen in left-center field with DJ LeMahieu aboard to make the score 5-1 Yankees.

In the top of the fourth inning, the Mariners scratched a run across, courtesy of an RBI single by right fielder Adam Frazier. Then, in the bottom of the inning, Jose Trevino continued his incredible season with a home run down the left field line and it was 6-2 Yankees.

In the bottom of the eighth inning, Jose Trevino then went deep to dead center and into Monument Park with a long home run off a Ryan Borucki slider.

Player of the Game - Brain Cashman was the player of the day for sure! He sent a signal that he’s in-it-to-win-it this season and he made a series of very interesting deals. Anthony Rizzo and Aaron Judge are also both deserving of the actual Player of the Game award as they powered the Yankee offense last night.

Notable Performances

● Jose Trevino hit two big home runs, his 8th and 9th jacks of the season, which was his first career multi-home run game and also matched his previous career total for home runs! Oh by the way, he also caught another superb defensive game, helping Domingo German use his off-speed pitches to repeatedly wiggle out of potential trouble, then providing superb catching for the parade of Yankee relievers that followed German. Pitchers are clearly better because of Trevino, his importance cannot be understated.

● The Yankee bullpen performances by Ron Marinaccio, Aroldis Chapman, and Jonathan Loaisiga were all very encouraging.

Better to Forget

● Gleyber Torres, Andrew Benintendi and Aaron Hicks went a combined 0-11 with 5 strikeouts last night.

My Take - It was an absolutely wild off-field day for the Yankees as numerous moves were made, but the Yankees had a baseball game to play and Domingo German got the start. Seattle seemed to be keying in on his fastball and having success against it, so he used his curveball and his change-up to get outs as the game went along and was able to put up a perfectly serviceable 90-pitch, 5-inning outing, which I’m sure Yankees manager Aaron Boone appreciated.

Suddenly, the Yankee bullpen is looking pretty amazing. Aroldis Chapman is becoming a seventh-inning weapon for the Yankees. Last night he touched 100 mph a couple of times against Mariners third baseman Eugenio Saurez. Since coming back from arm trouble, Ron Marinaccio is also continuing the process of exploding onto the scene this season, it appears the Yankees have quite the find in him. Not to mention, Jonathan Loaisiga is beginning to look like his former self again. He dialed up to 99mph+ consistently last night. If this trio of relievers can continue to steady the ship as the newly acquired Scott Effross and Lou Trivino get acclimated, the Yankees do appear ready to make a second half surge.

Of course the big story last night was when word broke that Brian Cashman had traded with the A’s for Frankie Montas, which we’ll be breaking down later today on SSTN along with other trades, so I’ll save my thoughts on this until later.

Next Up - The Yankees will host the Mariners in game two of the current three-game series tonight, with game time set for 7:05 pm. The Mariners will send righty Logan Gilbert (10-4, 2.78 ERA, 118 K) to the mound to oppose the Yankees Jameson Taillon (10-2 3.72 ERA 92 K).

Tonight will mark Taillon's 21st start of the season, he’ll be pitching on regular four days' rest, having last pitched on Thursday vs. Kansas City, tossing 6.0 scoreless innings without recording a decision (4H, 2BB, 8K).

The Accu Weather Forecast for tomorrow calls for air temps to be 86 degrees at game time while skies will be partly cloudy.