About Last Night: Yankees Defeat Angels 8-3

by Paul Semendinger

May 31, 2024

***

The month of May draws to a close today.

Last night the Yankees were in Anaheim, California to play the team that was once called the Los Angeles Angels, then decided to become the California Angels and then became some long convoluted name that I never quite remember - some Mickey Mouse name...

About Last Night - The Yankees defeated the Angels to win another series.

Quick Stats - 

WP- Carlos Rodon

LP- Patrick Sandoval

NYY HR - Aaron Judge

Game (and other) Thoughts (as the game progressed):

• The Angels were 7-20 at home heading into this game. The Yankees already gave them one win in this series. That's enough.

• Anthony Volpe came into the game batting .288 on the season. Boy, it seems like he could be a .300 hitter for a long time...

• I don't like late games, but since I am staing up with the grand twins, it's not so bad. At least I can get this game on the YES App on-line. It's nice when MLB and the Yankees are kind enough to allow their fans to actually watch the games.

• What a dumb stat: Michael Kay said, "Soto is just 1 for 10 in the first inning over the last 10 games..." Talk about a meaningless statistic...

• YIKES, Clarke Schmidt has a lat strain and will be missing, it seems, a few months. A smart baseball man warned of this last year and in the spring. Schmidt threw a ton of innings last year. I called for him to be shut down in September. The Yankees didn't do that. And here we are. In 2021, across four levels, he threw a grand total of 38 innings. In 2022, Schmidt pitched 57.2 innings. Last year he threw 159 innings. When pitchers throw that much more in a season compared to the previous seasons, they tend to break down. That is what just happened. This was easy to see coming. It's very unfortunate, but it was also very predictable.

• For the record... Luis Gil pitched the following amount of innings in recent years: The Yankees need to be very careful with Gil, both in 2024, but also looking forward to 2025 and beyond. Push a guy too hard, too far, too soon, and it often doesn't end well.

  • 2022 - 25.2 innings

  • 2023 - 4 innings

• This is another reason why acquiring Yamamoto, or Burnes, or Cease would have made sense. These are guys who are better bets to pitch a significant amount of innings this year. Every pitcher is an injury risk, of course, but pitchers who have a history of throwing many innings tend to be able to... throw many innings. And pitchers coming off big injuries in recent years, who are building up, are not good bets to stay healthy and pushing them too far isn't a smart long or short term strategy.

• Aaron Judge's homer in the 4th inning was a no-doubter, He is tied with Babe Ruth for the most extra base hits in Yankees history in the month of May.

• Judge is now in 8th place all-time on the Yankees' home run list

• Carlos Rodon gave up one hit and one run through five innings extending the Yankees all-time streak of excellent starts by their starting pitchers. (I hope this never ends.)

• In the top of the 7th, Alex Verdugo walked and DJ LeMehieu singled putting runners on first and third with no outs... Gleyber Torres then popped out, Jose Trevino walked (to load the bases), and then Oswaldo Cabrera walked to score a run, Anthony Volpe also walked to bring in another run, and then Juan Soto tripled to give the Yanks a 7-1 lead.

• The babies went to sleep at this point so I wished for rain and a quick ending to the game...

• So many say that Juan Soto will go to the team that offers the most money after the season. They say that as if it is a fact without knowing Juan Soto, what he truly wishes, or anything about any of the specifics. I have to ask, if the Mets offered the most money, would any of you play for them? The Mets can't get out of their own way. It's a disaster there. I think Juan Soto is far far far too smart than to leave the Yankees for the Mets. He's getting hundreds of millions of dollars no matter what... why go to the Mets?

• Carlos Rodon had retired 14 in a row heading into the bottom of the 7th, but he then walked a batter and allowed two hits scoring a run and putting runners at second and third with no outs. Aaron Boone made the correct call (unless there is a binder that told him what to do in the 7th inning of a game with the Yankees up 7-2 with runners on second and third and no outs and Logan O'Hoppe at the plate) by going to the bullpen. Ian Hamilton struck out the first two batters he faced and then walked a man to end his night. Caleb Ferguson then came in to face former Yankee Willie Calhoun (still pictured as a Yankee on ESPN Gamecast). I do not have much faith in Ferguson... he fell behind 3-0 and then gave up a single. (That actually ended the Yankees "starters going five plus innings and allowing two or fewer runs" streak.) He then got a ground out to end the inning. (He did better than I thought he would allowing just one run there.)

• Gleyber Torres just doesn't look good at the plate.

• I wrote the previous sentence and then Gleyber hit a double.

• Maybe this is better - "Gleyber Torres hit an unfomfortable double in the eighth inning."

• They should have a MLB rule that there are no commercials between innings when the game gets to (or past) midnight on the east coast.

• I wish Juan Soto would swing more in games when it's after midnight. He need not take so many pitches when I'm over tired. Aaron Judge too.

• If you had Michael Tonkin as a pitcher on the Yankees in 2024 pitching meaningful innings, that would be impressive.

• A Volpe error helped prolong the bottom of the 9th.

• But the Yanks won!

Player(s) of the Game - 

• Carlos Rodon: 6+ ip, 3 hits, 3 runs, 5 strikeouts

• Juan Soto: 1 for 3, 2 walks, 3 rbi's
  

Better to Forget - 

• Aaron Judge homered, but he also struck out four times

• Anthony Volpe went hitless and his hitting streak ended at 21 games.
  

My Take:

The Yankees won another series and are now 20 games over .500 for the second time this year. That is amazing.

The Yankees' bullpen gets the job done, but it is a precarious collection of pitchers who inspire little confidence in me. This is an area that needs to be improved.

Quick Note:

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Next Up:

The Yankees begin a three-game series in San Francisco tonight at (uggg) 10:15 p.m. Marcus Stroman takes the hill for the Yanks.